A school nurse is planning health promotion activities for the upcoming school year. Which situation is an example of secondary prevention?

• A. Placing posters with images of appropriate hand hygiene near restrooms
• B. Routinely checking students for pediculosis
• C. Implementing age-appropriate injury prevention programs for each grade level
• D. Working with a dietician to determine carbohydrate counts for students who have diabetes mellitus

Answer: (B)

Secondary prevention focuses on catching problems early, before they cause symptoms or worsen, usually through screening and early diagnosis. Routinely checking students for pediculosis is a screening activity that identifies lice infestations early so treatment can begin promptly and transmission to others can be limited. The other activities are examples of preventing the disease from occurring (hand hygiene posters) or reducing risk without early detection of a problem (injury-prevention programs), or managing an existing condition to prevent complications (diabetes carbohydrate management), which are not secondary prevention.