7 diseases take a costly toll on Utahns

Utah is one of the best states when it comes to chronic diseases, but the economic burden of seven different conditions still drains $8.3 billion from the state's economy.

That includes $1.5 billion for treatment expenditures and $6.8 billion in lost productivity.

The solution lies in prevention and living healthier, according to "An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Diseases." Released by the Milken Institute Tuesday, the report compares the states in terms of seven chronic diseases — cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental disorders and pulmonary conditions. It looks, too, at the economic impact in terms of lost workdays and lower productivity in the workplace.

In a telephone press conference outlining the findings, former U.S. Surgeon Gen. Dr. Richard H. Carmona, now chairman of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, called the economic burden "staggering." Steps taken to prevent chronic disease are actually an investment, he said.

Nationally, the annual economic impact tops $1 trillion and is predicted to reach nearly $6 trillion by mid-century. But many conditions can be prevented with increased effort to curb smoking, obesity and other problems, the report says.

The chronic disease counts are from 2003, and Utah figures show that 3.1 percent of the population has cancer, while 3.5 percent has diabetes. Heart disease affects 3.6 percent of Utah's population, while 8.5 percent have hypertension. Some type of mental disorder affects 13.2 percent, pulmonary conditions 13.6 percent, and 0.5 percent have stroke.

Those percentages are the noninstitutionalized population and only count diagnosed cases, the report says.

The report also makes clear that not all cases are avoidable by "making reasonable improvements and managing chronic diseases." But for Utah alone, 279,000 cases of chronic conditions predicted for 2023 could be avoided. And future economic costs predicted for 2023 could be reduced by 26 percent, or $7.9 billion.

The full report is online at www.milkeninstitute.org. State-level data is online at www.chronicdiseaseimpact.com.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com