Why wait until you feel bad?: Preventive health, another big challenge for the new government | Opinion

Medical Director Pulso Peru

Over the past few days, expectations have increased about the new government and the great challenges it must face. Undoubtedly, the authorities bear a heavy responsibility to continue to control pandemic, and improve the vaccination process against COVID-19. However, there are also other challenges he must address health sector. One of the most urgent demands, to which more attention and resources should be given, is the promotion of preventive health, in order to stem the rise of chronic diseases.

The increase in these diseases is due to the practice of unhealthy lifestyles, which mostly consist of those that increase the main risk factors: smoking, lack of physical activity, unbalanced diets, sleep, high levels of stress, alcohol consumption, and air pollution.

It is estimated that at least 7% of the population in the country suffers from diabetes, that is, more than two million Peruvians; Cancer, the second cause of death in Peru, affects about 70,000 people annually. In the case of cardiovascular diseases, which are one of the main causes of disability and premature death, the mortality rate is 28.77%.

Along these lines, another great challenge is to educate the whole population, i.e. directly intervene in the culture of societies, to publicize the importance of prevention. In this way, it is possible to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases that generate significant spending for the state, which in turn translates into easing the overcrowding of health centers, which is very necessary at the moment.

It is no secret that there is still much work to be done in the cultural change of the population with regard to preventive health. However, this is not the responsibility of the new health authorities alone, it requires the intervention of different actors, such as the private sector, which has an important role in contributing to reducing the gaps and inequalities that impede access to health services. Information.

At Pulso Salud, a Peruvian company with more than 10 years of preventive health promotion in Peru, we are committed to contributing to the transformation of the health system from curative to preventive, making timely diagnosis available, support programs, promotion and prevention campaigns, research and the latest technology being modified According to the needs of each patient which enables highly preventable diseases to be controlled.

How do we contribute? Primarily, through educational programs and campaigns, it is possible to demonstrate that if we promote healthy habits and lifestyles from an early age, we will have a better quality of life, lower expenditures on curative medicine and a free and healthy choice for the future of our health. Likewise, making tools available to the population for disease prevention, such as good diagnostic analysis.

In this sense, there is a great opportunity to promote this change in the youth cohort, with information on the benefits and advantages of a healthy physical and mental life, with appropriate habits such as following a healthy diet, exercising regularly, maintaining adequate sleep hours, managing stress and performing preventive tests on a regular basis. Really a new way to live.

In this way, a positive impact can be made, not only on people’s health, but also on the health system, through savings for the state. According to a recent report by World Health Organization (WHO)In Peru, with effective non-communicable disease prevention programs in place, more than 183,000 deaths could be avoided and more than 35 million soles could be saved in direct treatment costs and productivity losses related to these diseases, in the next 15 years.