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The World Health Organization’s “World Health Report 2002” reveals that chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. The report also mentioned that chronic diseases are responsible for 60% of all the deaths and 43% of the global burden of disease. These percentages were suspected to reach 73% and 60% respectively by 2020.
As per the 2006 statistics, the average expenditure for the treatment of one person was $7,000. To combat the pressing consequences of chronic diseases, the role of governments all around the world in improving the health care system is vital.
To avoid these deadly health conditions, understanding, regular monitoring, and preventive measures are essential.
What are chronic diseases?
Chronic diseases refer to the health conditions that affect the individual for more extended periods, progress slowly, and require constant medical attention. Some of the most common chronic diseases include:
- Heart disease
- Hypertension (High blood pressure)
- Stroke
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Lung and kidney disease
- Chronic respiratory diseases
These are also known as non-communicable diseases.
What are the causes of chronic diseases?
Chronic diseases are complicated medical conditions that are caused by a number of risk factors. Some of the chronic diseases risk factors cannot be controlled, and these include:
- Age
- Genetics
But age is just a number when it comes to chronic diseases. Many adults and children are also affected by these diseases. Surveys reveal that chronic diseases affect more than one in two adults and more than one in four children in America. But they are more common in the elderly.
While some factors can be monitored and controlled to prevent the onset of chronic diseases at a young age or later, these modifiable chronic diseases risk factors include:
- Unhealthy diet
- Lack of physical activity
- Tobacco
- Excessive use of alcohol
Research reveals that by having control over the modifiable chronic disease risk factors, about 80% of heart disease and type ll diabetes and 40% of cancers can be prevented.
Steps Governments should take for treatment and early prevention system for chronic diseases
Chronic diseases are not the headache of a region, state, or country. It’s a worldwide situation that needs to be addressed properly by the implementation of effective strategies.
World Health Organization shows that 79% of the deaths in developing countries are due to chronic diseases. The low to middle-income countries are also facing a rapid increase in the mortality rate due to chronic diseases. Even the rich countries are being affected severely. The more these conditions will remain unadministered, the more difficult it will be to overcome them.
A stable healthcare system is the absolute need of the people in developing to rich countries. It’s high time that the governments should make effective strategies for better monitoring and early prevention of these deadly health conditions. Nothing will add more credits to their rule than making the health care system better by making health facilities accessible for everyone.
Governments should implement the following strategies in healthcare for control and treatment of chronic conditions:
1.Providing health education
Many people are unaware of the complications and the risk factors of chronic diseases. Providing patients with the necessary education will help them make significant changes in their lifestyle, including diet, which is a crucial preventive factor for chronic diseases. Unhealthy diet is a primary risk factor for chronic diseases, and educating people for risk factors is essential for early prevention.
Consultation sessions save patients from misusing medications. If wrong or overuse of drugs occurs, it further complicates the chronic health conditions. Thus, health education provides people with an understanding of their chronic health condition. It helps them make significant lifestyle changes for prevention and take medications as per doctor’s prescription, saving them from adverse effects.
2. Using technology for health
Everyone has access to technology these days, even countries with inadequate health care facilities. By making online portals where people can easily access a healthcare professional can help in controlling chronic diseases.
Moreover, smart technological devices should be introduced to the public having the following features:
- Easily accessible at different public places
- Can be self-operated by the patients for regular monitoring
- Provide telehealth services
- Easy to operate even in the rural areas where the literacy rate is less
- Provide API computer interface for transferring health data to the third party
- Provide accurate results with much less expenses than visiting the hospital for regular monitoring
Health Kiosks are the technological advances that the health care system needs. These devices allow patients to check their height, weight, blood pressure, lipid profile, blood oxygen, glucose, uric acid etc., which are the potent factors for chronic diseases. The login is simple, and they can be installed at many places such as bus stations, shopping malls, schools and other crowded places where a lot of people can have access to them.
Having this kind of technological advances can help both the people and governments worldwide. These smart devices will reduce the healthcare system’s financial burden to a great extent by decreasing health checkup costs.
Increasing doctor to patient ratio
It is a major health issue, particularly in third world countries. Less doctors are available, which leads to poor health conditions. Due to the unavailability of doctors people face difficulties in adopting a regular monitoring routine. This is the primary cause that chronic health conditions remain undiagnosed in the early stages in these countries. It consequently causes more deaths due to late diagnosis.
By increasing the number of doctors whom patients can access quickly can prevent and treat chronic conditions in a better way. But, increasing doctors’ number is not as easy as it seems. It needs more time to increase the number of doctors in the health care system, particularly in third world countries. They don’t have that many resources for immediate changes in the health sector.
The best alternative to this situation is introducing telemedicine to doctors. Encouraging more doctors to join the telemedicine services or portals, such as health check kiosks, can overcome the complexity of the current healthcare crises. In this way, more doctors will be available for patients even in the distant rural areas.
The implementation of the steps mentioned above is vital in both third world countries and rich countries. In third world countries, people lack access to even the basic health facilities. By educating them early about the potentially harmful chronic diseases will help both the governments and the public. In the rich countries, the economy can prosper faster when the health of the public is above average.
Why Governments needs a system of monitoring and early prevention of chronic diseases?
It is a well knowing saying that what can’t be cured should be prevented. Although chronic diseases are curable, the conditions come with many complications. Owing to the risks of chronic diseases and the high costs for treatment, the Government needs a system of monitoring and early prevention.
This requirement for Government is based upon the benefits of monitoring and early prevention of chronic diseases. These include:
Less costs for treatment
National Centers for Chronic Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion reveal that chronic diseases and mental health conditions cost 3.7 trillion dollars to the health care system. This amount makes the 90% of the healthcare expenditures.
The primary health care costs and the treatments costs for chronic diseases are a burden on the state’s economy. To have a stable and prospering economy, Government needs to manage and prevent chronic diseases early.
Provides better chances of treatment
Chronic diseases are slowly progressive. You may notice the symptoms in the early stages or not. But the disease treatment is less painful and less expensive if diagnosed early. The early diagnosis is only possible with regular monitoring.
Reduces the death toll
According to CDC, about 1.7 million people in the United States are diagnosed with cancer every year. Due to the late diagnosis, more than 600,000 people die from it. To reduce the death toll due to chronic diseases governments need a system of monitoring and early prevention.
Health checkup kiosks- An effective solution to the Government’s requirements
A productive solution for the Government’s needs is health checkup kiosks or health checkup stations. Health checkup kiosks are telehealth devices that allow you to monitor your vitals and other health conditions quickly.
Located at many public places, these devices with computer-operated interface allows you to talk to a telehealth doctor. Health checkup kiosks are thus easily accessible, more efficient, and less expensive monitoring and early prevention systems for chronic diseases.
Using the telemedicine kiosks technology can help the Government in the following ways:
How do they help in monitoring and early diagnosis?
If you suspect that you have the signs and symptoms of chronic disease, then you’ll have to spot the areas of the body on the kiosk computer interface where you feel the symptoms. On the basis of your provided information, the health checkup kiosk will generate a copy of confidential results. If your suspect is accurate, and you have a chronic disease, you can immediately talk to a telehealth doctor for consultation.
Even if you don’t have any signs of any disease, regular monitoring using the health checkup kiosk can save you from many complications.
How will they reduce the financial burden on the healthcare system due to chronic diseases?
Telehealth costs are much less than visiting the hospitals. Health checkup kiosks can decrease the financial burden on the healthcare system by:
- People find it easy to have a chronic disease checkup when it doesn’t take a lot of time. When people monitor themselves regularly for chronic diseases, then the chances of hospitalization decrease. This saves the workforce expenditures and the treatment costs.
- Health checkup kiosks can be self-operated. People can easily use them to monitor themselves. Thus, there is no need to have many nurses to attend to each patient.
- They help in the early diagnosis of diseases. At the initial stages, chronic diseases can be managed effectively by making lifestyle changes. It saves crucial healthcare resources.
How do they help in better treatment and decreasing mortality rate?
Although chronic health conditions have no symptoms in the initial stages but the disease is present. The more you live with the diseased condition, the more painful the treatment becomes.
When the disease has spread in your whole body and has affected your vital organs, then having a control over the condition might be difficult or impossible. In such conditions, death is often inevitable.
Thus, using the telemedicine kiosks, you can easily have the chronic disease checkup anywhere, which will help you monitor your health status at regular intervals.
Why health checkup kiosks are the best for monitoring and early prevention?
The pros of using the health checkup kiosk systems are:
- It only takes 5 minutes for monitoring and diagnoses.
- It saves your time as you don’t have to wait in long queues for chronic diseases checkup.
- The results are accurate and confidential.
- Your telehealth doctor can provide quick consultancy for lifestyle or medication changes.
Preventive measures for chronic diseases
Chronic diseases are not only age-related. Many adults can also have chronic health conditions. Therefore, regardless of the age, preventive measures are mandatory for the effective management and prevention of chronic diseases. Following the preventive measures that you can add to your routine to prevent the chronic diseases risk factors:
1.Maintain a healthy body weight
Heart disease and stroke are the primary causes of death in the United States and worldwide. The potent reason for these is hypertension (high blood pressure), which is directly related to your body weight.
The same is the case with other chronic diseases as well. As your BMI (Body mass index) increases than the normal values, you become prone to different chronic health conditions.
2.Make time for physical activity
A 30 minutes exercise can help you a lot in living a healthy and long life.
3.Eat a healthy diet
Diet plays a vital role in your overall health status, so choose wisely. As chronic diseases are slowly progressive, maintaining a healthy diet routine is pivotal for preventing chronic diseases.
The things that you should have in your diet include:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Low fat-containing dairy products
- Meat
- Eggs
- Fish
- Nuts and seeds
To make space for healthy food items in your diet, you must exclude low nutrients foods. The foods that you should avoid are:
- High fat containing diets
- Foods with high sodium content
- Fast food
- Cheese and butter
4.Avoid tobacco use
CDC reports that tobacco use leads to significant organ failures in the body. This makes a person susceptible to many chronic diseases.
Tobacco use decreases the percentage of high density lipoproteins (HDL), also known as good cholesterol. The decrease in good cholesterol levels in the body increases the chances of heart diseases and stroke.
Moreover, tobacco is a significant factor in triggering many respiratory problems.
5.Limit the use of alcohol
Drinking too much alcohol can lead to kidney or lung failure. The blood pressure is also affected by the use of alcohol. In the case of alcohol, two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women are considered safe.
Conclusion
Chronic diseases are complex and can even be fatal when they remain undiagnosed for too long. For the effective management of chronic diseases, Government needs to implement a system of monitoring and early diagnosis and prevention.
Even though you can’t prevent these harmful health conditions but by proper management and preventive measures, you can make them less complicated. For easy and fast monitoring, health checkup kiosks are the best monitoring and early prevention system for chronic diseases.
So, use health checkup kiosks and make regular monitoring a habit. Consult your doctor regularly, even if you’re healthy, to have a healthy and long life without any chronic illness.
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