Disease Trends and the Delivery of Health Care Services

Disease Trends and the Delivery of Health Care Services

HCA/240

November 8, 2015

Carmen Griffis

Demographics and disease trends will influence health care delivery services in the future in many different ways. Not only will the current aging population affect the delivery of health care services because of its rapid growth, but also obesity. Obesity is one of the more serious problems facing our nation today, and will only get worse unless the implementation of programs to educate the public on the many health issues this condition can cause to prevent them from happening. Moreover, not only does the health care delivery system need to adapt in the future to provide quality care for the aging population and the many chronic health issues they will face along with affordable housing, but also obesity-related health issues as our nation faces these two serious problems.

In 2010, the age composition of the United States consisted of 60 percent of the population between the ages of 20 to 64 (Vincent & Velkoff, 2010). However, over the next 10 to 20 years the United States will experience an increase in the number of its older population because the baby boom generation started crossing into this category in January 2011 when the first baby boomers born in 1946 began reaching retirement age (Vincent & Velkoff, 2010). The Baby Boom generation consists of approximately 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 in the two decades following the end of World War II when there was a massive increase in not only the United States, but also the world's population (CDC, 2003). According to Jacobsen, Kent, Lee, & Mather (2011), in 2011, about 40 million people in the United States were ages 65 and older, and this number is expected to double to 89 million by the year 2050.

Some of the factors that support this trend are the changing demographics trends of our current population in regards to the configuration of age and gender. Jacobsen, Kent, Lee,...