Abstract

SANTOS, Ana Cristina. Changing epidemics. Arq Med [online]. 2006, vol.20, n.3, pp.75-77. ISSN 2183-2447.

The world is now facing a global change in the patterns of disease. Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease are fasting replacing the traditional epidemics. These changes are affecting mainly developing countries, but its impact is fully observed in the developed world. Cardiovascular diseases are a main cause of death among Portuguese adults, and changes in the prevalence of modifiable risk factors such as obesity or tobacco consumption, could lead to important changes in the morbidity and mortality of such diseases. However, national estimates indicate that obesity and tobacco consumption are the two most common modifiable risk factors in our population and unfortunately their prevalence estimates are not expected to decrease in the next years.

Keywords : tobacco; obesity; epidemics.

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