Example Of Research Paper On Prevention Of Chronic Disease And Improving Public Health

Introduction

Chronic diseases hold much significance in today’s world because of their increased prevalence. In most, cases the chronic illness lingers for longer periods and normally do not have a cure. However, strategies can be employed to control then hence the patient may live longer. However, this may come at an additional healthcare cost to the patient hence it is important to come up and develop ways that can be used to prevent the occurrence of chronic diseases. Some of the chronic diseases affecting individuals include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, asthmas, depression and cancer.
According to the CDC (2015), 86% of healthcare dollars in the United States is used in the treatment of chronic diseases. The chronic illnesses are leading contributors to death and disability. According to Mayes and Oliver (2012), some of these chronic illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer and heart diseases cause 80% of deaths in the United States. A common trend is for chronic illnesses to affect adults, but the trend also affects children. An understating of chronic disease is important to help in identifying them early in life and begin procedures or steps to manage them. In most cases, people may be having chronic diseases may first be unaware that they have the diseases. Therefore, it becomes necessary for individuals to visiting physicians regularly for check-up and ascertain their healthy conditions. Chronic diseases identified in later stages of the disease develop difficult to manage and more than often lead to death.
Effort in addressing prevention of chronic diseases need to be organized in such a way as to ensure maximum effect and at the same time reduce the cost of treatment of chronic illnesses. Government efforts and investments in the prevention of chronic diseases are minimal and have been faced with political challenges (Mayes and Oliver, 2012). Statistics indicates that in 2009 only 3% of the $2.5trillion national health expenditure was dedicated to government public health activities (Mayes and Oliver, 2012). According to Willis, Riley, Herbert and Best (2012), efforts to support chronic disease prevention have been constrained by attributes such as the dispersed and delayed benefits from the various disease prevention efforts. Additionally, factors such as unknown and unrecognized sponsors and the unseen nature of the implementation of the prevention initiatives makes it hard for people and the government to pump in more funding to aid in the prevention efforts (Willis, Riley, Herbert and Best, 2012). However, it is important to note that increasing funding will not be the only solution. Other aspects such as leadership and mobilization of efforts across different disease groups may lead to the development of relationships that enhance the prevention of chronic illnesses.

Historical developments of Prevention of chronic disease and improving public health

The history of chronic illnesses dates back to the 17th century during the days of the English Physician Thomas Sydenham (1624-89) who gave a distinction between acute and chronic illnesses. The scholar said that serious diseases are those that are given by God while chronic conditions are those that originate from people themselves. Over time, there have been varied studies on the causes of the chronic diseases. Such studies include the Seven Countries Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the British Doctors Study. The studies were done even in the 1960s. The studies explained the contributions of smoking of cigarette, the diets of people, physical inactivity, and high blood pressure as some of the main causes of chronic disease. To fight the chronic diseases, many players in the field made various contributions to this. For instance, insurance companies started advocating improved physical examinations on people for the presence of these diseases. They also advised them to avoid the causes that were associated with the conditions. Some of the ways to prevent this was being involved in active lifestyles that would help avoid contradicting the illnesses. The insurance companies were actively involved in this so that they avoid paying insurance premiums related to deaths from the illnesses. The American chronic disease movement drew attention from epidemiologists and several health experts. They were interested in information on the state of the health of the nation and other things. The purpose of this was to uncover the extent of chronic diseases among people of all ages. Retrieved March 19, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/
The fight on chronic diseases was spearheaded by America’s National Health Survey (NHS) who made significant changes in the health sector of the US. After the 2nd world war, the fight against chronic diseases was spearheaded by the Committee on Chronic Diseases (CCD) by putting the chronic health issues in the national agenda. The engagement of the American medical and public health sector in the fight against chronic diseases through various ways. Such ways are screening, rehabilitation among others. In screening, the American doctors did not embrace it wholeheartedly. For instance, mass chest x-rays were in vogue both Europe and North America for several decades. Retrieved March 19, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/
The success of the methods was never demonstrated in clear terms, and the importance of the drugs was never felt because of their late arrival. Since the end of the 2nd world war and during the mid of 20th century a lot have been achieved in the eradication of chronic diseases. Today, the healthcare system covers specialized treatment to those having chronic illnesses. They primary health care providers screen and eventually treat the patients and after that, the patients are assigned to various specialists who do routine checkups. Also, with the advancement of technology, there more modern ways of fighting the diseases that have proven to work. Such methods include current medication, modern equipment among many other ways that are being used in the fight against the illnesses (Mayers & Oliver, 2012).
Discuss how the issue affects healthcare management including suggestions for effective management in regards to dealing with the problem in healthcare settings.
The issue of preventing chronic diseases and improving public health affects health care management in various ways. First, it involves a lot of expenses in its implementation. The management of health institutions do run on less money or sometimes no funding at all in order to implement the issue. The implementation includes supplying drugs to the patients, educating the people on how to avoid contracting chronic diseases, educating the public on how to take care of the patients, lobbying for funding from donors and other agencies. With this, the management of health institutions need a lot of funding and support (Mayers & Oliver, 2012). Its inadequacy or unavailability creates a significant challenge. Second, the issue affects the control through making it take most of its time in planning on how to advocate support of the eradication of the diseases. Instead, the health institutions management is supposed work on the patients and find the best ways of the disease eradication. The issue of the chronic illnesses eradication has, on the other hand, enhanced the study of the possible treatments or solutions to chronic illnesses. The studies that are being carried in various institutions have brought some hopes in the hearts of the patients. Majority of the studies reveal a considerable progress and soon most chronic diseases shall have acquired their eradication (Willis, Riley, Herbert & Best, 2013).
Several suggestions are there, that can be made regarding effective management in healthcare settings. First, there needs to be a proper relationship and good working environment between the government, the health, the private and the public sectors. Also, the not for profit organizations lobbying for better health and all other agencies should be involved in the decision-making process. Second, the management should consider actualizing the suggestions that have been made by various scholars in the higher educational institutions. The researchers have compiled some reports that can help fight the diseases. Third, the management should consider finding a lobbying term solution to the conditions. The solution can be found if seminars, workshops, meetings, open forums and others are organized with the main agendas being finding a long term solution. It is because such a strategy has been tried and found to work (Willis, Riley, Herbert & Best, 2013).
In conclusion, the chronic diseases, and their fight dates to a very long time and it there insinuates that efforts to fight them started a long time ago. Also, there are various measures that have been put across to fight the diseases. There are also ways in which this affects management of the healthcare institutions. Finally, there are also suggestions on how the management can actually carry out this.

References

CDC. (2015, February 3). Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Retrieved March 19, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/
Mayes, R., & Oliver, T. R. (2012). Chronic Disease and the Shifting Focus of Public Health: Is Prevention Still a Political Lightweight?. Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law, 37(2), 181-200. doi:10.1215/03616878-1538593
Willis, C. D., Riley, B. L., Herbert, C. P., & Best, A. (2013). Networks to Strengthen Health Systems for Chronic Disease Prevention.American Journal of Public Health, 103(11), e39-e48. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301249