According to a recent report by the World Health Organization in recent years the increase in the number of chronically ill people is creating an emergency for health systems: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, mental disorders, respiratory, digestive and systemic diseases osteoarticular are now among the most widespread causes of suffering and death. And it is not a "problem of the rich": in the last twenty years chronic diseases have spread to the poorest countries and are now responsible for 86% of deaths throughout Europe.
The main risk factors are arterial hypertension, smoking, obesity and overweight, alcohol, high cholesterol and glycemia, sedentary lifestyle. These are factors that can be modified thanks to interventions on the social environment, as was recently done in Italy with the ban on smoking in public places, and thanks to medical treatments, such as antihypertensive drugs.
The report highlights the need for urgent action to halt and reverse chronic disease and offers practical suggestions on how to carry out these interventions nationwide to respond effectively to growing epidemics. The document is divided into four parts and focuses on the prevention of the main chronic diseases, in particular: heart disease and stroke (cardiovascular disease), cancer, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic respiratory disease), diabetes.
