Approved Research

Assessing Improvement of Chronic Diseases through Hypothetical Intervention

Lay summary

Chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and dementia, have become a huge burden of public health. A series of risk factors, such as physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, smoking, depression, hearing and vision impairment, high blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol have been identified to be related chronic diseases. Although observational studies have found that some healthy actions against these risk factors, such as healthy diet and physical activity are related to a lower risk of these chronic diseases. However, evidence from these studies cannot be considered causal, and randomized trial is the type of study that may draw causal inference, but randomized trials may suffer from the issue of feasibility. For example, a randomized trial typically lasts for less than 5 years, but some intervention may last longer to show effectiveness. Under this situation, causal analysis of observational studies become the optimal choice. In this proposed study, we will study whether we can reduce the risk of chronic diseases in population with lifestyle change (diet, physical activity, smoking cessation, sleep improvement), vascular medication (antihypertensive medication, statins) and improvement of vascular risk factors (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose), improving sensory impairments, and improving mental health. If the study is successfully conducted with significant findings, it can guide clinicians and public health professionals with reasonable actions on reducing burden of chronic disease in population.