“As a nation, 75% of our health care dollars goes to treatment of chronic diseases. These persistent conditions—the nation’s leading causes of death and disability—leave in their wake deaths that could have been prevented, lifelong disability, compromised quality of life, and burgeoning health care costs.” –Center for Disease Control 2013

Health promotion seeks to promote individual and community health. The purpose of health promotion programs is to positively influence healthy lifestyles and prevent disease. Health promotion programs apply social and behavioral science theories to develop lifestyle modification strategies to improve health behavior, knowledge, skills, and attitude.

Self-managed care is a patient-oriented healthcare delivery process. The patient’s needs, values, beliefs, and priorities are the motivating force for clinical decisions. Self-management education programs focus on improving patient capacity and skills to self-manage and reduce the impact of the disease. Core patient skills developed in self-management education programs are: problem solving, decision-making, resource utilization, patient-provider relationship, and establishing a plan of action. Additionally, participants are educated about their disease and treatment options, how to navigate the healthcare system.

Research demonstrates that lifetime participation in low impact, moderate intensity physical activity is important to successfully manage osteoarthritis. The risk for functional disability, inability to perform activities of daily life, and a decline in quality of life is great for persons suffering with osteoarthritis. Physical activity has been proven to decrease functional disability and to improve health quality of life. Physical activity is an effective non-evasive and non-pharmacologic treatment for osteoarthritis of the hip and knee.

Diabetes
Cardiopulmonary Disease
Osteoporosis