Chronic noninfectious diseases and risk factors of their development
Taking into consideration the trend to manpower shortage observed in the past decades in the Russian Federation, the problem of health preservation and improvement remains very topical. The health of the population of the country influences not only the rates of mortality, life expectancy but also conditions the fertility and birth rates and, in the long run, determines the population size. The changing socio-demographic characteristics of manpower and a rapid ageing of the population lead to enhancement of the importance of the population health parameters, especially of the able-bodied population. At present, one of the biggest problems facing medicine and the public healthcare system is a growing number of chronic noninfectious diseases (CNID). Four major types of noninfectious diseases are singled out: cardiovascular diseases, oncological diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes. As is generally acknowledged at present, the wide spread of CNID, is mainly conditioned by lifestyle specificities and related risk factors. Lifestyle modification and a decrease of risk factor levels are capable of preventing or decelerating the development of disease both before and after the manifestation of clinical symptoms. The conception of risk factors is a scientific basis of prophylaxis of CNID: the underlying causes of these diseases are unknown, in most cases they have a multifactorial character. Taking into account the persistent high mortality due to noninfectious diseases and the limited time remaining for a target decrease of mortality, we need to take simultaneous action for informing the population about the risk factors of CNID, for early diagnosis and efficient treatment of patients.