Source: European Society of Preventive Medicine
Medicine in the 21st century will focus on the individual. It will become proactive in nature. It will increasingly focus on prevention and addressing underlying mechanisms rather than only disease treatment. Modern research and medicine provides deeper insights into disease mechanisms, opens diagnostic windows for viewing health and disease for the individual and generates metrics for assessing wellness.
Preventive medicine aims to be able to detect and treat perturbations in healthy individuals long before disease symptoms appear, thus optimizing the wellness of individuals and avoiding disease. P4 (Preventive, Predictive, Personalised and Participatory) represents a move away from models of reacting to illness to prevention and maintaining health.
Preventive medicine consists of measures taken for disease prevention and health promotion, as opposed to just treatment of symptoms and diseases. Just as health encompasses a variety of physical and mental states, so do disease and disability, which are affected by lifestyle, environmental factors, and genetic predisposition. Health, disease, and disability are dynamic processes (‘health continuum’) which begin before symptoms occur and individuals realize they are affected. Disease prevention relies on anticipatory actions that can be categorized as primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
CHRONIC DISEASES – THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH AND DISABILITY
Each year, millions of people die of preventable deaths. A 2004 study showed that about half of all deaths in the United States in 2000 were due to preventable behaviors and exposures. Leading causes include lifestyle-related chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes, and also certain infectious diseases. It is estimated that 400,000 people die each year in the United States due to poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. According to estimates made by the World Health Organization (WHO), about 55 million people died worldwide in 2011, two thirds of this group from non-communicable (lifestyle-related chronic) diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and chronic cardiovascular and lung diseases. This is an increase from the year 2000, during which 60% of deaths were attributed to these diseases.
Preventive medicine is especially important given the continuing worldwide rise in the prevalence of lifestyle-related chronic diseases as well as an aging population.
CHRONIC DISEASES – THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH AND DISABILITY
Each year, millions of people die of preventable deaths. A 2004 study showed that about half of all deaths in the United States in 2000 were due to preventable behaviors and exposures. Leading causes include lifestyle-related chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes, and also certain infectious diseases. It is estimated that 400,000 people die each year in the United States due to poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. According to estimates made by the World Health Organization (WHO), about 55 million people died worldwide in 2011, two thirds of this group from non-communicable (lifestyle-related chronic) diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and chronic cardiovascular and lung diseases. This is an increase from the year 2000, during which 60% of deaths were attributed to these diseases.
Preventive medicine is especially important given the continuing worldwide rise in the prevalence of lifestyle-related chronic diseases as well as an aging population.
LEADING CAUSES OF PREVENTABLE DEATH AND ILLNESS
Worldwide
The leading causes of preventable death worldwide share similar trends to the United States. There are a few differences between the two, such as malnutrition, pollution, and unsafe sanitation, that reflect health disparities between the developing and developed world.
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