Epidemiology


Sarcoidosis is a systematic disorder, with unknown cause that affects mostly in the lungs. It affects of both sexes in all races and ages. The disease is most prevalent in young and middle-aged group. Ages that belong to young ones are those ages between twenty and twenty nine years of age while ages belong to middle-aged group are those ages in late thirty’s. On the other hand, it is more prevalent in women than men where women have 6.3 percent while men have only 5.9 percent cases out of one hundred thousand persons per year. Sarcoidosis is more predominant in blacks than in white where whites have only 0.85 percent compared to blacks that have 2.4 percent. This condition is dominant in some races like Swedes, Danes, and Afro-American but it is not prevalent in Asia countries. In this case, most affected person is dying due to respiratory failure which has an incidence of one to five percent that they do not die because of the disease itself but because of the symptoms cause by respiratory failure.


Etiology


There are several causes of sarcoidosis that being implicated. Some medical team believed that it is due to genetically predisposed, transmitting of infectious organisms and exposure to environment agent. In infectious agent, it includes viruses, mycobacteria, borrelia Burgdorferi and propionibacterium acnes. Furthermore, allergens such dust, fumes and pollens could also result to sarcoidosis.  Agents that come from environmental exposure include beryllium, aluminum and zirconium. It is in recent theory suggests that being expose to certain agents from environment and believe that the host is genetically inherited, it is believed that the inflammatory response of granuloma formation will be enhanced or exaggerated.


The Epidemiologic Triangle


In order to understand the pattern of the disease and the cause of the disease in relation to the characteristics of the person who has it or to a factor present in his environment it should be presented through Epidemiologic Triangle, which has three component-host, environment and agent. The Epidemiologic Triangle is important in promoting health care. The model implies that each must be analyzed and understood for comprehensions and prediction of patterns of a disease. A change in any of the component will alter an existing equilibrium to increase and decrease the frequency of the disease.



 


 


 


 


 



 


Agent is the intrinsic property of microorganisms to survive and multiply in the environment to produce disease. Causative agent is the infections agent or its toxic component that is transmitted from the source of infection to the susceptible body. In sarcoidosis, the agent of the disease has only two classifications namely; the chemical agents and infectious agents. Chemical agents have two subgroups; first is the poison agents, under the poison agents are beryllium, aluminum and zirconium; the second is allergens agents that such as dust, fumes and pollens. The second classification of sarcoidosis agent is the infectious agent. Infectious agents include the viruses, mycobacteria, borrelia burgdoferi and propionibacterium.


The next component is the host (Intrinsic factor), it influences exposure, susceptibility or response to the agent. It is focus on human and the forces with in him and with in the environment that influence his state of health. From this viewpoint, the human is the host organism, other organism like animals are considered only as they relate to the human health. The host is any organism that harbors and provides nourishment for another organism. Under this component include the genetics factors; the ages in which in sarcoidosis it is more prevalent in young age that between twenty and twenty nine and prevalent also in the meddle-aged that ages below forty; in sex in which the women are most affected than men; ethnic group where the blacks have the higher incidence than whites, it is also prevalent in Swedes and Danes but it is not prone to Asian communities.


The third component of Epidemiological Triangle is the environment. The state of the host at any given time is a result of the interaction of genetic endowment with environment over the entire lifespan. Environment is the sum total of all external condition and influences that affects the development of an organism which can be biological social and physical.  The environment affects both the agents and the hosts. The three components of environment are physical, biological and socio economic environment. In the case of sarcoidosis, the host is most susceptible if they are living in the urban place. Urban places are described to be polluted and crowded where you can get the infectious agent that cause sarcoidosis.


Health Promotion


Epidemiology, therefore is the backbone of the prevention of the disease. In preventing the spread of the disease the host must be aware of the primary defense against infection. Hand washing is the most popular in primary defense against infection. In this case the host must wash his hand before and after meal to prevent the spread of infection to the others. It is important also to eat nutritious foods and take food supplements such vitamins in order to boost the immune system. Nutritious foods include eating more vegetables, fruits, and fish. To make the infectious agents become less virulent they should keep their environment clean and stay away from crowded area. They wash their clothes and beddings to prevent transmitting of secretions, mites and scabies that could bring causative agent of the disease. Maintaining food hygiene and water quality in which they wash their raw foods before eating it and make sure that the water is safe and not contaminated. It is important also that to stay away from any crowded places especially those people who have less resistance. In crowded places the disease is rapidly spread to all age group for the reason of direct contact with the infected individual. It is important also that dust must be controlled because this agent can easily penetrate that cause respiratory infection, skin and eye diseases.


 


References:


 


Murdaugh, C. L., & Parson, M. A.  (2002). Health promotion in nursing practice.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: PrenticeHall.


 


Pender, N. J.  (1975). A conceptual model for preventive health behavior.  Nursing Outlook, 23(6), 385-390.


 


Pender, N. J., Barlailas. V. H., Hayman, L., Rice, V. H., & Anderson, E. T.  (1992). Health promotion and disease prevention: Toward excellence in nursing practice and education.  Nursing Outlook, 40(3), 106-112, 120.


 


Ratner, P. A., Buttorff, J. L., Johnson, J. C., & Hayduk, L. A.  (1994).  The interaction effects of gender within the health promotion model.  Research in Nursing and Health, 17(5), 341-350.



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