How can preventive care be implemented to address and curtail chronic conditions in populations that are considered low-educated, and have several risk behaviors in the U.S.?

January 22, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Karis

How can preventive care be implemented to address and curtail chronic conditions in populations that are considered low-educated, and have several risk behaviors in the U.S.?

Running head: PREVENTIVE CARE & CHRONIC CONDITIONS

PREVENTIVE CARE & CHRONIC CONDITIONS

Using Preventive Care to Curtail Chronic Conditions in the U.S.

Unique D. Bloom

Florida International University

MAN6974: HCMBA Thesis

Abstract Comment by Unique Mccray:

Preventive care has become an important component in providing quality care and also changing the future of costs driven in the health care system. Preventive care is the part of the healthcare that not only reduces the chances of a patient obtaining a chronic disease but also ensures the quality of life. Several levels of preventive care can be implemented to address the issues of chronic disease on the U.S. health care and how trillions are spent in money and resources in these systems. Improving the debt of the country, decreasing the rates of deaths because of chronic diseases, and increasing the life spans of the population are several challenges in the healthcare industry that can be addressed with preventive care. Populations affected by these challenges include patients in low-income status who are not able to afford health insurance that covers preventive care services, these persons lack the motivation to participate in recommended healthcare services by physicians. This paper will address diverse initiatives that can not only address these challenges but also improve the issues of the cost associated with receiving preventive care. And how can we ensure that using preventive care can improve how to continue to provide value-based care.

Problem Statement

How can preventive care be implemented to address and curtail chronic conditions in populations that are considered low-educated, and have several risk behaviors in the U.S.?

Background Comment by Unique Mccray:

Preventive Care is the act in decreasing the effects of chronic disease on the system of healthcare (Quigley & Carpenter, 2008). The care that is considered preventive is categorized into three levels primary, secondary, and tertiary. The level of primary is the attempt to decrease the chances or attract any disease they may become chronic in the future, for example, quit smoking to avoid lung cancer. The secondary level implements the processes of screening any symptoms of someone’s personal health that may indicate any diseases that can also become chronic, for example, mammograms for breast cancer screening. The level of tertiary occurs once a patient has obtained the chronic disease and now has to begin measures that will decrease symptoms and reduce any risks of more complications, for example, chemotherapy or rehabilitation for chronic disease (Quigley & Carpenter, 2008).

Chronic diseases are defined as medical conditions that persist for at least a year or longer and cause limitations of daily living activities and medical attention (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [NCCDPHP], 2020). Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are the chronic diseases that lead to the deaths and disabilities in the population of the U.S. (NCCDPHP, 2020). Chronic disease is the result of an individual having limited performance in their health and survival associated with the poor choices made in that individual’s lifestyle (Raghupathi, 2019). Chronic diseases affect 44% of Americans as of 2004, in which some of these diseases are considered cancer, diabetes, hypertension stroke, heart disease, asthma, and mental disorders (Raghupathi, 2019).

Every year more than 859,000 Americans die from stroke or heart disease, this shows the economic burden and reason why the U.S. health system is spending $199 billion a year while also causing the productivity lost of $131 billion in employment (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020). Cancer has been a diagnosis of more than 1.6 million people each year, which about 600,000 dies from this diagnosis. Appendix C shows all types of cancer deaths across the U.S. and how each year the number continues to grow due to the population growth but all various risk factors, use of screening tests and treatment improvements (U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group, 2018).

The statistics have proved cancer to be the second leading cause of death in the U.S., this care is going to reach a cost of $174 billion by 2020 (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020). Diabetes is another high diagnosis of many Americans, more than 30 million with diabetes and 84 million adults with prediabetes (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020). Other illnesses like kidney failure, heart disease, and blindness are caused by diabetes and these have cost the U.S. health system great debt and $237 billion every year for employers (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020). Obesity is a premedical condition that can lead to the chronic diseases of diabetes, some cancers, and heart disease among 1 in 3 adults and 1 in 5 children (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020). This condition has created a debt of $147 billion a year for individuals with obesity (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020).

Several risk behaviors cause chronic diseases: exposure and use of tobacco, inadequate diet, this includes low in vegetables and fruits and high saturated fats and sodium, need for physical activity, extreme alcohol use (NCCDPHP, 2020). The leading behavior in the United States that causes many preventable deaths is cigarette smoking, this causes at least one disease in more than 16 million Americans. Resulting in $170 billion in direct medical cost (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020). activity, causing the U.S. health system $117 billion every year (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020). Each year in the U.S. 88,000 deaths are caused by extreme use of alcohol, this includes 1 in 10 deaths of the working-age adults, totaling a cost of $249 billion in the U.S. (“Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Disease,” 2020).