World Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Conference

Biography

Biography: Paolo Flocco

Abstract

Life expectancy has progressively increased in the industrial world, but in recent years another indicator has been being considered: Healthy life expectancy. The worrying fact is that this indicator is gradually decreasing. This leads to a number of societal challenges: Increased days off from work, increased expenditure on health care, increased consumption of drugs, increased per capita expenditure and increased risk of side effects. It is clear that the money spent on medicines has increased steadily over the last 25 years and NSAIDs play a major role in this. Please note that at least 15% of people taking NSAIDs exceed the maximum permissible dose and are at risk of serious side effects. Analyzing ISTAT statistics on Italian health, 39% of those interviewed had recourse to drugs in the last two days before the interviews. The overweight population is steadily increasing, including the pediatric age. The prevalence of diabetes, osteoporosis, chronic and autoimmune diseases is also increasing. Population is more sedentary. Unfortunately, this is a European trend. Parallel to worsen health condition, 16% of European employees feel stressed every day, according to data from a recent study by ADP, "The workforce view in Europe 2018". The situation becomes even worse if we consider female workers or workers in the health sector, reaching peaks of 20%. Could there be a correlation between these data? We believe so, because stress, physical, behavioral or psychic, produces inflammation, giving rise to possible symptoms, even structural. For this reason, we believe that it is useful to propose complementary approaches to intervention.