BMJ  2003;327:989 (25 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7421.989-c

Letter

Feasibility of opportunistic disease prevention

Personal and public health are at stake

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The article by Getz et al is particularly relevant in New Zealand, where doctors are being exhorted without respite to consider population health targets, particularly those with countable outcomes, and to identify all biomedical risks in their general practice populations.1 Some "lifestyle" issues are also now acceptable to ask about—including smoking, alcohol consumption, and gambling habits. They may be of no clinical significance for some people, but the line between personal and public benefit is sometimes illusory.

Recently New Zealand's Ministry of Health recommended screening for partner abuse in acknowledgment of the considerable health consequences of relationships that are characterised by behavioural patterns that leave partners fearful, degraded, and dispirited, not to mention physically damaged and, occasionally, dead. A fraction of the money spent treating outcomes placed in the "screening" basket will reap rewards in future for individual people and their children.

Paying attention to the "relational" aspects . . . [Full text of this article]

Faye P Clark, general practitioner

120 Bairds Road, Otara, Auckland, New Zealand faye@aztec.co.nz


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Relevant Article

Is opportunistic disease prevention in the consultation ethically justifiable?
Linn Getz, Johann A Sigurdsson, and Irene Hetlevik
BMJ 2003 327: 498-500. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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