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ArticleHealth care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy2010

Health promotion or disease prevention: a real difference for public health practice?

Per-Anders Tengland

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
19citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Article
  4. Health in Swedish integration policies - a discourse analysis.International journal of circumpolar health · 2025
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  16. Letter to the Editor - The professionalization of health promotion in Canada: a student perspective.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2017
    Article
  17. Behavior Change or Empowerment: On the Ethics of Health-Promotion Goals.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2016
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Health promotion and disease prevention: logically different conceptions?Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2010
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Per-Anders TenglandFaculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, 205 06, Malmö, Sweden. per-anders.tengland@mah.se

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

It appears that there are two distinct practices within public health, namely health promotion and disease prevention, leading to different goals. But does the distinction hold? Can we promote health without preventing disease, and vice versa? The aim of the paper is to answer these questions. First, the central concepts are defined and the logical relations between them are spelt out. A preliminary conclusion is that there is a logical difference between health and disease, which makes health promotion and disease prevention two distinct endeavours. However, since disease is defined in relation to health, as those kinds of internal processes and states that typically lead to ill health, the difference is smaller than it might appear. Second, in order to answer the practical question whether it is possible to promote health without preventing disease, and vice versa, several kinds of public health interventions are discussed. The conclusion is that while health promotion and disease prevention can be distinguished conceptually, they can hardly be distinguished in practice. Most general measures do both at the same time.

Indexed as

Public HealthAttitude to HealthHealth PromotionHealth StatusHumansLogicPrimary Prevention

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.