Question

Chronic disease can be challenging to manage. What are some of the major chronic illnesses that affect women? Does early diagnosis provide an advantage in management, family coping, and support? What are the differences between chronic diseases discovered early in life versus those identified later? at least 250 words

Answer 1

CHRONIC ILLNESSES THAT AFFECT WOMEN

Heart disease

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States. Although heart disease is also the leading cause of death for men in the United States, women are more likely to die following a heart attack than men are. In addition, women are more likely than men are to experience delays in emergency care and to have treatment to control their cholesterol levels.

Mental health

Women are more likely to show signs of depression and anxiety than men are. Depression is the most common women's mental health problem, and more women than men are diagnosed with depression each year.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. It causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling. Arthritis is the leading cause of physical disability in the United States. The condition affects millions of people in the United States and seems to affect more women than men.

Sexually transmitted diseases/sexually transmitted infections (STDs/STIs)

The effect of STDs/STIs on women can be more serious than on men. Leaving STDs/STIs untreated can cause infertility in women. STDs/STIs often go untreated in women because symptoms are less obvious than in men or are more likely to be confused with another less serious condition, such as a yeast infection.

Stroke

More women than men suffer a stroke each year. Although many of the risk factors for stroke are the same for men and women, including a family history of stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, some risk factors are unique to women. These include:

• Taking birth control pills
• Being pregnant
• Using hormone replacement therapy, a combined hormone therapy of progestin and estrogen designed to relieve menopausal symptoms
• Having frequent migraine headaches
• Having a thick waist.

Urinary tract health

Women are more likely than men are to experience urinary tract problems. For example, urinary incontinence affects twice as many women as men due to the way the female urinary tract is structured.

Early diagnosis of chronic diseases has a lot of benefits. It helps to start the treatment as early as possible and thus we can avoid many complications associated with it due to treatment delay. If we treat a disease early means we can control the disease in such a manner that will not affect our health badly. Thus we can avoid dependence on other family members to a certain extent and that will definitely keep our family bond stronger.

Early stages of chronic diseases are less studied than later ones. Nevertheless, there is strong evidence that delayed diagnosis and management are frequent and often adversely affect patients and society. The frequency, length, and burden of delayed care were analyzed, varying with each disease, availability of efficient treatments and guidelines, socio-economic context. The optimal time for adequate management from symptom onset was reviewed, as well as medico-economic studies

Rheumatologic disorders appeared as models, notably Rheumatoid Arthritis (well-established window of opportunity, international guidelines for early diagnosis and management, including T2T and patient active implication). Evidence for early treatment benefit was also found for spondyloarthritis, osteoporosis, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, renal insufficiency, autism spectrum disorders, bipolar disorders, ... Ethical considerations may arise; in Alzheimer's disease, a diagnosis source of marked anxiety, there is no effective pharmacological treatment- but nonpharmacological treatments are quite helpful for patients and family and therefore recommended by health authorities.

Obviously, the benefit of early intervention must be strongly assessed. When this benefit is proven, too many patients are facing delays, often long, with adverse consequences and increased burden for society. The mechanisms of such delayed management are multiple and often intricate; we analyzed the barriers to optimal care linked with professionals, patients, family, health system and society, in order to identify the ways to optimize the outcomes and therefore improve the global health status of the population