To reduce health care costs for older adults, which secondary prevention intervention should a public health nurse suggest?

• A. Expanding hospital capacity with new beds
• B. Launching a city-wide vaccination campaign for adults
• C. Providing high-cost specialized care for a few patients
• D. Providing screening fairs for diabetes and hypertension

Answer: (D)

Secondary prevention focuses on finding and managing disease early to prevent progression and costly complications. For older adults, conditions like diabetes and hypertension often develop gradually and can go undetected until they cause serious problems such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, or disability. Screening helps catch these issues while they’re more easily and cheaply treated, turning potential expensive hospitalizations and advanced care into manageable conditions.

Providing screening fairs for diabetes and hypertension is a practical, accessible way to reach many older adults in the community. It enables timely diagnosis, monitoring, and intervention (lifestyle changes, medication as needed), which lowers the risk of later, more expensive complications and hospital stays. That’s how it effectively reduces overall health care costs.

Other options don’t fit secondary prevention as directly. Expanding hospital capacity addresses care after problems arise, which can increase costs rather than prevent them. High-cost specialized care for a few patients focuses on intensive treatment rather than broad early detection. A vaccination campaign targets preventing disease from occurring, which is primary prevention, not secondary.