Change in prevalence of chronic diseases over time

This graph shows how the number of people with a variety of chronic diseases has increased during the last 16 years although the numbers of patients in our practice has remained fairly stable.

The reasons for the increase could be

1. the population is older
2. detection of these diseases is getting better
3. people are getting less healthy
4. records of these diseases are more accurate

Probably the main cause is a combination of the first two reasons. The number of those with hypertension has appeared to change markedly since 1997, in fact this is due to better computer records.

A tendency for the British population to take less exercise and put on weight in recent times is another factor increasing some diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.

The treatment and monitoring of these conditions is becoming a larger part of our work as time goes on.