B7 - Non-communicable diseases Flashcards
What is “health”?
The state of physical and mental well-being.
What are the two types of disease?
Communicable and non-communicable
What is a communicable disease?
A disease caused by a pathogen and can be spread
What is a non-communicable disease?
Any disease not caused by a pathogen, and can’t be spread between organisms, but can be inherited through genetics.
Give examples of how communicable and non-communicable diseases can interact
- Defects in the immune system mean that an individual is more likely to suffer from infectious (communicable) diseases.
- Viruses (communicable) living in cells can be the trigger for cancers (non-communicable)
- Immune reactions initially caused by a pathogen (communicable) can trigger allergies such as skin rashes and asthma (non-communicable)
- Severe physical ill health can lead to depression and other mental illness.
What other factors, other than pathogens, influence health?
- Diet
- Stress
- Life situations
What is epidemiology?
Studying the patterns of disease to determine risk factors
What is a risk factor?
A factor linked to an increased risk of disease
Give two general examples of a risk factor.
- The lifestyle of a person
2. Substances in the person’s body or environment
What is a correlation?
Where a change in one of two variables is reflected by a change in the other variable e.g increases in alcohol consumption = increase in incidence of breast cancer
What is a “causal mechanism”?
Where there is evidence from an investigation that links the risk factor to causing a particular disease.
What examples are there where a causal mechanism has been proven for some risk factors?
- The effects of diet, smoking and exercise on cardiovascular disease;
- Obesity as a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes;
- The effect of alcohol on the liver and brain function;
- Carcinogens, including ionising radiation, as risk factors in cancer;
- The effects of smoking and alcohol on unborn babies;
- The effect of smoking on lung disease and lung cancer
Most diseases are termed “multi-factorial”. What does this mean?
Multiple risk factors contributing to the person developing the disease
What is the human cost of non-communicable disease?
Tens of millions of people die from non-communicable diseases each year
What is the financial cost of non-communicable disease?
- Researching and treating non-communicable disease costs the NHS millions of pounds
- Families may have to move or adapt their homes if a family member gets ill
- People may have to give up work which effects
