The Impact Of Chronic Illness

Naturally, it is agreed that the human body system can develop internal failures making the person to feel unwell. However, these internal problems may take a longer duration. A chronic illness is when a body develops internal problems or failures that may last for an extended period of time. That is to say that the patient lives with the illness for a very long time. As a result, it is generally accepted that chronic illness have various effects on the life of the person diagnosed with the disease together with those close to them. This essay focuses on the impact of chronic diseases on the individual, the family and also the economic status of a country..

It is worthy to acknowledge the fact that the number of patients suffering from chronic diseases aggrandize rapidly from day to day. For instance, Boice reported that 10% of children in US have chronic illness. Chronically ill individuals experience various devastating problems caused by the disease they are suffering from. This can either be emotional, physical or psychological. However, the main impact experienced is isolation. Once a person is diagnosed with a chronic illness, they feel isolated by the society. Indeed, this feeling of isolation and rejection may result to stress. Hollidge research has shown that over 40% of patients diagnosed with a chronic disease lose their self- esteem mainly because of isolation. Chronic diseases require a lot of medical attention. As a result, the process of seeking medical attention and cure is expensive. This means that a person with a chronic illness may experience financial burdens due to the accumulation of hospital bills and other medical requirements.

Bearing in mind the impact of chronic illness on the patient, it is necessary to point out that these impact also extend to the patient's family. To be more precise, when one member of a family is chronically ill, the family members are also directly affected. We can see this through a number of examples. Financial burden is one of the devastating impact of chronic illness on the family. since seeking of medical attention of a chronic d disease is costly, the family is forced to take care of the hospital bills. Financial matters together with normal family activities and relationship with a person's family members are directly impacted because of the medical costs and the resources spent on the ill person. More also, the family member with chronic illness is given a lot of attention than the other family members. As a result, the other family members feel jealous and consequently the relationship between the family members is altered.

Evidently, chronic diseases are one of the major issues that given a lot of attention in most countries. Most countries have put various measures to curb the number of deaths caused by chronic illness. However, it is noticeable that most of these measures end up to be in effective. As a result, a lot of resources are wasted in the process of dealing with chronic diseases. What this means is that the economic status of the country is negatively affected. To be more precise, the money that is spent on chronic diseases can be put into more profitable use.

To summarize, a chronic illness is a disease that can last for an extended time and has no cure. chronic diseases have various impacts on the individual, the family and also the economic status of a country. Evidently, a person with a chronic illness experiences stress due to isolation by peers. Again, the family members are also impacted by the chronic illness. This can be illustrated by the financial burdens caused by the hospital bills. Lastly, the economic status of a nation may be affected too. The resources put in place to curb chronic diseases bear no fruits making the economy.