Health Promotion And Disease Prevention In The United States

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

Discuss the effectiveness of a range of health promotion strategies in relation to young people (6 marks)

Preventive health care involves a wide range of interventions which help for maintaining good health habits, reducing the incidence of disease and disability, and slowing the progress of illnesses. These interventions can include providing childhood immunizations, raising taxes on cigarettes,

Health Promotion is a fundamental practise in ensuring optimum population health. In this essay I will be discussing the ‘settings’ based approach (SBA) of Health Promotion (HP) as a process for achieving sustainable improvements in health outcomes. I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the approach in relation to key movements which demonstrate the method in action.

To promote better health the US department of health developed Healthy People 2020 with objectives to promoting healthy lives. Their goals are for people to live a long healthy life and remove disparities (Health People 2020, 2015). There are three levels of health promotion prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary (Edelman & Mandle, 2014). Primary relates to preventing disease before it begins. Actions such as receiving an annual flu shot to prevent getting the flu, or eating healthy to prevent heart disease and weight control are included in primary prevention. Secondary prevention involves catching diseases early through screening. Some facilities will offer lung cancer screenings to catch the disease early to prevent worse outcomes. The third is tertiary which involves maintaining the best level of health possible with the disease or disability currently affecting a person. All three of these certainly

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.

Many questions regarding good health, preventive medicine, and the way people practiced precautionary measures to maintain a fit and sustainable life on a daily basis have always crossed my mind since my days in high school. What if people were able to take serious measures to fight the many diseases and illnesses that tend to ravage our communities? What if there was a better way to show and teach people about the importance of practicing preventive medicine? The extent of time I spent doing my undergraduate studies in the biology department often had me think about the preventative methods of diseases and illnesses on a local and global basis, as well as some diseases in particular. My first inclination with biology and why I decided to

The disease progress goes through a series of natural stages (The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, 2017). Health promotion interventions/preventive measures can be applied during any stage of the process. The interventions and measures are to stop disease progression; therefore, it is a critical step of health promotion. There are many collaborative actions to empower patients to make these decisions based on the best of their interest. Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention are part of the collaborative actions. There are pre-extensive factors such as environment, economic, social, culture, and behavior factors which can increase ones’ risk for disease. The prevention health care is to decease or minimize these risks to hence the outcome. Primary prevention are intervention/measures that assists individuals take actions instead of preventing personal exposure to these risk factors.

Efforts towards health promotion can be ineffective at times therefore interception level of preventive health promotion is

The nationwide health promotion and disease prevention plan, Healthy People 2020, recognizes that mental health promotion and mental health reduction as one of the most significant health objectives. Statistic indicated that mental health disorders are the leading cause of disability in United States and Canada, while suicide is the 11th leading cause of death that killed approximately 30,000 American each year (“Mental Health and Mental Disorders”, n.d.). The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has commended series of guideline once patients are identified with mental health disorder.

One of the subtitles from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is Modernizing Disease Prevention and Public Health Systems. The National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, in consultation with the relevant authorities, are mandated to “develop and make public national prevention, health promotion, and public health strategies and evaluate and revise such approaches occasionally” (Authenticated U.S. Government Proclamation, n.d.). Further this specific part of the Act seeks to promote health goals, along with specified-based initiatives to achieve the measurable goals indicated in Health People 2012. In addition to this, diverse group of licensed health professionals develop and recommend policies and programs respectively to ensure that chronic disease are prevented and managed; health is promoted, and

Health promotion utilises theories and models to guide practice. A theory is the general principles of a framework of ideas in regards to a particular topic. (Merriam-webster.com, 2016) A model is a set plan of action based on theoretical ideas to achieve a set goal. (Merriam-webster.com, 2016)

The most important thing to know about prevention is that the core purpose is on keeping people healthy. The public health sector is a good model of what prevention should look like. Public health provides three different levels of prevention against disease such as primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention (Williams & Torrens, 2008). The purpose of primary prevention is to prevent and ward off the occurrence of disease before it happens. The purpose of secondary prevention is to offer prevention by attempting to stop the progression of disease from early to severe stages of diagnosis. The purpose of tertiary prevention is to prevent and limit the further effects of disease once it has been diagnosed.

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.

“The major goals of health promotion are to help people of all ages stay healthy, optimize health in cases of chronic disease or disability, and create healthy environments” (Pender et al., 2015). This health promotion project is designed to identify and reduce the risk factors associated with several illnesses and disease processes. This project will focus on changing lifestyle behaviors and providing up to date education for the patient to make the best informed decision regarding her environment, health behaviors, and developing a support system with her primary care physician.