Diseases

Chronic Disease

Diseases which have one or more of the following characteristics: they are permanent, leave residual disability, are caused by nonreversible pathological alteration, require special training of the patient for rehabilitation, or may be expected to require a long period of supervision, observation, or care (Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed). For epidemiological studies chronic disease often includes HEART DISEASES; STROKE; CANCER; and diabetes (DIABETES MELLITUS, TYPE 2).

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

Diseases which have one or more of the following characteristics: they are permanent, leave residual disability, are caused by nonreversible pathological alteration, require special training of the patient for rehabilitation, or may be expected to require a long period of supervision, observation, or care (Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed). For epidemiological studies chronic disease often includes HEART DISEASES; STROKE; CANCER; and diabetes (DIABETES MELLITUS, TYPE 2).

MeSH Record

Classification

Related Concepts

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See Also

MeSH Record

Synonyms

9 entry terms
  • Chronic Illness
  • Chronic Diseases
  • Chronic Illnesses
  • Disease, Chronic
  • Illness, Chronic
  • Chronic Condition
  • Chronically Ill
  • Chronic Conditions
  • Condition, Chronic

MeSH Record

Aspects Covered

15 allowable subheadings

Indexed with the subheadings classification, drug therapy, economics, epidemiology, ethnology, history, legislation & jurisprudence, mortality, nursing, prevention & control, psychology, rehabilitation, therapy, trends, veterinary.

MeSH Record

Indexing Annotation

IM general only; usually NIM with specific disease IM

MeSH Hierarchy

Tree Number

AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Chronic Disease. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D002908. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D002908
  2. Chronic Disease. In: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_condition
  3. Chronic Disease. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q383126