The Effectiveness of Reducing Mortality Rates in the U.S.
Reducing the mortality rates in the U.S has been a main concern of the medical and health fraternity. As such, much effort, finance and even campaigns among others as such, have been utilized in order to promote the reduction of mortality rates through good health and medical care. In connection to this point, mortality rates have to do with the rate at which deaths occur or rather deaths are experienced in the U.S. Therefore, there have been many expenses that have been incurred in effort to reduce the rate at which children, mothers, men and women die in the U.S. Most of the strategies which have been used are medical interventions (Kovner, Knickman & Jonas, 2008).
In line with this point, environmental interventions, advances in clinical medicine, improvements in access to health care, improvements in nutrition, improvements in monitoring and surveillance of disease, increases in education levels, and improvements in standards of living have been adopted as strategies to ensure good health care and as such reduce mortality rate (Kovner, Knickman & Jonas, 2008). Even though this has been the case, expenditures on medical services are less effective in reducing mortality rates than are changes in lifestyle behavior. This is to suggest that although much has been done to reduce the mortality rates of the infants, mothers, men and women along with interventions being made to treat chronic diseases, there is still much that can be achieved if the U.S can address lifestyle behavior adopted by most of its citizens (Kovner, Knickman & Jonas, 2008).
Calculate the cost of essay
The biggest question is why does the U.S. continue to spend an increasing portion of its resources on medical care without realizing results in the decline of mortality rates? The answer lies in the fact that infant mortality rate is three times higher that which is in Japan, Sweden and Italy among other as such wealthy countries . This is to suggest that something must be wrong in the U.S. According to Shore & Shore (2009) “The under-five mortality rate in the U.S. is almost three times higher than that of Iceland and Sweden and double that of Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Japan Norway and Slovenia” (p.2).
Notably, the U.S is known as a leading nation in terms of fast food consumption. As well, it is one of the leading nations in terms of advancement in technology. In this line of deliberation, the U.S as a nation consumes much of its food as fast food which is a known cause for obesity and this is more prevalent among children (Shore & Shore, 2009).Statistics reveal that obesity is an epidemic sweeping children across the globe and more severely in the U.S. The U.S government should rather than spent so much on medication, address the lifestyle behavior which is assumed by many of its citizens. Though it has been fighting to reduce mortality rates, chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer still kill the citizens. Following this point, most of the population use unhealthy food, children take snacks and sugary foods. This has been noted as to be a main cause of obesity which in the long run lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases and other such like diseases which come along with being obese or overweight (Kovner, Knickman & Jonas, 2008).
Again in this context, the lifestyle behavior by most U.S population is sedentary due to increased and as such over-reliance on technology. Feeding unhealthily, taking snacks and generally fast food and then leading a life that revolves between the use of computer, watching TV, taking chocolates and generally spending time sitted without exercise, will automatically translate to diseases and complications which in turn leads to increased morality rates (Shore & Shore, 2009).
Therefore, the effectiveness of reducing mortality rates in the U.S. has not materialized and as such, the results of the effort to reduce mortality derail its efficacy. In this respect, the U.S. will continue to spend an increasing portion of its resources on medical care if the lifestyle behavior adopted by its citizens continues. However, this can be solved and even the medical care cost cut down if the population realizes the need to change its lifestyle behavior by avoiding high intake of fast food and avoidance of sedentary life. Altogether, the U.S needs to change the lifestyle behavior of its citizens and as such, there will be a realization of the effectiveness of reducing mortality rates in the U.S.