RESISTING MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY (RMM): AN EQUITABLE PUBLIC HEALTH

Abstract

Every citizen deserves a lengthy, healthy and successful life. Survival competence and successful ageing basically require (i) ability to counteract gravitational force through adequate muscle strength, flexibility and postural control (ii) healthy nutrition (iii) optimal respiratory efficiency at rest and during physical activity (iv) mental health and (v) supportive family. Lifespan of people is basically under the control of both individual and community participation. The burden for the individual after acquiring either communicable or non-communicable diseases is always unique, based on numerous variables like age, gender, socioeconomic status, occupation, lifestyle, severity of the disease, co-morbidities and access to legitimate health services. If the burden of the morbidity is not alleviated effectively, various crippling effects interweave and lead to irreversible loss of structures and functions, eventually deteriorating or destroying the competence to sustain an occupation or the level of independence. Mishaps, calamities and wars are also capable of exerting immediate effect to cause irreparable damages in the body (burns, spinal cord injuries, head injuries, fractures) forcing the sufferer to endure a troublesome life. Though harms to the body are unpredictable events, the extent at which every individual and the community as a whole are prepared with skills and technology to encounter them, controls the outcomes. Some disease states demand prolonged or lifelong health care that relies on affordability and family structure. On the other hand, completely costless health services are unrealistic and unsustainable to private sectors or private practitioners in the medical field, excluding sporadic exceptions where the health care is rendered on humanitarian basis. To certain extent, volunteers could provide different types of support using limited resources (few examples are walking aids, medicine supply, water supply, food supply, housing, blood donations, medical camps) to save or sustain life. But very often, many diseases require extensive interdisciplinary approach where multiple specialties are involved, so the total cost of the medical procedures (diagnosis and treatment) get elevated, due to which the deprived will be forced to limit or avoid or procrastinate treatments facilitating chances for the disease to mature incurably. The rehabilitation of patients is explicitly complicated but prevention of diseases looks less complicated if the public health model accentuates its focus on exercise, nutrition and health education to powerfully resist morbidities and premature mortalities through integrated efforts of health care professionals and all other overlapping domains. Based on substantial literature support, this article proposes a framework ‘SHARE’ to encourage necessary refinements to flourish the civilization as scrupulous as possible. It is also need of the hour for professionals of various disciplines to examine how their expertise could support this framework. KEY WORDS: Public Health, Life Expectancy, Salutogenesis, Mortality, Morbidity, Exercise, Nutrition, Epidemiology, Spiritual Intelligence, Population ageing.