HomeInnovationHealthy longevity

Description

This strategy is conceived as the set of integrated actions that when applied in a preparatory and proactive manner to the adult and the elderly will favor their survival and harmonious development and will improve their quality of life.

The high prevalence of chronic diseases is relatively recent and this change has been attributed to different factors such as:

1. Demographic changes where life expectancy has been prolonged (in average, 75 years of age) and around two thirds of the population over the age of 20.
   
   
2. Lifestyle changes that incorporate smoking habits, excess alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle and improper diet, which in turn leads to overweight, obesity, glucose disorders, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Chronic diseases are predominant in the most vulnerable sectors of the population and this situation makes prevention and treatment work much more difficult. The elderly, people with scarce socioeconomic resources and ill patients or disabled individuals, whether mentally, physically or intellectually, are among the most vulnerable groups.

The population with chronic diseases has higher need for health services and medicines, which increases health care costs.

Obesity is a serious public health problem since it represents the primary risk factor for the development of some of the most frequent chronic and degenerative diseases in Mexico, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, cancer, auto-immune diseases and cardiovascular diseases, all of which occupy the first places in general mortality. Thus while only 13.9% of normal-weight individuals have high blood pressure, for instance, 47% of the obese population has the disease.

Overweight and obesity have taken by surprise not only Mexico but the whole world and they are the result of a rapid nutritional, structural, cultural and educational transition, and an aftermath of urbanization, resource availability, lifestyles and lack of self-care. This phenomenon is confirmed by studies that show an imbalance between daily caloric intake and expenditure, which is characterized in part by a 37% increase in soft drink consumption in an 8 year period and a 29% reduction of fruit and vegetable intake in the same time span. Likewise, only 21% of high-risk and 9.2% of low-risk individuals practices some kind of physical activity.

The foregoing means that there is a growing prevalence of risk behaviors, like sedentary lifestyle, smoking, malnourishment and high alcohol consumption for example, which favor the development of non-communicable diseases that dominate the Mexican population health profile, particularly diabetes.

Other problems associated with aging and new lifestyles are ischemic heart diseases -only exceeded by diabetes- that caused more than 50 thousand deaths in 2005, 80% in persons over 60 years of age.

Cardiovascular diseases are accountable for 30% of all the deaths worldwide. Expenses resulting from cardiovascular diseases occupy between 2 and 3% of the health services total expenditure. Therefore, the planning of prevention expenses should always take into consideration the costs derived from treatment and complications of cardiovascular diseases.

Strategy objectives

• Anticipate and tackle the great challenges that non-communicable chronic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure among others, pose on the adult population.
• Develop a person-centered health care model based on lifestyle changes, health care networks and support to families, technologic and pharmacologic innovations and personal welfare-oriented humane treatment.
• Establish regional care-focused innovation and excellence centers.