Mapping One Million COVID-19 Deaths and Unhealthy Lifestyle Behaviors in the United States: Recognizing the Syndemic Pattern and Taking Action.

Am J Med

Healthy Living for Pandemic Event Protection (HL - PIVOT) Network, Chicago, Ill; Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School-University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, La.

Published: November 2022

Tragically, the United States (US) surpassed one million documented deaths due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A convincing association between unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19 infection has already been demonstrated and communicated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in public health messaging. The US is experiencing not a pandemic, but a syndemic, specifically an unhealthy lifestyle behaviors-chronic diseases-COVID-19 syndemic. This syndemic has almost certainly significantly contributed to the more than one million deaths the United States has experienced during the pandemic. Decades of a high prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors laid the foundation for our current unfortunate situation by increasing vulnerability to a novel virus, especially among subgroups who have been historically marginalized. As such, a major pathway to defeating this syndemic is through the promotion of healthy living behaviors for all. Now is the time for action appropriate to meet the demands of a syndemic and a new path forward to a healthier and more equitable future.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9270235PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2022.06.006DOI Listing

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