Essay On Chronic Diseases

Chronic diseases are the major cause of illness, disability, and death in the United States. Chronic diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, dyslipidemia, and obesity result from long exposure of unhealthy lifestyles. Unhealthy lifestyles consisting of poor health choices involving physical inactivity, poor diet, alcohol and tobacco use are root causes of subsequent chronic diseases. Action must be taken to reduce risks and promote healthy lifestyles in order to decrease mortality, morbidity, and death associated with major chronic diseases. Historically, the focus of healthcare is providing acute care and healing diseases. However, there is a demand for more attentiveness on the prevention and management of …show more content…
The American Medical Association recently indicated that one fourth of health care cost is spent on the treatment of diseases and disabilities that are product modifiable behaviors. The increasing weight of chronic diseases adds significantly to accelerating health care costs. Statistics suggest that approximately half of Americans suffer from at least one chronic illness, which clarifies the substantial amount of the nation’s total healthcare expenditures. Studies have shown that majority of individuals suffering from chronic diseases only pay a portion of the associated costs of their behaviors. This results in costly out-of-pocket consumer expenses, growing health insurance premiums for society, and higher government expenditures for Medicare, Medicaid, and disability benefits. Unfortunately, the rising cost are outperforming the rate of inflation, making healthcare a growing cost burden for consumers. Associated costs of healthcare and employee health benefits have been growing at a very high rate for the last ten years. Through prevention and improved management of chronic diseases, the prevalence and progression of chronic diseases can be reduced resulting in a decrease of healthcare