US Public Health - Term Paper Example

US Public Health No doubt, in today’s competitive world more and more people are forced to live sedentary lifestyles. Some of them have chosen smoking as a way out from stress, work pressure. The result is quite evident, almost one third of the deaths in US are because of smoking, poor food habits, sedentary lifestyles and some more factors. However, people must understand their responsibilities towards their lives; everything can be done in another, more organized way. The essay provides an insight into the situation of US public heath and discusses the measures which should be taken by the US health department to get a way out of it.

Introduction Death is an unwanted but inevitable truth which will eventually afflict all living lives. However some habits of the human beings just accelerate this affliction. An awful fact in US is that the number of deaths caused because of the preventable causes is almost 40 % in a year. The most common preventable causes for death are hypertension, smoking tobacco, poor dietary habits, and irregular physical activities which gives a lot of other causes to gradually upset the human bodies (Danaei & et al., 2009). A sedentary lifestyle can cause anxiety, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, cardiovascular disease, colon cancers and some kind of other disorders (Community Health Improvement Partners, 2001).

Situations are getting worsened in US. The worry has come to a point where US public health department should start thinking about some preventive measures to reduce the staggering rate of deaths caused by these preventable causes. Measures to combat the factors those contribute to the preventable deaths Maximum number of preventable deaths is caused by the usage of tobacco. In a report, the number of deaths in US for this reason has gone up to 16.6 %, while 15. 1 % of the deaths took place because of poor diet and irregular physical activities (Department of Health, 2010).

Some 18 % of the deaths are caused by some other reasons including medical errors, alcohol consumption, unavailability of insurance etc. To reduce these causes, one of the most important activities, those must be done, is to improve the public awareness about these preventable causes. The US public heath department should spread the awareness through events, media. Even they can arrange some events in school and college campuses to let the future generation know about the awful results of these human activities.

Apart from all these the department must take some other measures to prevent and reduce the factors causing preventable deaths. The department should extend affordable and comprehensive health insurance to all the people. The insurance must ensured to cover all the possible health care including preventive care for the individuals (NRIOL.NET, 2007). Follow up care could be a preventive measure in this case; sending electronic reminders for regular check ups can strengthen the quality of care offered and hence are supposed to reduce the deaths.

Improving the medical infrastructures and enhancing the quality of service provided will be of great help to prevent the undesirable deaths because of some inane reasons (The Commonwealth Fund, 2008). Conclusion The US public health policy makers must systematize the health care system in approximation with the patients to ensure the care is accessible, affordable and properly coordinated. However, the results of these approaches will be merely noticeable if the people are not aware of their own health.

Awareness is the foremost factor which can eradicate the misery of preventable deaths from the human lives. Reference Community Health Improvement Partners. POOR NUTRITION & SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE: “The 21st Century Plague”. 2001. March 22, 2010. . Danaei G, Ding EL, Mozaffarian D, Taylor B, Rehm J, et al. The Preventable Causes of Death in the United States: Comparative Risk Assessment of Dietary, Lifestyle, and Metabolic Risk Factors. 2009. “Etiological effects of risk factors on disease-specific mortality”.

March 22, 2010. . NRIOL.NET. US Health Insurance. 2007. March 22, 2010. < http://www.nriol.net/us-health-insurance/>. The Commonwealth Fund. Reducing Preventable Deaths Through Improved Health System Performance. October 9, 2008. “A Need For High Performance”. March 22, 2010. . Department of Health. District Releases First Ever Preventable Causes of Death Report. February 23, 2010. “Top Preventable Causes of Death in the District of Columbia in 2007 and Percent of Overall Deaths”. March 22, 2010. .