Introduction
In the United States of America, the growing rates of obesity besides leveling off are considerably growing exponentially, with this contributed by poor nutrition and physical inability that result in the development of the illness. Several efforts have been established with the sole objective of increasing the citizen’s physical activity while at the same time improving their diets. However, some of the efficient management strategies for several victims suffering from this disease are changing given the fact that services at the primary and secondary levels are widely under-resourced.
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"Health Promotion and Disease Prevention".
This has therefore established the need to create health promotion procedures and disease prevention initiatives with the intent of ensuring that populations are healthy. These programs are in this case driven towards empowering and engaging communities and individuals to the adoption of healthy behaviors while making changes directed towards reducing the risk of contracting chronic illnesses such as diabetes. This paper, therefore, seeks to conduct a summated summary of three peer-reviewed resources with the intent of revealing the manner in which diabetes relations closely to health promotion measures and disease prevention procedures.
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Su (2016) in her quest to understand some of the online tools that may be used as interceptive measures towards the management of diabetes adduces that over the past 20 years; there have been significant shifts in obesity causes in the U.S given the fact that its rates are growing higher. Close to one-third of the adult population representing 34.9%, close to 17% of children, and adolescents aged between 19 years are obese. Obesity and overweight cases, therefore, have serious health consequences for the different household as established by Su (2016).
In her study, Su (2016) focuses on several epistemological pieces of evidence that have revealed that clinical trials, as well as case-controlled studies, cited the lack of physical activities and poor nutrition as a major cause for the malady. In view of this, Su (2016) alludes to the fact that obesity prevention measures to a wider extent differ from health promotion since they mainly focus on specified efforts drive towards reducing the severity and development of the illness. Given this, Su (2016) hypothesizes that the wellness of patients suffering from obesity is related to disease prevention and health promotion. Wellness can, in this case, be achieved by changing the attitudes and decisions of individuals on the need to adopt positive health behaviors that yield positive outcomes. Practically, the study may be used in the promotion of disease prevention measures which have the capacity to modify risky health behaviors such as the lack of proper physical activities and poor eating habits which are the major contributors of this disease.
In the second peer-reviewed article authored by Vittrup, & McClure (2018), an investigative study is initiated for the purpose of disclosing the impact and the relations of exercise and eating habits among young children, their attitudes towards preventive measures, their knowledge of obesity and health risks, intervention efforts that all contribute to wellness in the prevention of the disease. The study follows the qualitative approach that subjects children and their parents to the completion of surveys on paper and online. The study hypothesizes that several children and parents are overweight; however, most of the parents are labeled as obese and overweight while the healthy children are viewed as of healthy weight. The results of the study revealed that parents promptly showed uncertainty as well as the lack of knowledge in regards to the healthy eating patterns, physical activities, and recommended proportion sizes required in addressing obesity issues on their children, denoting the need for health promotion measures and preventive approaches to address the situation. Parents were in this case rated as responsible for childhood obesity, prompting the need for support through the inclusion of intervention measures, citing the practical use of the study. In a nutshell, the responses provided by the parents revealed that there are main barriers towards the adoption of healthy weights such as the lack of time, knowledge, and food costs, denoting the need for research on the establishment of obesity prevention and health promotion measures driven towards empowering parents on healthy lifestyles. In my opinion, the views of this study reveal the need for disease prevention efforts and health promotion measures that empower families on the adoption of healthy lifestyles.
In contrast to the studies above, Zhang (2015) and his collogues probed a study driven towards accessing as to whether local health departments (LHDs) conducted health promotion and disease prevention measures such as diabetes screening with the intent of raising awareness on the need for lifestyle changes. In achieving this, a cross-sectional analysis was conducted on two-thousand LHDs through a regression study that calculated the odds ratios. The results of the study revealed that close to 56% of the LHDs had well-established health promotion and obesity prevention initiatives, with another 51% of the LHDs having diabetes screening initiatives, and the rest had both of the programs.
Hypothetically, the study revealed that the presence of diabetes screening and obesity prevention programs had a significant association with health promotion and disease prevention measures of these chronic illnesses. However, one of the single most barriers accrued from the studies lied in the fact that the cost-efficiency of these interventions, as well as their effectiveness, impacted health promotion and disease prevention measures. This study can be practically used in enhancing the screening and prevention measures of obesity, an aspect that the authors revealed.
Conclusion
Given this, it is evident that obesity prevention measures to a wider extent differ from health promotion since they mainly focus on specified efforts drive towards reducing the severity and development of the illness. Given this, it is hypothesized that the wellness of patients suffering from obesity is related to disease prevention and health promotion. Wellness can, in this case, be achieved by changing the attitudes and decisions of individuals on the need to adopt positive health behaviors that yield positive outcomes.
- Su, J. G. (2016). An online tool for obesity intervention and public health. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 1-12. doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2797-3
- Vittrup, B., & McClure, D. (2018). Barriers to Childhood Obesity Prevention: Parental Knowledge and Attitudes. Pediatric Nursing, 44(2), 81-94.
- Zhang, X., Luo, H., Gregg, E. W., Mukhtar, Q., Rivera, M., Barker, L., & Albright, A. (2015). Obesity Prevention and Diabetes Screening at Local Health Departments. American Journal of Public Health, 100(8), 1434-1441.
