Interventions Health Risks
It's Time for a Change!
Health risk interventions refer to all efforts made to reduce your chances of getting sick. This involves both medical and non-medical approaches.
A non-pharmacological approach means that the intervention will not require a doctor’s prescription—only recommendations—but it involves a very substantial change known as lifestyle modification. A medication-based approach is necessary when lifestyle modifications for a particular condition fail to help you reduce your risk, or when a doctor’s assessment of your risk factors indicates that medication is also needed to address them—for example, if your blood pressure is above 150 over 90, you’ll need both lifestyle changes and antihypertensive medication.
When identifying risk factors, you’ll notice that there are different types of risk factors, all of which fall into two categories: modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. “Modifiable” means you can take steps to address the risk factor and reduce your chances of getting sick; conversely, if a risk factor is “non-modifiable,” there’s nothing you can do about it.
Lifestyle changes generally include:
1. Quit Smoking
2. Increasing physical activity
3. Lose weight if you are overweight or obese
4. Healthy Diet
5. Stress Management
6. Limit your alcohol intake
Modifiable risk factors include:
1. Smoking
2. High blood pressure
3. High Blood Sugar
4. Physical inactivity
5. Being overweight
6. High blood cholesterol.
7. History of sexual contact
8. Occupational exposure (exposure to specific agents that cause disease) and many more.
Non-modifiable risk factors include:
1. Age
2. Gender
3. Ethnic/Racial Background
4. Family history of certain diseases (heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, etc.)
5. Genetics, genetic mutations, or deficiencies
The older you get, the greater your risk of developing coronary heart disease or experiencing a cardiac event (angina, heart attack, or stroke)
Non-modifiable risk factors:
Age
The older you get, the greater your risk of developing coronary heart disease or experiencing a cardiac event (angina, heart attack, or stroke)
Gender
The incidence of cardiovascular disease is known to be higher in men than in women of the same age, and this gender difference is more pronounced at younger ages and is partly explained by the protective effects of sex hormones. On the other hand, female patients with coronary artery disease are reported to be more likely to have a worse cardiovascular risk factor profile.
Ethnic/Racial Background
South Asians living in the United Kingdom are twice as likely to develop coronary heart disease as the rest of the British population. Also, people of African-Caribbean descent have a higher-than-average risk of developing high blood pressure. But keep in mind that you can still minimize your risk as much as possible by managing your other risk factors.
Family History
Environmental risk factors encompass a wide range of topics, including social, economic, cultural, and political factors, as well as physical, chemical, and biological factors. Examples include:
• access to clean water and sanitation
• workplace risks: air pollution
• social structures.
Your own risk of developing coronary heart disease increases if: your father or brother has been diagnosed with the disease or has had a heart-related event before the age of 55, or your mother or sister has been diagnosed with the disease or has had a heart-related event before the age of 65. If you have a family history of heart disease, it may help reduce your own risk to identify the risk factors that affected your family members.
Genetics, Genetic Mutations, and Deficiencies
Genes can also contribute to other conditions, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Both of these conditions increase the risk of developing diseases such as coronary heart disease.
Health risk interventions sometimes involve treatment. For example:
1. Blood pressure medication
2. Lipid-lowering medications
3. Medications for obesity
4. Chemotherapy for breast cancer (high-risk)
Talk to your doctor about your health risk intervention plan and how to maintain your lifestyle changes.