An empirical investigation of chronic diseases: A visualization approach to Medicare in the United States

Variables Impacting the Quality of Life of Dementia Caregivers: A Data Visualization Analysis

PURPOSE

Visually explore the rates of and relationships between overall physical and mental health, sleep disturbances, and depression rates in a single sample of caregivers of persons with dementia, caregivers of persons with other chronic illness, and non-caregiving adults.

DESIGN

Exploratory descriptive study utilizing data visualization methods.

METHODS

Data were analyzed from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System dataset. Multiple graphs and charts were developed to visualize data between groups. Descriptive statistics analyzed the rates of variables of interest across the three groups. One-way analysis of variance assessed relationships between variables.

RESULTS

Caregivers of persons with dementia and of other chronic illnesses reported poorer health outcomes as compared to non-caregiving adults. However, caregivers of persons with other chronic illnesses reported the worst outcomes of all groups. Depression and sleep disturbances were prevalent in all three groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The quality of life of caregivers of persons with dementia and chronic illness is impacted by poorer health outcomes, specifically mental health and sleep.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Findings support the need for caregiver-specific interventions that target overall physical and mental health, depression, and sleep disturbances. However, we also found support for mental health and sleep interventions for all individuals.

Implications of human activities for (re)emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19

Since 1980, the world has been threatened by different waves of emerging disease epidemics. In the twenty-first century, these diseases have become an increasing global concern because of their health and economic impacts in both developed and resource-constrained countries. It is difficult to stop the occurrence of new pathogens in the future due to the interconnection among humans, animals, and the environment. However, it is possible to face a new disease or to reduce the risk of its spread by implementing better early warning systems and effective disease control and prevention, e.g., effective global surveillance, development of technology for better diagnostics, effective treatments, and vaccines, the global political will to respond to any threats and multidisciplinary collaboration involving all sectors in charge of good health maintenance. In this review, we generally describe some factors related to human activities and show how they can play a role in the transmission and spread of infectious diseases by using some diseases as examples. Additionally, we describe and discuss major factors that are facilitating the spread of the new pandemic known as COVID-19 worldwide.