Stopping Chronic Disease: Article Analysis

Chronic and acute illness are extremely serious issues in the United States today. Although the two can go hand-and-hand, there are distinct differences between them. Chronic diseases is a leading causes of death and disability in the United States today. Conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and arthritis are known to be among the most common, costly, and preventable of all chronic health problems. Two of the chronic diseases, heart disease and cancer, together accounted for nearly 48% of all deaths (CDC, 2016).

Individuals of higher income levels often have private insurance that allows them to see a physician on a regular basis. These individuals are able to prevent many diseases before they exacerbate. They often eat low fat diets or plant based diets. They are educated on their nutritional health and often make better choices when choosing the different types foods to eat. Due to their income, they can afford to eat healthy food and make healthy food choices. Even though these individuals may be predisposed to certain diseases, their diets prevent them from becoming prevalent in their lives. Due to the individual’s socioeconomic status they make enough money that they don’t stress about the necessities in life. These individuals live in areas such as Roswell, Johns Creek. Alpharetta, Buckhead, Kennesaw, and Stockbridge. Individuals of a poor economic status have limited access to healthcare. These individuals often have Medicaid, Medicare, or no health insurance at all. They often eat diets that are high in fat. Individuals of poor economic status aren’t often educated about eating healthy. They often eat unhealthy because it is too expensive to eat healthy. These individuals often receive government subsidiaries such as WIC and SNAP benefits for themselves and their children. There aren’t many healthy food stores if any at all in these neighborhoods. Stores such as Whole Foods, Sprout, and Trader Joe’s aren’t located in poverty stricken communities because the individuals can’t afford the prices. It is a disadvantage that the grocery chains in the neighborhood don’t offer the resident a healthier option. Individuals of poor economic status often fight chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and often cancer. They often live sedentary lifestyles that contribute to these diseases. They eat diets that are high in red meats one that contributes to

Many people throughout the United States (US) have some form of chronic disease. Chronic diseases are conditions that are not passed from person to person (noncommunicable), have a long duration, are commonly slow in progression, and generally have no cure (World Health Organization (WHO), n.d.b). Currently, chronic diseases are the leading cause of disability and death in the US and about half of all adults have at least one chronic illness (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016b). This means that nearly every person in the US will be affected by chronic conditions whether it be personally or through loved ones having these diseases. The most prevalent types of chronic

However, this can be hard to promote if a community such as Germantown experiences such health disparities that puts them at risk for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, all of which could be preventable. Therefore, as nurses we can intervene and plan ways to improve the health of Germantown in the most realistic way possible. The nursing intervention to help try and eliminate the health disparity of knowledge deficit related to nutritious foods primarily focuses on education, as it is a primary means of impacting change. Our intervention would be implemented through an educational program at multiple community locations such as school or churches. The program would consist of weekly meetings discussing the characteristics of a healthy diet, how to read food labels correctly, picking the right food choices based on the options available in the community, and informing the participants about the impacts nutrition has on health such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Each session would encompass pre-briefing followed by demonstration of healthy food recipes and then a debriefing to reiterate the importance of that session. Through education, we hope to impact more people of Germantown to use the public transportation to shop at the local farmer's market or supermarkets and have a positive change in their health. Therefore, there shall be a decreased incidence in obesity, hypertension, and diabetes and increase in the community’s knowledge about obtaining nutritional

Part of the reason why seniors spend so much on healthcare is that they, in their old age, reap the consequences of risky behavior that they engaged in throughout their lives. Risky behaviors like poor nutrition, lack of physical exercise, alcohol use and smoking significantly increase a person's risk to suffer from chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. These chronic diseases result in 7 out of 10 deaths and 75 percent of healthcare spending (CDC). Preventative care like screenings, physical examinations, and avoiding risky health behaviors is a cost-effective way of reducing expenditures on catastrophic care, yet Americans use preventative care only about half as much as they should (CDC). This is due to a lack of easy access to preventative care and/or a lack of motivation to seek out care and control risky health

Released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services each decade, Healthy People reflects the idea that setting objectives and providing science-based benchmarks to track and monitor progress can motivate and focus action (Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Healthy People 2020 represents the fourth generation of this initiative, building on a foundation of three decades of work (Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Over the years it has been modified, strengthened, and expanded to cover a wide range of health related concerns with its main focus aimed at prioritizing and emphasizing disease prevention. The goals of Healthy People 2020 are to attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability,

The rate of childhood obesity in New Jersey remains high, and put children at risk of developing chronic diseases in adulthood. Children living in low-income communities are more vulnerable due to several factors influencing their food choices. Thus, through the Nutritiously Me program, The Rak Foundation for Nutritional Awareness (RFNA) envisions to produce a healthy dietary behavior change among low-income communities of New Jersey.

Citizens have been struggling for far too long, and that is when former First Lady Michelle Obama created her own fresh food initiative, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, was launched and opened supermarkets in close reach to some of the most low-income neighborhoods. Many people would think the opening of closer stores would help the low-income families, but “a 2011 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed no connection between access to grocery stores and more healthful diets using 15 years’ worth of data from more than 5,000 people in five cities” (Gilligan). The problem is not always what it seems to be, and sometimes many people forget that, Bruce McEwan, a researcher in biology believes strongly that there is other things behind low-income families not eating healthy.

One-fourth of American citizens have 2 or extra chronic disease, and this population accounts for greater than half of of overall healthcare costs (Giovannetti, Dy, Leff, Weston, Adams, Valuck, … Boyd, 2013). Having multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) can negatively affect quality of life, ability to work, disability, and mortality. No matter the high incidence of MCCs and corresponding terrible results, the care for individuals with MCCs is often fragmented, incomplete, inefficient, and useless, resulting in doubtlessly avoidable inpatient admissions, negative consequences of therapeutic interactions, and postoperative complications (Giovannetti, et al., 2013). A Strategic Framework for improving health outcomes and quality of life developed

Our population is aging and living longer. More than 4.7 million Canadians are 65 or older and developing chronic conditions and diseases and, along with aging, poor lifestyle choices are leading to increases in chronic diseases such as arthritis and diabetes (National Expert Commission, 2012). There will be increased focus on chronic disease management and health promotion with the goal of improving the individual’s quality of life and allowing them to stay in their own homes longer. This change will reduce healthcare costs by decreasing the need for institutional care (CNA update 2012) but

I’m enjoying reading your post. Multiple chronic conditions become a burden for our nation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , “ Chronic disease accounts for approximately 75 percent of the nation's aggregate health care spending - or an estimated $5,300 per person in the U.S. each year”. More people are categorized a high risk with multiple chronic diseases. These high-risk behaviors such as lack of exercise, poor diet, smoking, excessive drinking, drug abuse are contribute to the disease process. Therefore, it is a challenge for all of us to change it. If the person is not aware or ready to change, then it is hard to reduce the diseases process. I think we have to have a campaign like awareness of health.

Today many Americans suffer from a chronic disease. Chronic disease is a progressive disease, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (2016), that last 3 months or more, by definition. Chronic diseases cannot be cured by vaccines and do not go away by themselves. Some chronic diseases are health damaging behaviors, particularly tobacco use, lack of physical activity, and poor eating habits. These are some major contributors to the leading chronic diseases. Many lives have been destroyed, ruined, and come to a crawling demise from various chronic diseases. Several corporations have pioneered to fight this sinister illness. One is the DaVita Inc.

There are currently over 133 million American individuals impacted by chronic disease, with one-third of these diseases left untreated. The current methods of treating diseases are often costly and have produced limited success. Changing methods used to treat and control chronic health problems must occur to address the continuing health epidemic (Mogler, Shu, Fox, Goldstein, Victor, Escarce, & Shapiro (2013). Traditionally, treating long-term illnesses implemented treatments that considered humans as rational beings. However, humans are not rational. They are irrational beings that act impulsively to obtain desired results. Economic behaviorists use this information to develop strategies to influence health care (Nash et al., 2016).

In our final unit, we primarily discussed the importance of inspiring people to become active in working to promote policy changes relevant to chronic diseases and the importance of involving community members, who possess insider knowledge of the particular community, in the process of planning health interventions. Participatory approaches can be advantageous in comparison to traditional approaches because of they are designed to be tailored to meet the specific needs of the community.

Research has shown that individuals with chronic health conditions account for the majority of health care expenditures (Partneship for solutions, 2002). Individuals with chronic conditions such as diabetes generally use more medical care services, including hospital care, prescription medications and physician visits ( Partnership for solutions, 2002). With the increasing number of people living longer with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, the rising health care expenditures have spurred employers, health plans, and the government to look for ways to reduce health care costs and use. Health care resources should be optimally utilized for ensuring positive health outcomes for all patients (AAHP/HUAA, 2003).