Professor Huber will join other academics in the field at a public ‘Ask the Experts’ event at the , run by 91¶¶Òõ and Sussex universities and the team of the Research Design Service South-East (Sussex).
Professor Huber, chairing the event next Wednesday, said: “People are living longer but with a chronic condition and increasingly multiple chronic conditions during the later parts of their lives. Examples are the large numbers of people with both diabetes and dementia amongst the older groups of the population who are frequently found living in residential care.
“An interesting issue for this group are conflicting care philosophies: diabetes patients are educated towards self-medication and active self-care, but diminishing cognitive control over one’s life due to diseases including Alzheimer’s can create challenging situations for the person living with the conditions, but also different health professionals involved in the care of the person.
“Multimorbidities are probably becoming the norm amongst older people. Service development may need to give patients a much more active role.
“And the major risk factors – smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, low levels of physical activity (sedentary behaviour) and eating too much or the wrong stuff (too much sugar, high levels of fat and salt content in one’s diet) – have been identified as risk factors for many chronic conditions and are also implicated in their progression.
“Inequalities play a big role here: chronic conditions and the associated risk factors are more common in people from poorer backgrounds or people living with other disadvantages which can be ethnic background, disability or severe mental illness.”
Other speakers at the Ask the Experts event include: BSMS’s Professor Sube Banerjee, Dr Khalid Ali, and Professor Jackie Cassell.
The event, at the BSMS teaching building at Falmer on 20 May, starting 3pm, has been organised jointly by BSMS and the Research Design Service South East. It is free but do .