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Chronic Illness - Coggle Diagram
Chronic Illness
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What is chronic illness,
and why is it on the rise?
- Formal definition: a chronic illness is a long-lasting condition with persistent effects.
Acute and Chronic Illness
- Acute: abrupt onset, limited duration, single cause, usually accurate diagnosis, usually accurate prognosis, usually effective interventions, usually cured, minimal uncertainty.
- Chronic: usually a gradual onset, lengthy or indefinite duration, multiple and variable causes, possibly uncertain diagnosis, possibly uncertain prognosis, often indecisive intervention, no cure, pervasive uncertainty.
Burden of chronic illness:
- Cardiovascular disease (>1 in 5 Australians)
- Cancer (about 2 in 5 people before the age of 85)
- Survival rates are gradually increasing.
- Rapid, uncontrollable division of cells leading to tumor growth.
- Chronic kidney disease (1 in 10 Australian adults)
- Stage 5 (end-stage): need dialysis and ideally a kidney transplant.
- Diabetes: types 1 and 2 (1 in 19 Australians)
- About 1 in 5 are unaware of the condition.)
- Asthma (1 in 10 Australians)
- Almost 1 in 2 Australians has a chronic disease, and 1 in 3 live with 2 or more.
Why is the burden so high?
- Advances in health > previously deadly diseases like tuberculosis, pneumonia and influenza are now treatable.
- Prevention
- Sanitation > sewerage treatment and movement from living areas
- Vaccination > eradicating diseases like smallpox.
- People are living longer > a shift from dying at birth or from deadly diseases, more likely to make it to old age.
- Chronic illnesses increase as people get older> the longer we live, the more likely we are to develop issues > bodily wear and tear, genetic mutations, more exposure to stress, pollution, etc.
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