The impacts of chronic diseases are most commonly described using the concepts of disease burden, health-related quality of life, and risk factors. However, chronic diseases are not a standardized concept; they encompass not only medical diagnostics (disease) but also subjective experience (illness) and societal effects (sickness). These differing perspectives can, depending on the viewpoint, be accompanied by ambivalences. Due to their persistence, chronic diseases in particular cannot be adequately captured by a purely medical-scientific perspective, as they require a dynamic classification into primary and secondary diagnoses, a complex bio-psycho-social understanding, and multiprofessional care. Consequently, the respective resources, conditions, and expectations must also be regularly recalibrated and adapted to the health infrastructure.