1) What is the biomedical description of the public health issue? If the issue is not biomedical, describe how the issue is related to public health

Heart Disease

1. What is the biomedical description of the public health issue? If the issue is not biomedical, describe how the issue is related to public health.

Heart disease is any range of complications that occur to the heart. The major forms of heart disease include coronary artery, atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, congenital heart defects, heart valve disease, cardiomyopathy, heart infection, and many others (Thomas, 2020). Heart disease could manifest in the form of shortness of breath, pain in the upper abdomen, body weakness, chest pains, numbness and pain in the hands and legs, irregular heartbeat, as well as back pain. Heart disease can be caused by lack of exercising, birth defects, smoking, diabetes, drug abuse, excessive alcohol, high blood pressure, as well as some over the counter medication (Thomas, 2020). Heart disease is a major concern in public health because around 655,000 Americans die due to heart disease each year (CDC, 2020).

2. How does this issue impact an individual's quality of life? How does it impact communities? If issue is not biomedical, how does it impact the health of a community or population?

Heart disease has negative impacts on an individual’s quality of life because it is associated with fatigue and general body weakness, fainting, swollen feet and ankles, chest pain, fever, and dizziness (Thomas, 2020). Occurrence of these signs and symptoms renders individuals unproductive because one lacks energy and resilience to work for long hours. Extreme cases of signs and symptoms might also restrain a patient on bed rest. Patients restrained on bed rest due to heart disease will ultimately require assistance, care, and observation most of the time. This affects the society by increasing the number of dependents and reducing productivity (Thomas, 2020). It definitely impacts the economy since it reduces productivity. The high cost of treatment is also another negative impact of heart disease in the society.

3. How many people are diagnosed with this health issue every year? If not biomedical, how many people are impacted by the issue every year?

From the statistics posted by CDC (2019), about 12% of Americans have heart disease each year. This translates to about 30.3 -39 million adults, whereas at least 655,000 others die each year (CDC, 2020).

4. Estimated costs for this public health issue including the cost of medical care, lost productivity, etc.?

The estimated cost of heart disease per year in the US is $219 billion (CDC, 2020). This is according to 2014 to 2015 statistics. In addition, heart disease costs the US many other billions annually due to lost productivity.