Prevention paradox

The prevention paradox, first formally described in 1981 by the epidemiologist Geoffrey Rose, is a problem encountered when governments or organisations attempt to introduce an intervention to improve health. Many interventions that aim to improve health have relatively small influences and perceptible benefits on the health of most people. Therefore for one person to benefit, many people have to change their behaviour—even though they receive no benefit, or even suffer, from the change. Public awareness of this paradox means that the strength of purported benefits from a population programme often tends to be exaggerated, which causes people to get even more cynical and less likely to accept burdensome interventions.