Worldwide, chronic diseases have become the major cause of death and disease burden in almost all countries. It has become a threat to livelihood, health and economic prowess. A chronic disease is defined as a condition that lasts for a year or more and requires ongoing medical attention or a limiting to daily living or both, examples include heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.
Diagnosis is the identifying of the nature or cause of an illness via screening and diagnostic tools performed in health care facilities by professionals such as doctors, pathologists, laboratory scientists, nurses, etc. It is the foundational factor in the practice of medicine that identifies the disease at their early stages after or even before the symptoms become apparent providing a plan of treatment and prognosis. Various benefits arise concerning early diagnosis;
Timely and Practical Information
Early diagnosis provides the individual and the family vital information about the ailment. Information about what it is, where they can find help, options available for possible treatment or therapies and even advice on how to adjust their lifestyles. Getting this information offers the individual ample time for acceptance and preparation, improving their mental state too.
Absolves Any Uncertainty
Uncertainty of living with symptoms that are not definite of their cause levies stress and worried concern to the individual, family and friends because of the lack of clarity to the cause of the problem. Symptoms such as memory loss, change of personality can be so destructive to the point of destroying relationships. Early diagnosis will also give the concerned some level of control in the matter.
Prioritizing Health
Early diagnosis will identify a disease condition before the actual symptoms begin showing. This is the golden reason as to why there should be continual screening. Diseases that progress without any symptomatology continue causing damage that may eventually be irreversible if not identified early. If diagnosed early, the individual is able to employ lifestyle changes that help in halting the progression of the disease like controlling blood pressure, nutrition, stopping smoking, exercising, etc.
Reducing Healthcare Costs
Chronic diseases require substantial financial commitments. Early diagnosis helps the individual save money with less necessary treatments that are emotionally and physically taxing. An example is how dialysis and kidney transplant costs fair in relation to diabetes and hypertension control costs. Early diagnosis helps reduce this financial burden to both the individual and the healthcare systems.
Saving Lives
As much as chronic diseases are generally prolonged in the life of the individual, there are other conditions that can be rescued with early diagnosis if they are detected before they become untreatable. Two of such diseases include breast cancer and bowel cancer that can be detected early using mammography and colonoscopy respectively and thereby get treated.
Others
- Avoiding of complications that are associated with the disease.
- Improving outcomes of the diagnosis.
- Lessening the symptoms.
- Helping the individual, family and friends plan for the inevitable e.g. writing wills.
- Identify possible treatments and therapies.
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