Oral

Chronic disease prevalence in the US is increasing at an alarming rate as is the societal, economic, and healthcare system burden it creates. CDC data reveals that 140 million in the US suffer from a chronic disease or condition and over one in four suffer from more than one. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, respiratory illness, and diabetes are the leading causes of chronic disease related death in the US. Over 70% of mortality in the US is caused by chronic disease. Two thirds of adults and one third of children in the US are overweight; of this number one third of adults and one in five children in the US are considered obese and therefore have a dramatically increased risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. Almost 30 million in the US have type 2 diabetes with another 79 million estimated to have pre-diabetes. There are approximately 2 million new cases of diabetes diagnosed each year in the US. Diabetes and overweight contribute greatly to co-morbid disease states such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, ischemic disease, susceptibility to infectious disease, lowered quality of life, lost days of work, increased all cause mortality, and lost years of life. The CDC estimates that 75% of the 2 trillion US healthcare dollars spent were on preventable chronic diseases. By 2030 the economic burden of the chronic disease pandemic will reach catastrophic proportions well beyond our ability to cope with it; it's estimated that by 2030 the global healthcare burden of chronic disease will exceed 47 trillion dollars. Immediate action is therefore our highest public health priority. Even small gradual changes will create significant perceptible costs savings needed to support our overburdened healthcare system. Effective utilization of epidemiological methodologies in collaboration with and supporting public health practitioners, public health policy makers, and public and primary healthcare system workers are needed to deflect the current burden of chronic disease and to reduce the rising incidence and prevalence in the future. This session will review the role of epidemiology in the setting of chronic disease assessment, policy making, and assurance in a historical, current, and future context.

Session Objectives: 1)Describe and evaluate the state of chronic disease and chronic conditions in USA and globally. 2)Describe the rapidly rising prevalence of preventable lifestyle related chronic disease in adults and children. 3)Describe the impact of the rising healthcare costs and proportion of healthcare spent on chronic disease. 4)Describe the historical, current, and future role of epidemiology in the assessment, public health policy formulation, and assurance initiatives associated with chronic disease. 5)Discuss the prioritization of needed epidemiological initiatives producing accurate evidence generation, effective public health policy, efficacious interventions, and appropriate program evaluation and monitoring.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)