Epidemiology in the Elderly with Heart Disease

The prevalence of congestive heart failure is on the increase both in the United States and all over the world, and it is the leading cause of hospitalization in the elderly population. Congestive heart failure is a progressive disease generally seen in the elderly, which if not properly managed, can lead to repeated hospital admissions or death. Heart failure means that the heart muscle is weakened. A weakened heart muscle may not be strong enough to pump an adequate amount of blood out of its chambers. To compensate for its diminished pumping capacity, the heart may enlarge. Commonly, the heart's pumping inefficiency causes a buildup of blood in the

Prevention and wellness is a key focus in public health services. In Title Four of the PPACA, “prevention interventions are of two key types: services provided to individuals in clinical settings (e.g., cancer screenings), and programs and services provided to communities (e.g., ad campaigns about exercise)” (Redhead & Williams, 2010, p. 30). Many programs have formed in the hope of creating a comprehensive approach to prevention.

Seven in ten deaths in the United States, are attributable to chronic disease (“Leading Causes” 1). These diseases are not on account of bacteria or viruses, which could be treated with an appropriate prescription or vaccine. Chronic conditions are developed through unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors such as a lack of exercise, poor nutrition, poor sleeping habits, and substance use (e.g. tobacco). Consequently, seven in ten of every death can be prevented with changes in lifestyle. The CDC states that these conditions, “are among the most common, costly, and preventable of all health problems” (“Chronic Disease” 1). Although these conditions have clear and definite causes (knowing the exact reason and “cure” for them), they are becoming more prevalent rather than domesticated. According to Wu and Green, “Between 2000 and 2030 the number of Americans with chronic conditions will increase by 37 percent, an increase of 46 million people” (1). This increase comes with an increase in health care costs: the CDC reported that the U.S. spent three trillion dollars on health care in 2014 (“Health Expenditures” 1). 86% of these costs was associated with these conditions (“Prevention” 1). Despite there being a range of causes of why patients make these choices, one issue that may be less familiar to others is the lack of knowledge in preventative medicine among health care professionals. Current training standards are not adequately educating or equipping health care professionals

While both medical care and public health work to improve the lives of many people, there are several distinctions between the two fields. Healthcare providers such as nurses and doctors are responsible for diagnosing and treating illnesses for individual patients. The care ranges from minor injuries to severe and chronic diseases. Meanwhile, public health strives to improve the well-being of a population. Public health advocates for the overall “promotion and prevention” of diseases before it even becomes an issue for healthcare providers. Public health encourages people to adopt healthy lifestyle choices and strives to control the outbreak of diseases. Although public health is often overlooked in the grand scale of medical care, it is undoubtedly the main aspect in ensuring that the overall health of a community is prospering.

Finkelman, A. (2013) Health promotion, Disease Prevention, and Illness: A community Perspective.. In Professional Nursing Concepts (Second ed., pp 201-227). Burlington: Jones & Bartlet Learning.

Nies, M.A. & McEwan, M. (2015-a). Epidemiology. In Community/public health nursing: promoting the health of populations (6th ed.) (p. 70). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.

Creating social and physical environment that promote good health is another goal set by Healthy People 2020 that is designed to create and promote a healthy physical as well as social environment by the year 2020. Everyone deserves to have the equal opportunity to make healthy decisions that will promote good and healthy lifestyle. For this to be achieved, health care advances and improvements need to be made. Community integration and planning, social factors such as quality education, community based resources, social support system, hazard free environment all have significant impact on people’s health. With the challenges we face, nurses can promote a safe and healthy environment through nursing education and wellness programs, disease control programs, immunization programs and many more to alleviate and or eliminate burdens, reduce untimely deaths, and create safe environment that promotes a healthy lifestyle for all.

Public health nursing allows nurses to encounter various vulnerable populations on a daily basis. In particular, the elderly make up a large portion of the population, and their vulnerability to the environment and other physical factors is a very important aspect of public health nursing. Epidemiology allows the public health nurse to study and assess vulnerable populations, including the elderly, and create interventions that maximize the health potential of all members of the public.

For many years, health promotions and prevention has been the focus for healthcare providers, especially nurses. Health promotion seeks to improve a person or population’s health by teaching about and helps people become more aware of risky behaviors associated with different diseases. It encourages individuals to take preventative measures to prevent onset or worsening of a disease or illness. It encourages a healthier lifestyle (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). The strategy is to help people make health improvements or prevention before illness occurs.

The fact that the American population is aging has raised concerns. In 2011, the number of adults over the age of 65 reached 41.4 million, which account for 13.3% of the population ("A Profile of Older Americans: 2012," 2012). It is estimated that there will be about 71 million older adults by 2030 ("Healthy Aging-Improving and Extending Quality of Life among Older Americans," 2009). Approximately 2.1 million elderly are currently living in

Nearly everyone knows something about heart disease. From high blood pressure & cholesterol to bypass surgery to heart attacks, heart disease is top-of-mind for most older adults and their loved ones. However, one lesser-known area of heart disease is congestive heart failure.

This site was quite interesting and shared information about our heart age. Our heart can actually be older than our own age. Depending on your lifestyle it can impact your heart’s condition for the long run. “ Heart age is the age of you heart and blood vessels as a result of your risk factors for heart attack or stroke”. Now do not be alarm you can improve your heart age at any time. By Simply exercising, quit smoking, eating healthy, and etc. One of the things that I found interesting is that even is you haven’t had a hart attack or stroke, most adults have a heart age older than their actual age. This is interesting because it can relate to “out of sight and out of mind”, just because you feel healthy you may not be healthy and with the

The program should be applied to different levels of preventions based on short term or long term needs in the community. Primary prevention approach is required to promote and maximize health and wellness in the community before injury or illness occurs (Vollman et al., 2017). Therefore, the program focuses its attention on providing the community with information on cardiovascular health, nutrition, exercise and stress management (Harkness & DeMarco, 2012). The first idea for primary intervention is providing the community with free blood pressuring and heart rate screenings to recognize the population in risk. The information about this part will be provided to the community from different sources such as news, healthcare facilities, schools, community association, and churches. The monitoring will be done through the family physicians, nurses and different stands that will be set up in different locations of the community such as pharmacies, shopping malls, churches and health facilities. All the resident of age forty-five

The World Health Organisation - WHO (2015) defines Health Promotion as fundamental discipline in disease prevention through social /environmental intervention, health education and behaviour change towards health. This description coincides with Dahlgren and Whitehead’s Social Determinants of Health (1992) where the individual’s health is not only limited to medical factors but it is largely influenced by lifestyle – rooting from its social factors from familial, societal to national level. In this regard, the vital role of the nurse as a health promotion practitioner is to uphold individual’s autonomy by increasing their knowledge about how the body functions to prevent diseases and making them aware of how the healthcare

Health promotion aims a wide range of targets at different levels in the community. The huge benefits resulted from health promotion and disease prevention efforts make many realize that this domain of health care is worth to be invested in. The focus is shifted evermore from the medical to the preventative approach, from treating the disease to avoiding the onset of it.