Healthy People 2020 Research Paper

According to “Healthy People 2020”, n.d. exclusively breast feeding infants for at least 3- 6 months significantly impacts their health outcomes and has long terms health benefits. Ultimately, the goal is to encourage nursing mothers to breastfeed for 1 year (“Maternal Infant and Child,” n.d.). Despite this knowledge women continue to face challenges in regard to public or employer accommodation to assist nursing mothers.

Healthy People 2020 has chosen twelve health indicators and has set a goal to improve them. Public health has a significant role in ensuring that these topics are addressed and that the goal is achieved. The leading health topic and indicator that I chose is within the Mental Health Status Improvement, and the indicator is reducing the suicide rate. In 2010, when the 10-year initiative started, the baseline measurement for suicides was 12.1; however, in 2015, it had increased to 13.3. The HP2020 target goal is 10.2 (Healthy People, 2017). The increase denotes that there was no progress made and that the measure worsens instead of improving.

According to Healthy People 2020 (HP 2020) (2014), nutrition, physical activity, and Obesity are one of the leading indicators ranking high-priority health issues. There are determinants that affect an individual’s to eat healthy, to be physically active, and maintain a healthy weight. The community setting has an essential effect on actions that impact health. For instance, there are communities that access to fresh fruits and vegetables is not available, and places for physical activities may not be available to motivate individuals to exercise or play. As well, gender, race, ethnicity, education level, and socioeconomic position determine the individual’s perception on healthy eating, physical activity, and obesity (HP 2020, 2014). Furthermore,

Healthy people 2020 “ establishes national goals and objectives for policy, programs, and activities to address the major health challenges facing our country today, and seeks to assure conditions in which people can be healthy, both now and for generations to come” (Secretary Advisory Committee, 2010, pg., 2). This initiative helps supports people on their health and wellbeing. It strives to identify potential health risks and help support improvement priorities. Healthy people 2020 have elaborated with different sectors to strengthen these policies by proving goals and objectives.

In this paper, the student is asked to identify a health problem facing the community they live and work in. The student will analyze long-term and short-term goals that are in line with goals of healthy people 2020. Community nursing is essential to identifying and understanding the epidemiology of health issues that affect the community they serve (In Nies & In McEwen, 2015). This student has selected the health epidemic Risk for violence directed toward self or others as the nursing diagnosis and planned interventions for this paper.

One of the Healthy People 2020 initiatives or goals that I want to discuss is sexually transmitted diseases. According to Healthy People 2020 (2015) their goal is to “promote healthy sexual behaviors, strengthen community capacity, and increase access to quality services to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and their complications.” One of their objectives in this area is to reduce HPV (human papillomavirus) infections females. I would hope to reduce the incidence of this infection by promoting safe sex, health screenings and immunizations to adolescent and adult women. Certain subtypes of HPV can lead to cervical cancer and anogenital warts (Pomfret, Gagnon Jr, & Gilchrist, 2011).

In Puerto Rico guidelines have been establish to meet the Healthy People 2020 objective, which is to promote preventative health (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012) One of the Healthy People 2020 focuses is on weight reduction intervention to prevent obesity in all ethnicities, age, and disability statuses (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012). Obesity is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and in Puerto Rico obesity has to lead to an increase in the mortality rates among its population caused by weight gain (American Heart Association [AHA], 2015ab; Elias-Boneta, Toro, Garcia, Torres, & Palacious, 2015; Garza et al., 2011). Like the United States (US), Puerto Ricans experiences a lack of physical activities that increase

Healthy People implemented an extensive list of physical activity objectives targeting youth of all ages. The objectives are all aimed at promoting the health benefits of maintaining a physically active life-style. The following objective targets a major area of concern for the medical community and the increase of inactivity among today's youth; “PA-8.2.2; Increase the proportion of children and adolescents aged 6 to 14 years who view television, videos, or play video games for no more than 2 hours a

This writer agrees that the strategies are effective in increasing physical activity. The Task Force conducted reviews of community intervention and recommended six interventions. Additionally, they recommend community-wide campaigns strategy to be effective in increasing physical activity and improving physical fitness among adults and children because it promotes a healthier lifestyle, it prevents life-threatening diseases, and its positive effects include increases both in knowledge about exercise and physical activity and in intentions to be physically active.

Healthy People 2020 provide plethora of resource such has evidenced based resource, healthy people e-learning, program planning, and federal prevention initiatives (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2016). My favorite is the ability to easily find peer reviewed research documents and the ability of seeing what the states have implemented to better serve the community. One program in particular is the health service through mobile health in Tucson, AZ. This program is awesome, it is a health clinic on wheels and goes to underserved, homeless, uninsured communities including the Mexico borders. It provides education on vaccination, diabetes, and prenatal care. Additionally, the Mobile Health provides physical, immunizations,

This is also in hopes forthe students to create permanent positive healthy behaviors and continue a healthy way of life.This targeted obesity prevention program will be at the high school level and be available for allgrades 9-12. This will be a 12 week long prevention program, however students will still receivebrochures regarding health, physical activities, and dietary behaviors all year round to bringhome to their parents. Students participating in this program will be referred by their parents andcounselors, but ultimately it is the students decision to voluntarily participate in this program.The BODY Projects main goal is to allow students to perceive their own risk for medicalabnormalities by providing education about those risk factors and recommendations on lifestylechanges to improve them (Sweat et al. 2015). By doing this, students are more aware about theirown body and understand what course of action to take in order to better themselves such aschanging their dietary behaviors and activities at home. The BODY Project was studied over thecourse of a year at high schools in New York City and had positive results. Students whoparticipated throughout the entire year had reductions in their BMI and wanted to participate inthe program again the following

Parents should be educated about healthy choices, and healthier foods should be available wherever kids are present. There should also be programs that support physical activities, and entertainment should be in moderation. The obesity epidemics will continue to escalate if our leaders in every level do not step up. With the increase of technology, the more our children will continue sitting rather than moving or walking. They are exposed to more computers, video games, movies, and television shows than ever. The result is gain of weight because of the overall time spent expending daily calories. The habits of health lifestyle start from childhood with a strong family involvement. It is proven that lack of physical activity associates with the ongoing surge in obesity. On the other hand, involving our kids in physical activities along with extracurricular sport is associated with increased academic success which also leads to physical wellbeing. Community leaders, along with parents need to work towards a healthy future that includes exercise as part of a daily routine.

There is an abundance of support to provide daily physical education in our schools. First Lady Michelle Obama (2010) stated that she will lead a national initiative to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic. In her initiative, she mentioned the intervention of increasing physical activity to change this epidemic (Obama, 2010). In fact, Healthy People 2020 has objectives to increase the portion of the America’s private and public schools that require daily physical education U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2011). There is also a national

There is nothing more important than health, especially in this day and age. It’s concerning that only 29 percent of high school students surveyed by the CDC (2011) had participated in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on all seven days before the survey. The CDC also noted that only 31 percent of these high school students attended physical education class daily. Only 8 percent of elementary schools, 6.4 percent of middle schools, and 5.8 percent of high schools provide daily physical education to all of its students (SHPPS, 2000). The government is missing the fact that physical education can actually improve test scores, not the opposite.

Every single day science is working to tell us exactly what types of foods to consume, how often we should be engaging in physical activity, and what type of exercises will help the general population of healthy adults maintain their health and wellness. Technology and economic incentives tend to discourage physical activity in today’s modern lifestyle. The time we live in is one where sitting at your desk and staring at a computer screen all day pays more than going for a jog or hitting the gym. Most people feel they lack the time at the end of the day to meet the physical activity standards that the American College of Sports medicine recommends. It is the job of health professionals to inform the public of just how important it is to follow these recommendations so that they may life long and healthy lives. Unfortunately changing the behavior of the general population is an extremely difficult task. There are many obstacles that people believe are keeping them from meeting these guidelines such as schedule, environment, family, work, social obligations, money, and lack a general lack of motivation. Education is perhaps our greatest combatant of these obstacles, and the will to see people live long and happy lives.