Hey all!
I’m back again and this week I’m going to be talking a little bit about chronic diseases. This week we were all assigned to read a recently published article titled “Global Noncommunicable Diseases – Where Worlds Meet” from the New England Journal of Medicine. The article discusses the global spread of non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, or diabetes. It says that this spread gives low, middle, and high-income countries a chance to come together in an effort to attack this worldwide threat. Globally, chronic disease accounts for 60% of all deaths with 80% of those deaths occurring in low or middle-income countries. The article also identifies the top six risk factors connected with noncommunicable diseases to be high blood pressure, tobacco use, high blood glucose levels, physical inactivity, overweight or obesity, and high cholesterol levels. Tackling these diseases can give countries worldwide a common purpose. In closing, the article states that we must engage policymakers and help them see the opportunity that they have to fight this global trend.
In the article, there was a table that showed the top ten risk factors globally, in low-income countries, middle-income countries, and high-income countries. It can be seen on this table that many of the risk factors in the three types of country all overlap. This is not too surprising to me. Bad and risky behavior, such as poor eating habits, lack of exercise, tobacco use, or alcohol abuse, transcends money and income. Not a lot of money is being spent in low-, middle-, or high-income countries on education about the dangers of certain behaviors that lead to the risk factors, which then lead to development of chronic diseases.
In class this week, we talked about two different chronic diseases: heart disease and diabetes. We discussed the different risk factors associated with the diseases and then the professor illustrated primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention is when measures are set in place to prevent diseases before the biological onset of the disease. This type of prevention is aimed at everyone. Secondary prevention is the detection of disease in its earliest stages before the symptoms are noticeable. This type of prevention is aimed at people who have a specific risk factor associated with the disease. Finally, tertiary prevention is prevention of disease progression after someone is clinically diagnosed. This prevention is aimed at specifically people who have the disease. One disease that we can look at and talk about the various levels of prevention is HIV/AIDS. Some primary prevention methods for HIV/AIDS may include education of the community about safe sex practices or drug use. An example of secondary prevention could include various counseling programs, social marketing campaigns, or policy interventions. And finally, for tertiary prevention, methods might include better access to medical care. I think that my examples of primary prevention would definitely be achievable in low and middle-income countries but as for the tertiary prevention, it would, unfortunately, most likely only be achievable in high-income countries. This is just more evidence that, globally, we should unite in order to help combat these diseases.
I hope you all found my blog interesting this week! Check back next week for another post!
Great discussion. I was also unsurprised by the overlap in leading risk factors regardless of economic status of a country, which is likely due to globalization, urbanization, and demographic and lifestyle transitions. As for prevention types, there are: primary (preventing a disease from ever happening such as with immunizations), secondary (finding a disease early so as to prevent worsening illness such as screening colonoscopies), and tertiary (reducing the impact of a disease on someone such as providing rehabilitation). Your example of HIV was correct, except for secondary prevention. An example of secondary prevention would be screening IV drug users for HIV.
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