Abstracts by keywords: Chronic diseases
40 years ago, the WHO declared that at least 50 percent of diabetes cases worldwide could be prevented and - as can be read in the Diabetes Health Report 2013 (1, p. 23) - called for actions to prevent this disease. However, the call received little attention back then - much like it does today. Over these many years, the German healthcare system has invested billions to care for people with this disease. According to the CODE-2 study (2), the costs caused by patients with type 2 diabetes in Germany amounted to around 15.7 million euros in 1998 - which has since extrapolated to many hundreds of billions of euros. But: Despite this immense investment, why are there still deficits in diabetic care as one of the most cost-intensive chronic diseases? It is reasonable to assume that the fundamental problem of almost all “non-communicable diseases” - enabling the people affected to self-manage and motivating lifestyle changes - cannot be overcome with the current acute care approach alone.
24.01.2013
The great challenge threatening all developed social systems is demographic development. It has been known for years that the populations in western countries are getting older. In 1950, not even 10 percent of our population was older than 65 years, but in 2025 almost 25 percent of people in Western Europe will be over 65 years old. The age structure will be similar to that in Florida, affectionately called "God's Waiting Room" by the Americans.
24.01.2013
The patient empowerment approach to training chronically ill people aims to help patients gain more autonomy in the care of their illness and improve their self-management skills. Based on this philosophy, the European Health Care Foundation has developed a training and care concept for healthcare professionals and chronically ill people. The core is a training portal for standardized coach training and care for patients with type 2 diabetes. The training concept was tested in a multicenter prospective study in German pharmacies. The Caoches and the patients rated the training material as good or very good, patients were able to manage their illness better through the training and 70% of the diabetes patients improved their HbA1c value by a mean of 0.7%