The primary goal of preventive medicine is to prevent disease from progressing or from occurring in the first place. This approach aims to improve patients' quality of life and reduce the cost of unnecessary treatments.
Preventive medicine involves several levels of prevention, including primordial prevention, primary prevention, secondary prevention, tertiary prevention, and quaternary prevention. Primordial prevention focuses on preventing the development of any risk factors for the disease. Primary prevention deals with the approaches that prevent the occurrence of the disease in the presence of the risk factor. Secondary prevention aims to prevent the progression of severe and complex disorders. Tertiary prevention seeks to prevent death or disability resulting from the established disease. Finally, quaternary prevention is the newest level of prevention, which deals with preventing overdiagnosis or treatment.