Predisease
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A condition, albeit consisting of only one or two signs, that is identifiable as, or believed to be, a subclinical prelude to a disease, with greatly increased predisposition thereto (for example, prediabetes or prehypertension); the operational definition of such a state or the clinical value of asserting it may be contentious (as with purported preobesity).
"When the goal of preventing adverse health outcomes is kept in mind, this review poses the idea that "predisease" as a category on which to act makes sense only if the following 3 conditions are met. First, the people designated as having predisease must be far more likely to develop disease than those not so designated. Second, there must be a feasible intervention that, when targeted to people with predisease, effectively reduces the likelihood of developing disease. Third, the benefits of intervening on predisease must outweigh the harms in the population."
- 1 Of or relating to a predisease (such as prediabetes or prehypertension), as with predisease states or predisease stage. not-comparable
- 2 Before a disease began, as with predisease cognitive performance as a baseline in dementia or predisease motor function as a baseline in multiple sclerosis. not-comparable
Example
More examples"When the goal of preventing adverse health outcomes is kept in mind, this review poses the idea that "predisease" as a category on which to act makes sense only if the following 3 conditions are met. First, the people designated as having predisease must be far more likely to develop disease than those not so designated. Second, there must be a feasible intervention that, when targeted to people with predisease, effectively reduces the likelihood of developing disease. Third, the benefits of intervening on predisease must outweigh the harms in the population."
Etymology
From pre- + disease.
Related phrases
More for "predisease"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.