Chronic Disease and Behavioral Change

Despite $4.9 trillion spent annually on U.S. healthcare, 60% of Americans live with at least one chronic disease. Many of these chronic diseases are preventable through lifestyle changes like better eating habits, physical activity, reduced alcohol and smoking habits. Education programs (like Diabetes Self-Management Education, DSME) exist but is knowledge alone enough to cause the behavioral changes that prevent chronic diseases?

This project uses 2017 CDC BRFSS data to test whether health knowledge improves behaviors, how barriers (like menta health access, emotional health management, social and environmental factors) hinder lifestyle change, and how both together drive outcomes like diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.

📊 Findings:

- Knowledge helps, but only modestly.
- Barriers (emotional, social, environmental) strongly hinder healthy behaviors.
- Behaviors + barriers together explain much of chronic disease burden.

Bottom line: Solving chronic disease isn’t just about spreading information - it’s about breaking the barriers that block people from acting on what they know.