Chronic Diseases

Biography

Biography: Leire Ambrosio

Abstract

Incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases have suffered a significant increase in today's society, due to demographic changes occurring in the population structure in the 20th century in all over the world. According to the official report established by the World Health Organization, in depth understanding of how the person lives with a chronic illness is paramount to provide holistic and quality care, according to the specific demands of each person. In this respect, the use of clinical instruments that allow to asses and gain knowledge on the process of living with a chronic illness, from the patient's perspective, is strongly advocated. At present, the Living with Chronic Illness Scale (EC-PC, from Escala de Convivenca con un Proceso Crónico) is the only measurement tool that evaluates how the patient is living with a chronic illness from a holistic perspective. The EC-PC is an innovative clinical measure that evaluates the degree of living with a chronic illness form the patient perspective. The EC-PC is been validated  in a population with different, prototypical and high prevalence chronic illnesses in nowadays society such as, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, chronic heart failure, COPD, osteoarthritis or arterial hypertension. This will allow concluding whether the EC-PC is a valid and reliable scale to measure the degree of living with a chronic illness, and consequently, to be used in clinical setting. In this way, health and social care professionals will be able to design individualized interventions, according to the specific needs of each person.