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 Cardiovascular Disease 

Cardiovascular disease refers to a disease of the heart and blood vessels. Conditions and diseases associated with heart disease include: stoke, coronary heart disease, congenital heart disease, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, and cardiomyopathy. Cardiovascular disease is known as the world’s biggest killer. 17.5 million people die from it each year, which equals 31% of all deaths. Heart disease and stroke cause 80% of these deaths.

 Prevalence of Heart Disease in Countries of Affluence 

In the United States, 610,000 people die every year from heart disease which is equal to 1 in 4 deaths. The leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States is heart disease. In Canada, heart disease is the second leading cause of death. In 2014, it was the cause of death for 51,000 people. In Australia, heart disease is also the leading cause of death. 29% of deaths in 2015, had an underlying cause of heart disease. Heart disease causes one in four premature deaths in the United Kingdom and in 2015 heart disease caused 26% of all deaths in that country.

 Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease 

High blood pressure if the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has contributed to 12% of the cardiovascular related deaths worldwide. Other significant risk factors for heart disease include high cholesterol and smoking. 47% of all Americans have one of these three risk factors. Lifestyle choices, such as poor diet and physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol use can also contribute to cardiovascular disease. Medical conditions, like Diabetes and obesity can also be risk factors.

 Public Awareness and Prevention 

In the past few years, there have been several worldwide public awareness campaigns related to cardiovascular disease by the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2013, the World Health Organization’s annual World Health Day’s focus was on monitoring high blood pressure to raise public awareness. Another WHO initiative in 2016, lead to public awareness for reducing salt intake. In recent years, the United Kingdom has made efforts to increase public knowledge on such things as heart health and nutrition through various educational tools. In the United States, the Center for Disease control currently has a national public awareness campaign, entitled Million Hearts®. This campaign's goal focuses on preventing one million heart attack, strokes and events related to cardiovascular disease by 2020 through actions in the public health community and health care systems.

 Cardiovascular Disease as a Disease of Affluence 

In Canada, a developed country of affluence, people of lower Socio-economic status are more likely to have cardiovascular disease than those who have a higher socio-economic status. This inequality gap has occurred in developed countries because people who have a lower socio-economic status often face many of the risk factors of tobacco and alcohol use, obesity as well as having a sedentary lifestyle. Further social and environmental factors such as poverty, pollution, family history, housing and employment contribute to this inequality gap and to risk of having a health condition caused by cardiovascular disease. The increasing inequality gap between the higher and lower income populations continues in countries such as Canada, despite the availability of health care for everyone.

Chronic Respiratory Diseases
Chronic airway diseases are diseases of the airway and other structures of the lung. Chronic airway disease includes non-communicable diseases such as asthma, pulmonary hypertension, chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD) and occupational lung diseases.

 Prevalence of Chronic Airway Diseases 

COPD kills 3 million people a year all over the world, which is 6% of death’s worldwide. COPD is primary caused from smoking tobacco as well as indoor and outdoor air pollution. Higher smoking rates and an aging population in many countries will likely cause COPD to increase in the coming years. Asthma is a chronic disease of the air passages of the lungs in which they become narrowed and inflamed. 235 million people around the world suffer from asthma and it is a common disease among children. In the United States, the CDC found in 2016 that 18.7 million adults had asthma and 7 million children.

In developed countries, such as the United States, a disease like asthma impacts the less affluent primarily. Within the United States, the CDC reported that in 2016 African-American and Multi-race adults were more likely to have asthma than Caucasian adults. In addition, African-American children are more twice as likely to have asthma than white Caucasian children. Educational level also is a factor in the prevalence as asthma as adults without a high school diploma were more likely to have asthma than adults who have a high school diploma or a college degree. Furthermore, adults with an income of $75,000 or less are more likely to have an asthma diagnosed than adults with higher incomes. Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States also have challenges affording their asthma treatment. 1 in 4 African-American-adults cannot afford their asthma medication and 1 in 5 Hispanic adults also cannot afford this medication.

 Risk Factors for Chronic Airway Diseases 

Air pollution, tobacco smoke, frequent lower respiratory infections, pulmonary hypertension, and exposure to dust and chemicals can cause chronic airway diseases. Specific risk factors for asthma include smoking and obesity.

 Public awareness and the prevention of chronic airway disease 

The WHO has established a Chronic Respiratory Diseases Programme that focuses on mapping the magnitude of these diseases to analyze their causes. There are also numerous primary prevention efforts by WHO to reduce common risk factors, such ask tobacco, air pollution, poor nutrition and frequent lower respiratory infections in children. MPOWER is a WHO global imitative to help countries reduce demand for tobacco by methods such as increasing taxes on tobacco products. In 2012 Australia started using plain packaging for all tobacco products as way to reduce the product’s attractiveness. France and the United Kingdom also legalized plane packaging in 2017 and a number of countries have legislative efforts towards this change.

In the United States, the American Lung Association has advocacy efforts in several areas including having a smoke free work place, having laws that prohibit the purchase of tobacco products under 21 years old, as well as having smoking cessation efforts covered by employer based insurance plans. The American Lung Association also has a public awareness campaign for people who have smoked in the past to have a scan to detect for the early stages of lung cancer.

Prevalence of Mental Illness
One in four people have experienced mental illness at one time in their lives and approximately 450 millions people in the world currently have a mental illness. India, China, and the United States are the countries with the highest levels of mental illnesses of anxiety, depression and schizophrenia according to WHO. The US is reported to have the highest level of depression worldwide. In the U.S., approximately one in five adults has a mental illness or 44.7 million people. In 2016, it was estimated that 268 million people in the world had depression. The range of people that have depression by country is from 2% to 6% of the population with the United States, Greenland, and Australia having higher rates of depression. Anxiety Disorders, such as generalized anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder impacted 275 people around the world in 2016. The range of population impacted by anxiety disorders globally is from 2.5 %-6.5%. Countries, such as the Australia, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Iran, the United States and a number of countries in Western Europe appear to have a higher prevalence of anxiety.

Mental Illness as a Disease of Affluence
People that face poverty have more risks related to having a mental illness and also do not have as much access to treatment. The stressful events that they face, unsafe living condition and poor physical health lead to cycle of poverty and mental illness that is seen all over the world. According to the World Health Organization 76%-85% of people living in lower and middle income countries are not treated for their mental illness. For those in higher-income counties, 35%-50% of people with meal illness do not receive treatment. It's estimated that 90% of deaths by suicide are caused by substance use disorders and mental illness in higher income countries. In lower to middle income countries, this number is lower.

Allergy/Autoimmune Diseases
The rate of allergies around the world has risen in industrialized nations over the past 50 years. A number of public health measures, such as improved vaccinations, sterilized milk, use of antibiotics and improved food production have contributed to a decrease in infections in developed countries. There is a causal relationship, known as the "hygiene hypothesis" that indicates that there are more autoimmune disorders and allergies in developed countries with less infections. Evidence shows that countries that have decreased infections, have seen increases in allergies and autoimmune diseases. There is also a hypothesis that lack of vitamin D may be a contributing factor to an increase in allergies as countries further from the equator have higher rates of allergies. In developing countries, it is assumed that the rates of allergies are lower than developed countries. Yet, that assumption may not be accurate due to the limited data on prevalence. Research has found an increase in asthma by 10% in countries such as Peru, Costa Rica, and Brazil.

In the United States, it is estimated but the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) that 50 million people have an auto-immune disease and that this number is increase. It is believed the the increase is due to genetic predisposition and environmental factors.