2. What is chronic disease?
Chronic diseases are those that can only be controlled and not, at present, cured. Living with a chronic disease has a significant impact on a person's quality of life and on their family.
How common is chronic disease?
Arthritis, in some form, affects about 8.5 million people in the UK. This includes some 14,500 children.
Asthma is estimated to affect over 3.4 million people in the UK, including 1.5 million children (aged 2-15).
Back pain lasting more than a day was self-reported by forty percent of adults in 1998. Fifteen percent of back pain sufferers said they were in pain throughout the year, and approximately forty percent of back pain sufferers consulted a general practitioner for help.
Diabetes Mellitus prevalence estimates vary but there are thought to be in the region of 1.5 million doctor-diagnosed cases of diabetes in the UK.
Epilepsy is the most common serious neurological disorder affecting more than 420,000 people, or one in 130 of the UK population. Epilepsy can affect people at any age and from any walk of life.
Heart failure prevalence in the UK, based on morbidity studies in general practice, has been estimated to affect about half a million people.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system. It is estimated to affect between 80-90,000 people in the UK. It usually strikes people when they are young adults.
