Prevention in the age of information: Public education for better health

Article

Tackling preventative illness must remain a top priority for the government in the 2020s. Over half of the disease burden in England is deemed preventable, with one in five deaths attributed to causes that could have been avoided. After many years of improvement, progress has stalled on reducing the number of people suffering from preventable illness. Moreover, compared to other high-income countries, we underperform on this metric.

This is not good enough, as the government has recognised in its prevention green paper and the NHS Long Term Plan. The government must deliver a paradigm shift in prevention policy from interventions that ‘blame and punish’ to those that ‘empathise and assist’. The aim of prevention policy is to drive behaviour change: to help people make better health decisions.

Any new prevention strategy must take into account the new information environment that has resulted from technological advancement. The internet is increasingly the first point of call for people searching for information or advice about their health.

Related items

  1. A sign for a polling station next to a block of flats

    Modernising elections: How to get voters back

    Elections are the defining feature of modern democracy. They are the process by which we express a desired future en masse. It is the mass dimension that matters most; it is the mass dimension that is receding.

  2. Bridge to the future: how to get the NHS through the winter and ready for reform

    NHS staff across the country are gritting their teeth. Christmas parties have come and gone, but a more threatening annual tradition looms once again – the NHS ‘winter crisis’. This period, renowned for long waits and increased mortality,…

  3. The great enabler: transport’s role in tackling environmental crises and delivering progressive change

    In this special issue of IPPR Progressive Review we bring together leading political, academic and civil society thinkers to consider transport in modern Britain and its role in delivering a healthier, greener, more prosperous and…