My Step-Father had type 1 diabetes. A team of health care professionals worked tirelessly to help him live. He never attempted to watch his diet nor take is medication, he tended to overdose on his salts and sugars and knew nothing of a balanced diet. He never saw a problem in his lifestyle. Nevertheless, he died a peaceful man – none of which could have been achieved without the team of doctors, nurses, dietitians and many more.
Two factors that contribute to health disparities among ethnic groups is the lack of access to fresh food and the infrequency of health care coverage within ethnic groups. Within the poorer communities where the populations are those of ethnicity they may not have the same access to grocery stores as those non-ethnic groups residing outside of the lower income regions. By not having access to grocery stores they do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and are forced to purchase foods that are processed since they have a longer shelf life. Processed foods in most cases are not as healthy as fresh foods and there is a tendency to purchase foods that are considered junk food or items that are unhealthy. These unhealthy food choices
The population health determinant is an ongoing discussion with the United States health care system. According to Knickman & Kovner (2015) social determinant of health (SDOH) are the “circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age, and the system in place to deal with illness” (Knickman & Kovner, 2015, p. 80). The peer-reviewed article I chose is a social determinant of health related to obesity. The ability to understand the realm of population health depends on understanding the environmental connections related to biological, behavioral, physical, access, and social determinant (Knickman & Kovner, 2015).
Communities that once thrived are now plagued by dietary related health problems like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Since cultural
In the East Harlem community, many people devalued the severity of diabetes due to personal aspects. For example, one woman said how her life is too stressful to worry about the illness. The toll of living high demand-low control lives is greater in the lesser affluent neighborhoods. Their daily lives are often too hectic for them to participate in a healthier lifestyle. Diabetes adds to this stress because residents voiced that the out of control sugar levels made them more stressed.
One of the Main problems America faces deals with Disease. The growing burden of chronic disease and unaffordable healthcare are the leading causes of disability and death in the United States. America is number 50 on life span expectancy and this is shocking because even though we have some of the best treatments and medicines we don’t prevent chronic diseases that are avoidable with simple lifestyle changes. After watching the Escape Fire Documentary, I realized how this affected everyone and that I needed to know more about my families’ health and ways I can prevent chronic diseases I may be susceptible too because of genetics or lifestyle choices. Before I didn’t think my family had any diseases that were genetically passed down or ran
With over 16% suffering with type two diabetes, Native Americans double the non-hispanic white average of 8.7% (“American Indian..”) suffering from the hated disease, due in part to their lifestyle choices. An average Native American’s
The Hispanic community is a worldwide growing population, so my interest was to research and learn more about their health disparities; in an effort to inform other people about what’s happening now. Once I did the research to determine what my health and other disparities would be in a certain community I was amazed at the results. Hispanics are a susceptible minority group at a higher risk for diabetes because of lack of resources and proper health care. Today, Hispanics and Latinos are facing a dominant health challenge against diabetes mellitus which we need to get under control. Health studies done on a population of individual’s shows Hispanics to be unfairly affected by diabetes and bad glycemic control; compared to non-Hispanic whites
As a community nutritionist, I developed a feel and confidence for how to educate and counsel community members of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe as part of the Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Program. I am a Native American and part of this tribe and therefore was so enthused to be part of their health care team. Being fresh out of college and given only a vague idea of the expectations of the position, I gathered all my available resources and set about the task of independently creating a successful education and counseling program. As I learned the ropes and increased my knowledge base, I felt the need to develop healthy cooking classes for my clients. The goal was to show my clients how to cook delicious, affordable and nutrient dense meals while catering to their specific culture preferences.
This post is going to be on an extremely important topic, diabetes. 1 in 4 people with diabetes, don’t even know they have it! This topic truly impacted me because both of my grandfathers that have already passed away had diabetes, so honestly diabetes is something that could be in my future. Recently, I read Sugar Nation by Jim O’Connell and I was pretty shocked from reading it and it opened my eyes to how severe the diabetes problem is in the world. The book is basically Mr. O’Connell’s recollection of being diagnosed pre-diabetic, his journey to find more information on treatment and how effective it is, and Mr. O’Connell’s father passing away from not taking care of his diabetes.
Given the high prevalence of diabetes among the Native Indians, Alaska America and the Lumbee Indian of North Carolina, there had been some interventions like, support tribal intervention in effort and fully funding for IHS that will help to provide a good geographical risk of the problem which will encourage community base research. The purpose of this paper is to implement education outreach programs that will help the people in the rural community of Robeson County to manage diabetes. The education outreach on healthy eating is focus in developing the strength of farming that they already have to better handle diabetes. With this approach they will not have to spend additional money to buy vegetables form the market.
The rising health problems in the United States of America are caused by poor nutrition, people who are sedentary, the lack of healthcare prevention, and many more. As reported on the Tikkun website, “Of the many systems in our world today that need to be reimagined, none is more important for our future than our food system” (1). The lack of our food system is one of the many factors that has led the United States to its uprising dilemmas; one of the many factors are the food deserts across the U.S. Food deserts are geographic areas where access to affordable healthy and nutritious food are limited, or impossible to purchase, by residents in the area. Food deserts are prone to low-income areas that can’t afford transportation, and due to the lack of grocery stores and supermarkets that sells fresh produce and healthy food within convenient distance to resident’s homes, there is a difficulty in obtaining healthy food options which leads to countless health issues. According to the Diabetes Forecast website, “About 18.3 million Americans live in low-income areas and are far from a supermarket” (1).
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy People (2015), these factors underlie preventable disparities in health status and disease outcomes. Poor health outcomes are often the result of the interaction between individuals and their social and physical environment. Policies that result in changes to the social and physical environment can affect entire populations over extended periods of time, while simultaneously helping people to change individual-level behavior. Improving the conditions in which people are born, live, work, and age will ensure a healthier population, thereby improving national productivity, security, and prosperity through a healthier nation. The importance of social determinants of health is growing initiatives to address these determinants of health.
Social causation of disease is described as the origin of illness that results from social environment, social interactions, or social factors. On the other hand, biological factors are not the only cause of disease as social causation and presume that social factors such as socioeconomic status (SES), religion, and social networks have an effect on the severity of illness and mortality. The idea that social interaction and culture play a major role in the causation of disease has been present in social thought since the discussion of the interaction between politics and mortality. Social causes of disease can be divided into fundamental causes and proximate lifestyle causes ( Link & Phelan, 1995). Nevertheless, causes of illness can directly