Who Gets Chronic Illness?

According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, more than 133 million Americans have chronic medical conditions—that’s more than 16 times the entire population of New York City! Why is the number so high? There is no single answer to that question. The answer lies in a number of developments in our world and in medicine.

A century ago, people developed many of the chronic illnesses we see today. But a century ago, many of these diseases had not yet been identified. People got sick and died from many of the same things they get sick from today, but they were not diagnosed and not treated.

People simply died or lived miserable lives. Today, with the explosion of knowledge in science and medicine, chronic illnesses are diagnosed, and therefore treated, earlier. Whether or not we have a higher percentage of our population suffering from chronic conditions today than we did in past years is impossible to say. What we do know is that we seem to have more people who are ill because we are now able to diagnose them.

Along with an increase in the ability to make accurate and earlier diagnoses, researchers have also brought us better ways to control these conditions. Because better treatments are available, more people with chronic illness are living longer. As more people live longer, there will be a higher identified segment of the population living with chronic illness and disability.

For example, a person diagnosed with systemic lupus 25 years ago would have a life expectancy of less than 5 years after diagnosis. Now, the majority of lupus patients who follow their treatment plan can expect to live a relatively normal life span.

Other, more obvious factors contribute to the large numbers of people with chronic illness. Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States, leading to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The stress of “civilized” society is a direct factor in the development of countless diseases.

Add to obesity and stress things like inadequate nutrition, lack of exercise, environmental pollutants, chemicals in food and water, smoking, and alcohol or drugs and it’s easy to see why the num-ber of chronically ill people is so high. And don’t for-get that the population is generally getting older as baby boomers age. With a larger percentage of the population becoming elderly, the percentage of people with chronic illness in the general population will go up. But chronic illness can strike at any age.