President
Dr Iveta Rajnicova Nagyova
University of PJ Safarik, Faculty of Science, Institute of Social Sciences
Moyzesova 16
Tr SNP 3
040 01 Kosice
Slovakia
Email: rajnicova@upjs.sk

This section was created in 2006 and currently has 45 members. This section is to:

• provide a platform for the exchange of information, experience and research in the field of chronic diseases
• to stimulate additional research and to provide a basis for psychosocial and medical interventions that will facilitate better health among individuals and communities
• to strengthen global efforts to prevent and control chronic diseases and to promote health
• to encourage joint activities in the field of chronic diseases

This section will organize at least one workshop on conceptual and methodological issues during the annual EUPHA meeting. It will also promote individual presentations from the field of chronic diseases. In addition to the activities at the regular EUPHA meetings, publications for the European Journal of Public Health will be encouraged, as well as national and international workshops, conferences and research projects will be stimulated.

Background information
Chronic diseases with its typical concomitants such as increased health care utilisation, increased drug consumption, more disability, lower quality of life and early death are destructive forces in the lives of communities. They currently account for some 60% of global deaths and are the most frequent cause of disability worldwide. The rapid rise of chronic, non-communicable diseases represents one of the major health challenges to global development, since they increasingly affect people from developed as well as developing countries - as a result of industrialisation, urbanisation and increasing food market globalisation. A growing body of evidence indicates that chronic diseases do not strike at random. Health status was found to be associated with socioeconomic status (e.g. education, income), race/ethnicity, health related behaviour (e.g. smoking, alcohol consumption, lack of physical activity, nutrition), psychosocial processes (e.g. stress/coping, vitality, hostility, depression) or social environments (e.g. social support, social capital, discrimination, stigmatisation). Because chronic diseases cannot be cured, and the prospects for chronically ill are rather poor, public health and social sciences try help to find factors that prevent, counterbalance or break the negative spiral of the disease and its consequences.

The aim of this section is to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms by which socioeconomic, psychological or environmental factors affect the health of individuals and their communities.