Policy Development for Chronic Disorders

Running head: POLICY DEVELOPMENT
POLICY DEVELOPMENT
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POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Policy health issue: Chronic disorders
Population who is affected:
Chronic disorders are those disorders that persist for a long time. According, to the
definition of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, a chronic disorder can be defined as
that particular disorder that lasts for 3 months or more. These disorders cannot be prevented by
vaccines or cannot be cured by medications. They can be only managed by proper lifestyle
modifications and to some extent by medications (Steptoe et al., 2015). Health damaging
behaviors like that of the tobacco use as well as lack of physical activity and poor eating habits
are some of the major contributors of leading chronic disorders.
Life expectancy of people in United States has increased over the last decade. It has
increased from the age of 70 years in the year 1960 to that of the age of 78.9 years in the year
2018. The modern day advancements in the fields of medicine as well as technological
innovations and scientific interventions in healthcare industry have helped people to live longer
lives (Scott et al., 2016). Although human beings are living longer in the nation but they are not
able to live quality lives. A huge number of people are seen to be suffering from chronic ailments
and are not able to manage the disorders successfully. One in four people in the nation has
multiple chronic conditions that require medical attention and have limited activities of daily
living. This number rises to three among four people who are aged 65 and older as per CDC
report. Hence, target population is the older cohort who is 65 and above (CDC, 2018)

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POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Evidence about the issues supported by resources:
Evidence based studies have found different types of behavioral problems as well as fast
paced lifestyle to be the main cause of concerns that are contributing to the long term chronic
disorders. Sedentary lifestyles, lack of health literacy, consumptions of calorie-dense fast foods
or take-away foods are some of the causes that make individuals vulnerable to the development
of the disorders (Prince et al., 2015). Smoking of tobacco as well as alcohol consumptions are
also other factors that increase the chance of an individual to be affected by chronic ailments.
Different types of negative outcomes that remain associated with the occurrence of such ailments
are social isolation, stress, anxiety, fatigue, depression and many others. Affected individuals are
seen to suffer from sleeplessness, loss of independence in life activities, reversals of roles in lives
as well as disrupted lifestyles (Steptoe et al., 2015). Different types of lifestyle complications
that are also seen to arise are physiological modification of the normal functioning of the body as
well as body organs, pain and suffering, restricted mobility due to complications as well as poor
self-image and high levels of sufferings. All these result in poor quality lives of the patients
making them suffer tremendously.
These disorders are affecting the people all over the United States at a national level and
hence it has become a concern for all levels of government to mitigate the impacts of this issue.
These can be proved by the following data. Chronic disorders are found to be intricately
associated with high levels of absenteeism and loss of productivity. This disorder is also seen to
have humungous impact on the healthcare costs. As per the data put forward by Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), different types of chronic disorders have affected about
75% of the nation’s aggregate of the healthcare expenditures (Chatterji et al., 2015). Experts are
of the opinion that this is accounting for about $5300 per person in the nation every year.