This straightforward volume examines today's health care picture in human and financial terms, focusing on the three leading causes of death in America: cardiovascular disease/stroke, diabetes, and cancer and four debilitating conditions that confound both patients and professionals: arthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, and low back pain. Morewitz applies current figures and expert future projections to the often-vague concepts of chronically ill patients and associated spiraling costs of care. Composite case studies put a needed human face on these growing populations and their needs. The book's consistent format and the author's lucid style make it as accessible as it is clinically useful. Up-to-date, real-world coverage for each disease includes: risk factors, including socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, gender, and age, typical disease processes and psychosocial symptoms, treatment options and rehabilitation outcomes, stress, quality of life issues, and coping strategies, the impact of health care disparities on illness and disability, patient education and self-management techniques. This book also describes the realities of diseases and their treatment with great clarity and insight, to give practitioners better understanding of patient populations and researchers access to critical health areas. In addition, the book is imperative reading for health care administrators involved in resource allocation, program planning, and cost reduction.