Chronic Disease
March 21, 2019Information
Kevin Zheng
The Roger Barnett Public Health Video Challenge 2019
- 00:00Two words: chronic disease.
- 00:03Diseases that lasted a year or more
- 00:05and require ongoing medical attention,
- 00:07such as heart disease,
- 00:09cancer, diabetes,
- 00:10obesity and stroke.
- 00:13The World Health Organization projects chronic disease will cause
- 00:1690 percent of all deaths in industrialized countries
- 00:20like the US, Canada,
- 00:22Germany, Australia, China.
- 00:24The list goes on.
- 00:25Here in the US, where we spend more money on health care per person
- 00:29than any country in the world, more than half the population
- 00:34has at least one chronic condition
- 00:36and these chronically ill patients account for a whopping 90 percent
- 00:40of our total annual health care spending.
- 00:44So what can we do?
- 00:46Now a problem as complicated as chronic disease will require many different
- 00:50approaches. But here's one word.
- 00:53Prevention.
- 00:55Every HIV infection prevented saves us three hundred fifty
- 00:59thousand dollars.
- 01:01If we increase the use of preventive services such as low dose aspirin,
- 01:04tobacco screening and alcohol abuse screening.
- 01:07Save billions of dollars.
- 01:10What if we help more people live a healthy lifestyle that can reduce heart
- 01:14disease and diabetes by 80 to 90 percent?
- 01:17Priceless.
- 01:20Not only can more widespread prevention efforts help control health care spending,
- 01:24it's also bound to create a healthier,
- 01:26happier, more productive society.