What you may not know about them!
What are Chronic Diseases?
Chronic conditions are defined as conditions that last more than a year and which require ongoing medical attention. They can impede independence and people with disabilities by posing additional limitations to perform physical activities. They are also the primary drivers of the nation's healthcare budget which totals $3.8 trillion yearly.
Key behaviors that lead to chronic illness:
- Excessive tobacco use and passive smoking
- Poor diet
- Lack of physical activity
- Excessive alcohol use
According to the stats, 6 out of every 10 adults in the US suffer from a chronic disease, and 4 out of every 10 suffer from at least two chronic diseases.
Leading Causes of Deaths in the US
From the below statistical chart, approximately 70% of the deaths occur due to chronic diseases and majorly because of heart diseases and cancer.
Health is wealth!!
Rising health care costs due to chronic diseases
Source:https://www.diyphotography.net/tag/income/
Chronic conditions are very expensive!
According to CDC, people with chronic illness and mental conditions account for 90% of the US's yearly healthcare spending which is 3.8 trillion dollars.
With each additional chronic condition, the amount of health care expenditure increases, and the increase approximately doubles. Also, 35% of the healthcare spendings is on 8.7% of people who are suffering from more than 5 chronic conditions.
We can see that spending is over 2.5 times higher for individuals with one chronic condition, 6 times higher for those with three, and 13.5 times higher for those with five or more chronic conditions in comparison to those without any ailments.
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Source:https://www.shutterstock.com/search/medicine+money?image_type=illustration
Risk factors
The causes (risk factors) of chronic diseases are well established and well known. Most of the major chronic diseases are caused by a small set of common risk factors. Some of the risk factors that apply to both men and women are:
1. Tobacco Use
In United States, smoking is the biggest cause of disease and death. It causes at least one disease in more than 16 million Americans. If we could prevent the youth from starting to smoke and assist individual to quit smoking, it could help save $225 billion direct medical costs.
Source: https://www.bigcountryhomepage.com/news/health-news/company-efforts-to-stamp-out-tobacco-often-go-up-in-smoke/
2. Lack of physical activity
As per the CDC statistics, one out of every four US adults and one out of every 5 high school students gets the recommended levels of physical activity. Physical inactivity causes significant health and economic consequences.
Heart diseases, type-2 diabetes are all possible outcomes of not excercising daily. Furthermore, low levels of physical activity are responsible for $117 billion in direct medical costs.
Source: https://www.firkee.in/fun/journal-of-health-psychology-research-says-that-laziness-is-a-sign-of-intelligence
3. Alcohol usage
Excessive alcohol use is responsible for about 95,000 deaths a year in the United States. It is responsible for one out of every 10 deaths among people aged between 20-64 years.
In 2010, the US economy had to spend approximately $249 billion or $2.05 per drink due to excessive alcohol consumption. The federal, municipal, and state governments each ended up paying 40% of these costs.
Source: https://hickorytreatmentcenters.com/2021/07/how-do-i-know-if-im-an-alcoholic/
Are they preventable?
Yes, they can be, but it is important to understand that only if the risk factors are eliminated this is possible. Heart diseases, diabetes, strokes account for 80% of deaths and cancer accounts for 40%, but they all can be avvoided.
This would require a new healthy lifestyle. Rather of growing increasingly unwell, make the decision today to live a healthier and longer life by following these simple steps:
- Healthy and balanced diet
- Quit smoking
- Exercise daily
- Reducing consumption of Alcohol
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