A nurse at a health department is planning strategies related to heart disease. Which activity should be included as part of primary prevention?

A nurse at a health department is planning strategies related to heart disease. Which activity should be included as part of primary prevention?

• A. Providing cholesterol screening
• B. Teaching about a healthy diet
• C. Providing information about antihypertensive medications
• D. Developing a list of cardiac rehabilitation programs

Answer: (B)

Primary prevention aims to reduce risk factors before disease develops. Teaching about a healthy diet helps people lower key risk factors for heart disease—such as high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, and insulin resistance—thereby reducing the likelihood that atherosclerosis will begin or progress. This education empowers individuals to make lifestyle changes that prevent the disease in the first place. Cholesterol screening identifies an individual’s risk and guides early management, which is considered a screening activity rather than a direct prevention step. Providing information about antihypertensive medications corresponds to treatment and management after hypertension is present, not prevention in someone without disease. Developing a list of cardiac rehabilitation programs addresses care after a cardiac event, not the prevention of disease onset.

Primary prevention aims to reduce risk factors before disease develops. Teaching about a healthy diet helps people lower key risk factors for heart disease—such as high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, and insulin resistance—thereby reducing the likelihood that atherosclerosis will begin or progress. This education empowers individuals to make lifestyle changes that prevent the disease in the first place.

Cholesterol screening identifies an individual’s risk and guides early management, which is considered a screening activity rather than a direct prevention step. Providing information about antihypertensive medications corresponds to treatment and management after hypertension is present, not prevention in someone without disease. Developing a list of cardiac rehabilitation programs addresses care after a cardiac event, not the prevention of disease onset.