Chronic Communicable Diseases : A Demographic Milestone

The determinants of health are economic and social conditions that affect people’s health status. These influence the living and working conditions that impacts people’s everyday living condition. Factors such as the place and the environment we live in, genetics, educational level or work status and income, as well as friends and family are some of the aspects that affects our health condition. On the other hand, the people that have an access to good health care and have financial stability are less susceptible and are often less affected. (NANB, 2009)

“The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life” (World Health Organisation (WHO), 2009). The social determinants of health can be divided into 5 categories, age, sex and hereditary factors, individual lifestyle factors, social and community networks, living and working conditions and general socioeconomic, cultural and

One of the major obstacles for researchers in the field of Health Psychology and Aging is understanding the role of health disparities across different populations. Health disparities can be understood in terms of differences in some facet of health and well-being across different groups of people. The issue of health disparities across different populations is one that must be understood not only in the context of genetic and biological factors, but also in the context of a broader sociocultural perspective. The influence of health disparities are implied in the context of aging, but are discussed across the entire lifespan. The existence of health disparities in later life is often a product of a lifelong experience and life-course trajectory. This essay will address some of the major

Most of the diseases in 1900 are treatable or do not exist today. Cancer and heart disease related deaths were much less dominant back then than they are now. This would probably be due to people dying to infectious diseases before cancer or heart diseases could set in. People in 1900’s would die within a week once infected with a disease, but today when people die of illness it takes years. It takes linger now to die of diseases because we have medication and other medical treatments to help people live a long life while infected. An example of this is once a person contracted HIV/AIDS in the 1900 they did not have long to live, but now it is possible for a person to live a close to normal life with HIV/AIDS as long as the patient takes the prescribed medication. As a result the diseases that run in a persons family will also change

Disability among older U.S. adults, as measured by limitations in instrumental activities of daily living, has declined since the early 1980s. Disability also is measured by limitations in activities of daily living (ADL), a common factor leading to the need for long-term care. Recent studies using ADL measures have shown varied trends in disability. The world has experienced a gradual demographic transition from patterns of high fertility and high mortality rates to low fertility and delayed mortality. The transition begins with declining infant and childhood mortality, in part because of effective public health measures. Lower childhood mortality contributes initially to a longer life expectancy and a younger population. Declines in fertility rates generally follow, and improvements in adult health lead to an older population. As a result of demographic transitions, the shape of the global age distribution is changing. By 1990, the age distribution in developed countries represented similar proportions of younger and older persons. For developing countries, age distribution is projected to have similar proportions by 2030. By 2030, the number of U.S. adults aged 65 or older will more than double to about 71 million. The rapidly increasing number of older Americans has far-reaching implications for our nation's public health system and will place unprecedented demands on the

During the early part of the 20th century, infectious diseases predominated as the highest cause of mortality

For many centuries, infectious diseases were the major cause of death worldwide. The last century saw a major global shift in the disease pattern. With the advancements in treatment and preventive modalities and improvement in living conditions, the infectious diseases were brought under control in the developed world, while the non-communicable chronic disorders started to emerge as the new threat. Towards the end of the previous century, the chronic diseases also started being more prevalent in the developing world. This became an additional burden over the already prevailing infectious diseases (1). Now, the threat of chronic diseases is widely acknowledged and major actions are directed towards tackling the global burden of non-communicable

As a nation, the United States (U.S.) stands for liberty and justice for all. Here, I will make a case on how to reduce health inequities and improve public health in the U.S. Life Course (LC) is a conceptual framework that is population focused and firmly rooted in social determinants and social equity models. It allows us to study human development, behavior, and interactions at the nexus of social pathways, developmental trajectories, and social change (Elder et al, 2003). Currently, much of public health practice seeks to improve health by changing individuals’ behaviors to reduce chronic illness in aging population. However, LC aims to steer research away from age-specific studies, promote a holistic understanding over our life time lives

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, life expectancy on a global scale has substantially increased. As people live longer, mortality has become more attributed to diseases of age rather than infectious diseases. While standards of living have improved dramatically, health deterioration in the later years of life has emerged as a major society issue facing modern societies. The elderly have become increasingly reliant on care provided later in life. Absent this care, modern societies will see a significant decline in quality of life as they face demographic shift.

After reviewing the two articles provided and studies of my proposed topic, there was no evidence of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks in six of my studies. However, there is one theoretical framework in my quantitative study that focuses on the individual and is grounded within the context of the life-span perspective of human development theory. Contextual influences include the types of changes in resources that occur in response to the individual's needs for resources throughout a changing life-span. Life-span development involves biological considerations, cultural considerations, and individual factors working together. The life-span perspective put emphasis on the development of the course of a lifetime, and all stages of the

Over the years, there have been major shifts within the United States in regards to its population. Statisticians have estimated that 20% of the population will be 65 years of age and older. There is an even

The impact of such factors manifests in the substantial reduction of the mortality rate due to communicable diseases such as pneumonia, typhoid and diphtheria as a result of basic social interventions including better public hygiene, improved housing and healthier diet that were introduced in the nineteenth century (Browne, 2005). Consequently, life expectancy increased and the burden of disease has shifted to chronic diseases, which appear to be influenced by social factors throughout the lifecourse.

Invention of antibiotics in 1940s protected humans against various deadly infections. Consequently, the life expectancy of humans has increased during the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the life expectancy of humans had been around 50 years yet, near the end of the century, it increased to 78 years. Accordingly, the 20th century benefited humankind based on the growth of technology.

From 1970 to the year 2000, the world's over-60 population is projected to increase by more than 90 percent" . This is an astonishing number, seeming how the total population was predicted to grow by less than 75 percent . "The most prominent feature of the looming shift in the composition of the working-age population is, of course, its increasing age" . It is hard to say what will happen when suddenly there will be an abundance of older people who are preparing to retire.

In the US aging is represented with a 14.1% which is one in every seven Americans. It may not be a large number right now, but it will increase in the upcoming years. The current US population is around 323,515,000 if we compare this to the population of the 20th century, which was 32.7 million we notice an increase of population. For the next 45 years there will be a