Medicated Non-controlled Wholesomely Non-communicable chronic disease (NCD) Patients - A Costless Effective Outcome Under “Exercise is Medicine” Program

Abstract

Drug therapy has been largely unsuccessful in halting and reversing the NCDs epidemic. Lifestyle interventions have been recommended for patients with NCD since 2000 by the ACSM. The plethora of used drugs that essentially attempt to substitute for a healthy lifestyle has resulted in prohibitive cost. During the period of 2002–2006 the Brazilian government expenditure with drugs increased 123.9% and in spite of this it is unquestionable that the NCDs continued to increase in the country. PURPOSE: To identify the characteristics of the medicated non-controlled (MNC) patients regarding their capability of becoming involved in an “Exercise is Medicine”-like (LISC) program. METHODS: Baseline data from subjects over 35 yrs old participants of an ongoing dynamic cohort study were retrospectively collected (2004–2013). They were analyzed for their medication-controlled status in relation to the co-variables gender, age, income, schooling, self-health perception and physical activity (by IPAQ and OMS). RESULTS: From the total (n=1100), 73.8% were diagnosed as having one or more of the following pathologies: Blood Hypertension (BH), Hyperglycemia (HG) or Dyslipidemia (DL, with altered total cholesterol and/or triglycerides (TG) and/or HDL-c) with the frequency of 55.1% for hypercholesterolemia, 48.9% for low HDL-c, 42.3% for TG, 40.2% for BH and 18.7% for HG (7.8% T2D). From these 812 diagnosed patients, 20.5% were not medicated. Among the 79.5% medicated patients, 20.5% still have the disease (MNC). The MNC-BH were 28.8% of the medicated ones, the HG 6.83% and DL 5.57%. In general, the MNC patients were predominantly females (76.5%), under 60 years of age (60%), living in a married status (65.7%) on a lower income range (64.4%), without significant influence of schooling degrees. Mostly referred being in a good/excellent health status, and 56.8% presenting (were in) a weekly moderate- physical activity, accomplishing the WHO recommendations for being considered as physically active. CONCLUSION: The sample showing 3/4 NCDs (1/5 non-medicated and 16.3% MNC) and referring good fitness would be highly prone for LISC, not only by the Surgeon General Consents but also for money-saving reasons. The LISC program could be either associative or alternative to the ordinary drug therapy. Sup. by CNPq, CAPES, FUNDAP and FAPESP