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. The Bank of England is watched over by a statue of the Duke of Wellington seated on his horse

    Fixing the leak: How to end the £22 billion annual taxpayer losses at the Bank of England

    The Bank of England increased its interest rates over recent years, aimed at reducing inflation. But this has also had an unintended effect on the Bank of England’s massive government bond buying – ‘quantitative easing’ – programme. 
  2. A two way street with busy traffic of driving cars and double-decker buses in autumn

    Fairer is faster: The route to greener and healthier domestic transport

    The government can speed up efforts to decarbonise transport by targeting the highest emitters.
  3. View of Bank of England, Royal Exchange, and Duke of Wellington equestrian statue (1844) with skyscrapers and construction in background.

    Navigating in the fog: Why the OBR should hold its nerve on the productivity forecast

    The fiscal watchdog is under pressure to downgrade its forecast, costing the chancellor billions – but this would be premature.