How to Take Responsibility for Disease Prevention

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In the United States approximately 75 percent of health care total expenditures are derived from attention, treatment, and rehabilitation of persons who live with chronic health conditions, increasingly people are living with chronic health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and renal failure.1 These conditions are intrinsically related to unhealthy lifestyles that could be changed to avoid permanent consequences.1

Responsibility is defined as the duty to be accountable for something; it is to exert authority and power of decision over something ensuring the adequate care about it.2 All of the human beings are responsible for their own health, we have the duty to take care of our bodies and choose the adequate options to keep it healthy.3 However, many factors will determine how well we perform this chore and its effectivity.2,3

To be responsible for our health condition we need to be conscious how we can achieve it, and what are the risk factors that are predisposing our bodies to get ill or even develop a chronic health condition. The main factors that are predisposing to chronic diseases and can be prevented are unhealthy lifestyles; these habits are sometimes firmly rooted in those things that we know are harmful for us and could end in severe damage to our health, but we still choose to do it, because we enjoy it, and, once more time to underestimated the risks.1,2

Unhealthy lifestyles are implied on the most common causes of chronic diseases that could be prevented if they were changed. Chronic conditions such as EPOC, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, are caused commonly by exacerbated habits of smoking, alcoholic drinking, and high intake of calories, sugar, salt, and fat. Additionally to a sedentary life accompanied of big doses of stress by financial problems, job challenges, and family conflicts.1,3

People need to understand what are the risks to which they are exposed; they need to develop a profound awareness about what they are doing with their lives and the possible consequences that they will be facing the future; Increasingly, literature are concluding that there is evidence that the lifestyles changes are improving chronic health conditions and delaying the onset of chronic diseases in people who have clear predisposition to it.2

But, how people can develop the ability or even the behavior to prevent these conditions above described, the key is to assume the individual responsibility about their own health, nobody can support or even adopt something to improve their health if do not understand what are the risks and how to avoid them. When people recognize that they lives could be affected by harmful consequences produced from unhealthy lifestyles they should have the concern to change their risky lifestyles through an acute sense of self-responsibility.2,3

Responsibility always is accompanied of self-awareness, nobody can be responsible if first do not recognize the importance of preventing chronic conditions, and the self-awareness is produced by a clear understanding of the consequences to keep moving with unhealthy habits or take all their efforts to change to be better, mainly, for themselves.2,3

People trust the most in those process that has proved be effective, they will develop the ability to be effective to take care of their own health to the extent they have control of their decisions and choose healthy options for them.2 When individuals have positive results such as better measures of concentrations blood glucose, or blood pressure, they can be motivated to keep performing the activities that have proven be effective, in this case, could be physical activity, weight loss, healthy eating, so on.2

In short, to develop a sense of responsibility to take care of our own health it is absolutely necessary to understand what the risks factors are, what the unhealthy habits we need to change are, and above all how we can do it. The most important and never should be forgotten it is that once we assume the whole responsibility to take care of our own health we need the power to decide what behavior we must change and to keep, with the enough knowledge to difference one from the other.

References

1. Resnik DB. Responsibility for health: personal, social, and environmental. . 2007; 33(8): 444–445. doi: 10.1136/jme.2006.017574

2. Community Tool Box. Communicating Information about Community Health and Development Issues. http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/getting-issues-on-the-public-agenda/commmunicate-information/main. Published 2016. Accessed February 18, 2017.

3. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. The Power of Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/pdf/2009-power-of-prevention.pdf. Published 2009. Accessed February 18, 2017.

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