More than half of Americans have at least one chronic disease, mental illness or problem with drugs or alcohol, according to a new study.
"The health of individuals in the U.S.A. is increasingly being defined by complexity and multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of two or more chronic medical conditions," said the study authors, Elizabeth Lee Reisinger Walker and Dr. Benjamin Druss.
They emphasized that people with multiple health issues need more access to care and better coordination among their health care providers.
The Emory University researchers examined public health records to find out what percentage of U.S. adults have chronic medical conditions, mental illness or substance abuse problems, and how many were also living in poverty.
Chronic medical conditions looked at in the study included asthma, cirrhosis, diabetes, heart disease, hepatitis, high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS, lung cancer, pancreatitis and stroke, according to the report.'
[For more of this story go to https://consumer.healthday.com...h-issues-716282.html]
Comments (0)