Underrepresented: Chronic Diseases in Switzerland
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When we think of being sick today, we probably imagine a temporary state of emergency. We stay at home for a few days, maybe go to the doctor once or, if things get serious, to the emergency room. For many people, however, it doesn't stop at that one trip to the emergency room: the symptoms remain or even worsen and further medical assessments and interventions follow. A process begins, a journey. The acute becomes a constant in life.
According to the last Swiss Health Survey 2022, 37% of the Swiss population had at least one non-communicable or chronic disease, or NCD for short (Noncommunicable Disease). This corresponds to 2.7 million people aged 15 and over in Switzerland [1]. This number is made up of a limited selection of diseases from the 5 most important groups of chronic diseases in Switzerland:
- cardiovascular diseases
- diseases of the musculoskeletal system (muscles, bones and joints)
- Chronic respiratory diseases
- Cancer
- diabetes
Chronic illnesses can limit a person's ability to carry out everyday activities, sometimes to a greater or lesser extent, and can lead to a lower or altered quality of life overall. This is also shown by the information provided by respondents to the Swiss Health Survey 2022. The situation of people with depression is particularly striking: compared to the 5 other groups surveyed, people with depression are more likely than average to report being severely limited in their everyday activities, receiving less social support, and more often rating their quality of life as low.
The 2.7 million does not include people with depression. According to the health survey, depression affects 9.8% of the population and is often recurrent and chronic [2]. An important reason for this difference is that people with illness or disabilities, especially those with an illness or disability that is not visible to others, are often stigmatized and not taken seriously. Those affected have to justify again and again why they are not "function" as others expect of them. This leads to social exclusion and a great deal of psychological stress, which in turn has a further negative impact on health [3]. Especially in the case of NCDs, the number of people whose disease is invisible to others is very high.
NCDs have very different causes; they are influenced by a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors [4]. In many cases, the exact cause of an illness cannot even be identified. What chronic illnesses have in common, however, is that they challenge us to redesign our lives and our identities - often accompanied by pain and uncertainty. But this change also offers the opportunity to question priorities, discover new paths and shape our relationship with ourselves and our social environment more consciously.
As the writer Paula Fürstenberg writes in her contribution to the publication accompanying the exhibition "The main thing is health" [5] writes in the Stapferhaus, promoting the health and well-being of people with illness and disabilities requires much more than better research and therapies: it requires a profound change in society. People with illness and disabilities are a central part of our society.
If we continue to understand illness primarily as a temporary state of emergency, we will not do justice to the reality of life, the needs and the right to participation of people with chronic illnesses or disabilities.
In the next blog post we will talk about who is most affected by chronic diseases in Switzerland.
[1] OBSAN (2024, November 21). Prevalence of NCDs (Age: 15+) . https://ind.obsan.admin.ch/indicator/monam/praevalenz-ncd-alter-15 . Retrieved on January 14, 2025.
[2] OBSAN (2024, August 6). Depression symptoms. https://ind.obsan.admin.ch/indicator/obsan/depressionssymptome . Retrieved January 14, 2025.
[3] Schneider, Markus med. pract. (n.d. ). Invisible disabilities. https://www.enableme.ch/de/behinderungen/unsichtbare-behinderungen-9249 . Retrieved on January 15, 2025.
[4] ETH Zurich (n.d.). Chronic diseases. https://ethz.ch/studierende/de/beratung/besondere-studiensituationen/studium-und-behinderung/info-studieren-mit-behinderung/chronische-erkrankungen.html . Retrieved on January 14, 2025.
[5] Hermann, N. et al. (ed.). (2024). The main thing is to be healthy? (p. 60). Stapferhaus.