Health Issues: Chronic Diseases

Discuss about the Health Issues For Chronic Diseases.

Introduction

The leading cause of disability, death and illness in Australia are chronic diseases which account for ninety percent of deaths in the country. The spread of the chronic diseases are dependent on the success in limiting the infection and deaths in the 21^st century. With aging population and changing lifestyles chronic diseases are becoming quite common and are now a burden on the health system. Many health conditions and different illnesses are classified as chronic disease. These illnesses often coexist as they share common risk factors and are acting together to determine health of the individuals. There is a need to integrate care and prevention in treating these chronic diseases together and in keeping the people healthy. Some of these chronic diseases are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Dannenberg , 2016). The common behavioral risk factors such as alcoholism, smoking, poor nutrition and physical inactivity are responsible for these diseases. Chronic diseases can range from mild conditions such as minor hearing loss, dental decay, debilitating arthritis, long sightedness and low back pain. 

Health Issues 

The two health issues that are plaguing the Australian health care system are Diabetes and cardio vascular diseases.

• Diabetes:- is a complex condition that affects the entire body. a person suffering from this disease is not able to maintain healthy level of blood sugar or glucose in the body. The individual suffering from this disease has numerous short and long term effects and complications due to unhealthy blood sugar levels. It strikes an estimated 6% of the adult population in the country which does not include the 1% of the people who do not report that they have diabetes. Many of these people are unaware that they have diabetes. In the year 2012 the prevalence of diabetes was higher in men in comparison to women. It’s occurrence with age has increased as people who are over 75 years are 3 times higher in numbers than people below 50 (Farrer, Gulliver , Bennett , Fassnacht & Griffiths, 2016). There are a few inequalities that have been reported in the prevalence of diabetes through self reported data and based on biomedical data as it was seen that 5.3% of the population in major cities is suffering from diabetes. 5.5% of the population in the inner regional areas is affected by it and 6.1% of the population is affected by it in remote and outer regions combined. 9.4 % adults that belonged to the lower socio economic group are 3 times more likely to suffer from diabetes in comparison to 2.6 times to those of who are belonging to higher socio economic group. Indigenous people are three times more likely to be affected by Type 2 diabetes in comparison to non indigenous Australians. The impact that this disease has on the community can be understood by the fact that everyday 280 people are developing diabetes. That stands for one person developing diabetes every 5 minutes. If this disease grows at the same rate 3 million Australians will have diabetes by the year 2025 and that includes only those who are oven 25.( Eh , McGill , Wong ,& Krass , 2016) This disease is related to many complications that affect the kidneys, liver, cardiovascular health and feet. Type 2 diabetes and the complications associated with it increases with age whereas Type 1 affects at an early age. Diabetes not only affects individuals but it has debilitating effect on the economy of the country as well. The government endures huge losses of loss productivity and taxation revenue as individuals affected by the disease endures loss of income. These individuals do not pay income tax which in turn reduces the GDP but increases the government welfare payments. (Georgiou , 2016),( Macdonald , & Campbell , 2016).  

Diabetes has many adverse effects on a person’s health which imposes a burden on the country’s health care system, household and the economy. A recent study has reviewed that diabetes impacts on employment ,work hours, early retirement, presenteeism and absenteeism. Loss in earnings and employment are negatively affecting the lifestyles of people affected by the disease which in turn results in stress and poor family life.  (Simmons , Hartnell , Davenport , Jenaway , 2016). This disease was declared as a National health priority in the year 1997 and federal and state governments are supporting programs to monitor detection, management and prevention of diabetes. Nevertheless diabetes is still on the rise which indicates that much has to be done about it. Strategies have been developed for primary prevention by encouraging people to have a healthy lifestyle. There are some community healths promotional strategies that are being promoted one of them is reduction of the impact of diabetes in pregnant mothers. National educational programs are being developed to ensure that women who are healthy are aware of the risk factors that lead to diabetes e.g. healthy weight during pregnancy. Programs are being implemented to support women who already have the disease by newly established National Gestational Diabetes Register. This register enables systematic follow up for women with gestational diabetes. Another community health promotional strategy being promoted by the Australian Government is reducing the impact of diabetes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander natives by developing, funding and implementing a nation-wide program that is specially designed for ATSI people. These long term programs are aimed at increasing the community awareness and early detection of diabetes.

• Cardio vascular diseases:- is a general term that defines diseases of blood or heart vessels. When a person suffers from this disease the blood flow to the heart is reduced due to issues blood clot or fatty deposits in an artery. CADS are another healthy issue that is burdening the Australian healthcare system. In the year 2012 there were reportedly 4 million Australians that were suffering from CVD. In 2012 cardiovascular diseases was the leading cause of deaths in Australia. Indigenous people are twice as likely to be affected by a cardio vascular disease in comparison to normal population. 1 in 5 Australian is suffering from some cardiovascular disease that results in 1.1 million hospitalizations in a year (Fernandez , Davidson, Miranda , Everett & Salamonson , 2014,). There are many negative effects of these diseases on economy of the country. Financial losses due to productivity loss are among the most common along with absenteeism. Due to this there is potential tax revenue foregone as incomes fall and so falls the consumption of services and goods. In the case of CVD the loss of income forgone is even higher as many die prematurely due to these diseases. There are added carer costs as many people affected by these diseases are cared at home at an initial stage and may be transferred to residential care if the disability is seriously affecting their everyday life. (Mahajan , Lau ,& Sanders , 2015). While there are advances in reducing mortality rates from these diseases. Factors like diabetes, physical inactivity, heart failure and obesity will continue to worsen unless prevented at an early stage. Primary prevention includes the screening of people who are yet to develop CVD. Secondary prevention of CVD is by adequate funding and by providing services that are tailored to the needs of individuals and populations. Strategies also work for developing a framework that works within primary care (Schmid , Chalmers , & Bereznicki, 2015). There are some community health promotion strategies through which the government has succeeded in secondary prevention services for CVD’s, these areas are funding which recognize and support cardiac rehabilitation, recognizing the at risk sectors of the population that are more likely to have recurrent cardiac events e.g. Torres Strait islander people and Aboriginal people (Worrall ,Edward , & Page , 2012). Another successful step is to integrate secondary prevention in the patient recovery and journey. But still there are a few steps that the government has to ensure that are always followed. Some of these steps are that everyone with CVD should be checked for mental health issues. By creating a flexible workforce model to recognize health professionals to deliver secondary prevention services government can support specialists at regional health services. This will increase the available capacity of the existing services. The last step that the government has to take is to educate the people about CVD’s by proving information through media and other literacy levels.

Conclusion

In order to reduce the burden of chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes the Australian government has to do changes in the National Strategic framework for chronic conditions and National Diabetes strategy. They have to make sure that prevention strategies are comprehensive and multifaceted which include population wide measures (Watts , & Segal , 2009). These measures should also include high risk individuals by using services and health care programmes. Strong advocacy on the part of stakeholders is required to ensure that healthy lifestyle is promoted and healthy choices are readily available for the population. High quality care is provided by all providers is another step that is crucial in defeating these chronic diseases. Identifying the barriers to availability of health services and overcoming these barriers is another point that should be on the national agenda. Chronic diseases have community, personal costs but they also have a significant economic burden that is in form of lost productivity and health care costs. It is the joint responsibility of the different levels of the government to deliver services to the varied residents of our country.

References

Dannenberg , AL, 2016, Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessments: A Synthesis of Data From Five Impact Evaluation Reports.. Prev Chronic Dis, 13(1), E84

Farrer LM., Gulliver A., Bennett K., Fassnacht DB., & Griffiths KM, 2016, Demographic and psychosocial predictors of major depression and generalised anxiety disorder in Australian university students.. BMC Health Serv Res, 16(1), 241

Eh K., McGill M., Wong J.,& Krass  I., 2016, Cultural issues and other factors that affect self-management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) by Chinese immigrants in Australia.. Diabetes Res Clin Pract, 119, 97-105

Fernandez R., Davidson PM., Miranda C., Everett B.& Salamonson Y., 2014, Attribution of risk for coronary heart disease in a vulnerable immigrant population: a survey study.. J Cardiovasc Nurs, 29(1), 48-54

Georgiou , A, 2016. Finding, Appraising and Interpreting the Evidence of Health IT.. Stud Health Technol Inform, 222(1), 312-23

Macdonald GC., & Campbell  LV., 2016, Mental illness: the forgotten burden on diabetes populations?.Lancet, 388(10044), 561

Mahajan R., Lau DH.,& Sanders  P., 2015,  Impact of obesity on cardiac metabolism, fibrosis, and function.. Trends Cardiovasc Med, 25(2), 119-26

Schmid O., Chalmers L., & Bereznicki  L, 2015, Evidence-to-practice gaps in the management of community-dwelling Australian patients with ischaemic heart disease.. J Clin Pharm The, 40(4), 398-403

Simmons D., Hartnell S., Davenport K., Jenaway A, 2016, Risk factors for recurrent admissions with diabetic ketoacidosis: importance of mental health.. Diabet Med, 1(1), 89-96

Watts JJ., & Segal , L, 2009, Market failure, policy failure and other distortions in chronic disease markets.. BMC Health Serv Res, 9(1), 102

Worrall C.,Edward L., & Page , K., 2012, Women and cardiovascular disease: at a social disadvantage?. Collegian, 19(1), 33-7

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