Question

Discuss how societal changes in specific dimensions of living (such as exercise, smoking, drinking, diet, understanding and coping adaptively with stress) have impacted the ten leading causes of death in the past 50 years. Describe risk and protective factors including the more recent domains of men's health and women's health – and how these affect specific areas of wellness and illness.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary. Also, I have derived the data from the WHO fact sheet.

(Answer) Patterns of death are generally divided into different charts for men and women, low, middle and high-income groups. This is done to point out any specific cause of a disease that is brought about by lifestyle, hormones, genetic factors etc.

It is alarming that on the top of every group’s list is heart-disease and respiratory illnesses. In the middle of the list are diseases like Aids, liver issues, diabetes and cancer towards the bottom of the top 10 list. In this case, the domain for men’s and women’s health are similar because they are both exposed to similar conditions.

A notable observance is that the afflictions that are at the top of the list are caused by poor diet, breathing issues and above all by “stress.” Other data might even point out that stress-related illness has had a certain bout through the recent economic crisis. Lifestyle markers like unemployment tensions, strenuous jobs, medical expenses, education cost and other stressors are simply building up the pressure on the cardiac and pulmonary systems.

Furthermore, activities like exercise, smoking, stimulants and diet also play a major role in these conditions. The rise in popularity of fast food chains and processed foods has caused us to have a higher intake of preservatives, chemicals and artificial elements. This outweighs the consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats.

Since food with labels are more common than fresh fruits and economic pressures are common, stress-related illnesses are at the top of the lists of recent afflictions.