12 2 STA T .5 2 03CON C UR R E NT RESO L UT I ONS — SE P T.2 7, 200 8com m unitysh ou ldw o rk to incr ea se awareness and p re v en - tion o f heat stroke
and (2)C on g ress urges national and community organi z ations ,b usinesses in the private sector, and the media, through N ational H eat S troke A wareness M onth to promote the aware- ness of heat stroke . Agreed to September 22, 2 0 0 8 . NATIO NA LDYSPH A G IAA W A RE NESS M ONTH — S U PPORT W hereas dysphagia, or difficulty with swallowing, is a medical dysfunction that affects as many as 15 ,000,000 Americans; Whereas the Centers for D isease Control and P revention has esti- mated that 1,000,000 people in the U nited States annually are diagnosed with dysphagia; Whereas the Agency for Healthcare R esearch and Q uality has esti- mated that 6 0,000 Americans die annually from complications associated with dysphagia; Whereas based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality data, this is more than the total number of Americans dying from all forms of liver disease, kidney disease, and H IV/ AIDS combined — and nearly as many as those dying from diabetes, the number 6 killer of Americans; Whereas the most common complication arising from dysphagia is aspiration pneumonia—caused by food or saliva entering the windpipe and into the lungs; Whereas one in 1 7 people will develop some form of dysphagia in their lifetime, including 50 to 75 percent of stroke patients and 60 to 75 percent of patients who undergo radiation therapy for head and neck cancer; Whereas as many as half of all Americans over 60 will e x perience dysphagia at some point; Whereas complications due to dysphagia increase health care costs by resultant hospital readmissions, emergency room visits, extended hospital stays, the necessity for long-term institutional care, and the need for expensive respiratory and nutritional sup- port; Whereas the cost of managing a patient with a feeding tube, which for many has been the primary treatment option for this condi- tion, is reported to average over $3 1,000 per patient per year; Whereas the total annual cost to Medicare j ust for enteral feeding supplies for outpatients was more than $670,000,000 in 2003, nearly 6 percent of the total Medicare budget for that year; Whereas including the monies spent in hospitals, the total cost of dysphagia to the health care system is well over $1,000,000,000 annually; Whereas the condition of dysphagia is a vastly underreported condi- tion and not widely understood by the general public; and Sept.27, 2 0 0 8[H . Con . R e s . 195]
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