Public Health Interventions

Naidoo and Wills(2001, p.47) “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ - WHO (1946).” This definition falls into a holistic way of defining health, which believes that there are more areas to look at when thinking of health than just simply the absence of a disease. It considers the cause of why someone is ill and not just simply about ’fixing it’.

Diabetes has recently become a focal point of health care systems around the world due to its high prevalence and the severity of secondary complications caused by the disease. Over the course of my project on diabetes, I have had the opportunity to speak with a group of diabetics to understand from a patient’s perspective how diabetes is managed in a rural community. While I found that while some patients ignored treatment and refused to make any dietary changes, the majority of the patients I interviewed were well-informed and actively managing diabetes in their everyday life.

But over the past few decades, the definititon and concept of health has evolved to encompass more elements than just the physical well-being of a person. This is partly attributed to various researches and studies that have taken place around the world in the last 60 years. Already in 1948, the World Health Organization declared that health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not

Several nationwide programs and incentives were administered in the last couple of decades to promote awareness of diabetes and hopefully help prevent millions of Americans from developing diabetes. Health Agencies, such as World Health Organization (WHO) and Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have developed objectives to tackle diabetes. Some of these objectives include conducting surveillance and obtaining diabetes data to identify trends in the population, spreading awareness about the condition, and developing programs that will enhance diabetes care and ensure the longevity of the patients. Various programs have been developed but while some excel, others fail to benefit the lives of the patient.

The rate of diabetes in the United States is one of the highest compared to other developed countries. An estimate of 9.3% of the population have diabetes, of those with diabetes 27.8% have yet to be diagnosed (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014). This means that approximately 8.1 million people are currently living with diabetes, but are unaware of it. As of 2012, 12.3% of people with diabetes were 20 years old or older, the largest population diagnosed with diabetes were adults 65 years old or older. 25.9% of this population lives with diabetes (CDC, 2014). On a national level, the CDC have launched initiatives that focus on prevention and disease management. The National Diabetes Prevention Program is an example of one such initiative. This program focuses on lifestyle changes,

There are costs of diabetes that the community pays for, helping those with the condition. These costs can be direct - costs linked specifically to diabetes, indirect - not specifically associated with diabetes, or intangible - being costs which aren’t physical, such as emotional pain. In relation to diabetes, community costs are increasing as is the number of individuals who have diabetes. Direct costs for communities can include funding treatment costs, cost of prevention strategies, cost of pharmaceuticals and cost of diagnosis. The direct cost of funding the treatment of diabetes includes having to pay for hospitalisation service costs. Even though the community as a whole has to assist in paying for the hospitalization of individuals experiencing diabetes. The average cost of hospitilisation services for people who have diabetes is around 6.3 billion dollars, most of which is coming from communities worldwide. Educating and promoting the younger generations of diabetes and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle to prevent the condition also costs the community. Promotional campaigns such as WDD and Measure Up costs the community to run each year, so that the prevalence of diabetes can be reduced. Other promotional techniques such as talks with local schools and programs such as Healthy Harold costs the community to educate the younger generation on the importance of decreasing the amount of people with diabetes so that the costs to individuals

The main issue that Lahaina Community has that is geared towards the elderly population is activities. The key public health interventions that can help with the overall goal are outreach, collaboration, community organizing and advocacy. The outreach has been achieved through the key informant interviews. These interviews help to pinpoint areas of concern. Most of the concern was about getting more people access health care in order to provide resources to address individual needs. By attending a community meeting, a public health nurse collaborated with our group and explained how we obtain funds from companies in order to have more activities for the elders. In order for the goal to be met, the community needs to be involved. This can be

Significantly this therefore futuristically poses a large risk for many Australians as diabetes is able to affect anyone from any walk of life as it is a condition that is not location nor age or gender specific. Not only this but when viewing this condition on a global scale, diabetes currently afflicts more than 380 million people worldwide, which by the year 2030 the World Health Organisation already estimates that the number of people living with diabetes will more than double its rate (Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, 2014). This suggests that developments towards decreasing the estimated number of people who will live in 2030 with diabetes is one that needs further action, planning, research and support towards branching and creating stronger collaborative relationships in order tackle and help limit this condition. Comparatively looking through Australia’s diabetes context, according to Queensland Health statistics, “more than half of all people with diabetes are not receiving the education they need to keep them healthy and out of hospital” (Australian Indigenous Health Info Net, 2015, Diabetes Australia, para 1).

Healthy People 2020 has one main goal: Reduce the disease and economic burden of diabetes mellitus (DM) and improve the quality of life for all persons who have, or are at risk for, DM. There three main types of DM but there are many causes and

This will involve a collaboration with other health care, public health, medical professionals, as well as non-health care professional (like information technology professionals). In addition, having a great support system; family and community is also crucial to addressing this issue. Effective communication will be required in the administration of the three levels of intervention to achieve the much-needed results. These tree levels of intervention will entail tackling diabetes at a population, community and individual level. A brief summary as highlighted by Friis & Sellers (2014) and World Health Organization (2017) is offered

I think public health interventions are mainly responsible for improvements in health status of mothers and infants because there are few changes that has been happened in environmental interventions, health related education and overall economic growth. In early 20th century, the vaccines and antibiotics were not invented, so the main focus was to educate people and help them in family planning.

The definition of health in the dictionary states that it is the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: good health; poor health. For this essay, three interviews were conducted around the question "what is health or the individual 's understanding of health?" All the interviewee 's answers were along the same lines (note: I changed names to keep confidentiality). However, the interviews are based on people 's perspectives, on their definition of health; it 's not just physical health but mental and spiritual health as well. And for some, relating to the entire family as opposed to the individual. Furthermore, health has changed over the years and has become a more universal term with more meaning. I would argue that the dominant terms of lay perspectives in academic literature on health are different from the views of the people interviewed. In addition, I will discuss the differing views amongst the interviewees, the factors that may account for these differences, and how these views both conform and do not conform to findings in the academic literature on lay or amateur perspectives of health.

The World Health Organization estimated that more than 800,000 deaths worldwide were due to outdoor air pollution. Air pollution is a growing issue in industrialized areas due to exposure from industrial and traffic sources. Harm to the human body occurs from exposure to and inhalation of particulate matter (PM) (Barnes et al., 2012). PM is liquid or solid particles in the air, that when small enough in size, can be harmful to the human body when inhaled. Two common sizes of particulate matter are PM_10 and PM_2.5. PM_10 are particles that are 2.5 to 10 micrometers in size, and includes dust, mold and pollen just to name a few. PM_2.5 are particles that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller in size, and consists of particles from vehicles, industries, and burning. Smaller particles are able to get into the lungs and potentially cause serious health problems (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2015). These health problems include acute cardiovascular events, changes to blood pressure, coagulation, myocardial perfusion, and chronic respiratory diseases (Barnes et al., 2012).

. Planning model is a broad model that walks one through the process of developing a complete public health program. The planning model gives structure and organization to the planning process. The planning models are essential for facilitating the development, implementation, and evaluation of any health program. To use PRECEDE-PROCEED as an example for planning model, does not attempt to predict or explain the relationship among factors thought to be associated with an outcome of interest (Gielen and Mcdonald, 2003). However, it does provide a structure for applying theories so that the most appropriate intervention strategies can be identified (Gielen and Mcdonald, 2003). The other models and frameworks focus more on the individual targets

Health objectives and campaigns are designed to set the foundation for addressing health care issues prevalent across the nation. Diabetes is a disease that affects millions of people. Due to the complications that can often go along with diabetes, public health policies are implemented to clarify issues that will improve the health of individuals. As presented in the health campaign part one, there are numerous government agencies, which exploit health information on federal, state, and local levels to develop policies and allocate resources to programs and necessary organizations. Many models and systems are used to manage diabetes and bring forth