Do any of the following phrases sound familiar: “It’s nothing to worry yourself sick over,” “I was sick with worry,” or “Don’t stress yourself out”?
These are not just warnings or expressions about too much negative mental activity. What does it mean to worry to the point of sickness? What does it look like to stress yourself out? For you, it could be a bout with insomnia. For someone else, too much worry could result in an upset stomach. Yet for another, excessive stress for a long period of time could contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease.
The type of illness that results from too much stress depends on a variety of factors. Your age, gender, ethnic heritage, culture, and even geographical location all influence your response to developing stress-related illnesses. Some populations are more vulnerable to the effects of stress, just as some populations are more susceptible to certain diseases. Population-based health care focuses on assessing health needs, planning culturally sensitive prevention and intervention programs, and improving public health.
In this context, populations are groups of people defined by a common condition that perhaps need focused health education, prevention programs, or treatment. The following are some examples of populations:
- Pregnant women
- Military personnel returning from war
- Those with low socioeconomic status
- Those experiencing discrimination
- Refugees
- Those with asthma
- The elderly
- Those experiencing significant loss
- Illegal immigrants
- Those with cardiovascular disease
- Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse
- Victims of crime
- Those with serious mental illness
Whether it is poverty, grief, or discrimination, the variety of stressors that members of these populations might encounter does not vanish overnight. As a result, the persistence of stress can contribute to long-lasting illness or chronic disease, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and arthritis. Seventy percent of all deaths in the United States are due to chronic disease. Fifty percent of Americans have at least one chronic disease. Chronic diseases are the most common and expensive diseases facing the world and since most chronic diseases have modifiable risk factors, most are preventable. The most common modifiable risks are poor diet, lack of exercise, and tobacco, alcohol, or drug use.
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