Within the field of general medicine, the last two decades have seen the curative procedures increasingly supplemented by func tions that can be summed up under the heading of "preventive health care." There is a close link between this development and the changing morbidity pattern. In highly developed countries the morbidity rate attributable to infectious diseases has been much reduced, while the various types of arteriosclerosis, some tumorous conditions, and so-called functional syndromes have attained massive incidence rates. Systematic epidemiologic studies have yielded the concept of...