The Global Coronary Artery Diseases
• Introduction
Although great progress in combatting fatal diseases has been made across the globe, there still remain stringent problems in this imperative issue. As the world is experiencing a huge transition in health challenges, emphasis of epidemiological situation has transferred from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases. According to GBD 2000 (RWAC, 2015), the number in total dying from non-communicable diseases is shocking increasing. Coronary artery diseases, as the prominent representative of these diseases, significantly contribute to the high death rate and it is still in a rapid growth thus the burden of CAD has enhanced greatly. Due to the importance of the issue on CAD, this article focus on the main factors that may lead to the rising trend of CAD, which generally refer to government, society and individual perspectives. This analysis may help outline further and possible solutions towards CAD.
• The Flaw of Government Work
The lack of popular education from government may indirectly account for the increase of CAD’s morbidity. According to the UNICEF (2015), education is beneficial to finish the circulation of poverty and disease, for children, it provides them with knowledgeable equipment to learn what the healthy lifestyle is. However, regardless of the importance of education, governments in some countries do not pay enough attention to it. It is reported that in western and central African region, in the range of 10-year-old children, 22% were unable to go to the school and 6% have enrolled but later were deprived of education (WHO, NO DATE). Therefore, it results in the phenomenon that there are different morbidity rates in different countries because people who have received comprehensive education generally know how to prevent CAD. It can be seen that the death rates from CAD have declined rapidly in the past 30 years in the developed countries on account of the preventive measures such as health education (WHO, 1997). By contrast, in most developing countries, the coronary heart disease gradually becomes the major problem (WHO, 1997). As can be seen above, education plays a significant role in the precaution of CAD.
Apart from the lack of education, the flaw in the aspect of health care system is another cause of CAD. Generally, a perfect care system could offer some services about prevention and treatment such as drug development and the supply of medicine. However, one of the problems is that the health care system is not equal to all citizens. It is stated that people whose socio-economic status are lower, the medical services and use of health care they could obtain are inferior to the other people. (Huff, 2001) Additionally, it has been claimed that the unequal opportunities and the approach to resources lead to the health inequities (WHO, no date). The unreasonable distribution of rights and resources in the health care system is what the government ignores. Worse more, some other new problems are exposed in recent years. According to the WHO (2003), although the health care system is improved so much, it still faces a number of challenges such as the continuously increased demands for medical care due to aging population problem.
Furthermore, following the two factors of government, another reason should be analyzed. Although government’s management in the market cannot be neglected, the practical situation is that governments do not have reasonable policy and supervision in the market. Take the prize for example, compare to the processed food, the prize of fruit and vegetables is high, which resulted in the phenomenon that people who are higher status spent 20% more on the green food than the low-income earners (British, Heart Foundation, 2006). This data showed that the high prize of vegetables enables people not to maintain a healthy diet, which increases the possibility of illness such as CAD. As for another aspect, studies showed the increase in the amount of elevated sodium and low potassium that a person take may lead to the likelihood of CAD and stroke (WHO, 2013). In this case, governments are expected to take some actions to manage the processed food. However, it is reported that in many places such as schools and restaurant, the food which contains much sodium and salt are still served to people (WHO, NO DATE).
•The Complicated Environment of Society
Apart from the perspective of government, the environment of society plays an important role in coronary artery disease death as well. This can be divided into two main aspects. Both socio-economic environment and psychosocial factors combine to it. One contributing factor is socio-economic environment and poverty is known to be a major economic issue. Due to the rapid urbanization, the gap of income has been dramatically widened, and this economical inequality result in the treatment inequality of disease. In disadvantaged countries, there are smaller falls in CAD deaths than the advantaged zones. In addition, larger amount of mortality remains in the disadvantaged zones throughout (Huff and Gray, 2001). According to WHO (2015), the CAD deaths in the low and middle level countries account for more than 75%. People in these countries are not able to have health detection regularly and comprehensively. Moreover, the patients suffering from CAD lack of effective and seasonable cure. Due to the expensive and resource intensive therapies and medications of CAD, many private health systems which are uncontrolled by government provide the drugs at a far higher price to improve the profit. As a result, people with low and middle income are not available to the treatment. (World Bank, 2003)