Risk Factors for Non-Communicable Diseases

Question 1

What is a risk factor?

Answer 1

Things that are linked to an increase in the likelihood that a person will develop a certain disease during their lifetime. They don’t guarantee that someone will get the disease.

Question 2

What affects the risk factors for a person?

Answer 2

Their lifestyle. The presence of certain substances in the environment or substances in their body.

Question 3

What are many non-communicable diseases caused by?

Answer 3

Several different risk factors interacting with each other rather than one factor alone.

Question 4

How do lifestyle factors have different impacts locally, nationally and globally?

Answer 4

1. In developed countries, non-communicable diseases are more common as people generally have a higher income and can buy high-fat food. 2. Nationally, people from deprived areas are more likely to smoke, have a poor diet and not exercise. This means the incidence of cardiovascular disease, obesity and Type 2 diabetes is higher in those areas. 3. Your individual choices affect the local incidence of disease.

Question 5

Give some examples of how some risk factors are able to directly cause disease.

Answer 5

1. Smoking can cause cardiovascular disease, lung disease and lung cancer. It damages the walls of the arteries and the cells in the lining of the lungs.
2. Obesity can directly cause Type 2 diabetes by making the body less sensitive or resistant to insulin, meaning that it struggles to control the concentration of glucose in the blood.
3. Drinking too much alcohol can cause liver disease, as well as affecting brain function. It can damage the never cells in the brain, causing the brain to lose volume.
4. Smoking when pregnant can cause lots of health problems for the unborn baby. Drinking alcohol has similar effects.
5. Cancer can be directly caused by exposure to certain substances or radiation. Things that cause cancer are known as carcinogens. Ionising radiation is an example of a carcinogen.

Question 6

Give an example of a risk factor that isn’t capable of directly causing a disease.

Answer 6

A lack of exercise and a high-fat diet and cardiovascular disease (they are heavily linked to an increased chance of the disease, but they can’t cause it directly). It’s the resulting high blood pressure and high ‘bad’ cholesterol levels that can actually cause it.

Question 7

What is the human cost of non-communicable diseases?

Answer 7

1. Tens of millions of people die from non-communicable diseases per year. 2. People with these diseases may have a lower quality of life or a shorter lifespan, which affects the sufferer and their loved ones too.

Question 8

What is important about the financial cost in relation to non-communicable diseases?

Answer 8

1. The cost to the NHS of researching and treating these diseases is huge - and it’s the same for other health services and organisations around the world. 2. Families may have to move or adapt their home to help a family member with a disease, which can be costly. 3. a) Also, if the family member with the disease has to give up work or dies, the family’s income will be reduced. b) A reduction in the number of people able to work can also affect a country’s economy.