Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Jan 1996
Can risk factor modification reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in minority populations?
It appears that landmark epidemiological studies have shown that certain conditions and/or environmental factors to increased risk for developing certain diseases, in this instance cardiovascular diseases. These conditions have been labeled risk factors, so it appears that many of the variables, i.e., risk factors, which lead to diseases have been identified. Since many of them are alterable, they could be altered in a favorable direction. ⋯ Senators and other government agents should strongly encourage people to employ techniques to reduce risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, i.e., insurance companies should pay for training, educational sessions, and participation in activities/programs which are aimed at informing or instructing the public on how to reduce risk factors. This would be a preventive approach for medical conditions and would be much better than waiting until conditions requiring pharmacological or surgical intervention develop. The health care reform bill should have a built-in component to promote techniques and methodologies to reduce the probability of developing medical conditions.