Health Promotion and Disease Prevention of Obesity

 

 

Abstract

The objective is to discuss the strategies and policies that will help in matters concerning health. To know the causes of obesity and how the disease can be prevented. Discuss the dangers of obesity and what other diseases it can come with. Find health programs that can be put in place to help people with obesity. The implementation of new and improved policies will help to promote health. Knowledge of living healthy lifestyles to avoid diseases like obesity will be of great assistance.

Keywords: Health promotion, prevention, strategies, obesity, disease, health, improve.

 

 

 

Introduction

Health promotion is the use of different policies and strategies to improve healthcare. For example training people on the benefits of living in clean environments, training them on the importance of healthcare. It is the process of introducing effective health programs to create awareness and improve healthcare. Obesity is a disease caused by excessive fat in the body that increases the risks of health problems and other diseases. Disease prevention of obesity involves different ways of preventing obesity. Programs that help to prevent obesity including healthy living have been implemented.

Discussion

Health is defined as the conditions in which people are born, live, and work. The difference between health statuses in different places is brought by social and economic conditions. The distribution of resources and money determines health in a certain region. If the resources are not equally distributed, some of the people will not get good healthcare. Training the healthcare professionals1 on effective strategies to improve health and address the social conditions affecting health will impact health promotion. Each health professional needs to be able to work best in their department, so there should be enough professionals so that every one of them can handle their roles effectively. Health promotion includes educating the people in the communities on different activities of taking care of the environment they live in.¹

Environmental risks are the largest contributors to diseases and health. These are things like waste materials, emissions, and lack of resources. They cause injuries and sometimes premature mortality and even long term disability. Managing the environment is an important role in the protection of people’s health. Putting up measures that will help in the reduction of these risks to reduce health problems. Living in a healthy environment is a big attribute to preventing diseases hence a strategy of promoting health.²

Health promotion is the result of health education and health policies and strategies which should be implemented for the sake of long term needs. Supportive environments should be made a priority in improving health. Health education has been marginalized and yet it is the most contributing factor in health promotion. Health education helps to get skills, knowledge that is required when an individual wants to volunteer or make decisions of their own. It helps to raise awareness of the need for policy and environment changes to promote health. It helps to develop an awareness of the factors influencing health in the communities and skills to enable them to work together. Effective health promotion must be planned systematically and establishing a foundation, planning and then put it into practice. The key approaches to improving healthcare are, adopting organized planning, knowing the need and importance of ideas and other forms of evidence. Another approach is supporting empowerment models and the need to tackle the qualities and differences in health status.⁸

Health promotion includes physical, social and mental promotion. Mental health promotion comprises of prevention of illnesses and increasing the well-being of a person. It is important to sustain the social and emotional well-being developed in early childhood. The achievement of disease prevention and health goals is attributed to empowerment approaches which help to identify the relationship between individuals and the environment. Health promotion can be defined as the prevention of diseases, treating and healing sick people. The priorities set out for health promotion were, increasing investment for developing health and creating strong partnerships. Health promotion is the responsibility of the government and is an important component of public programs and policies. The government should ensure enough funding, healthy public policies and facilitate infrastructure to aid in health promotion.⁸

The goals to be achieved by a representation known as the stewardship in health promotion include reducing the risks of diseases caused by people’s actions for example smoking in public places. Another goal is to reduce diseases caused by environmental conditions such as drinking dirty water and improving housing qualities. This representation will protect the health of the children and the elderly. It will help people living in addictions on ways to avoid unhealthy behaviors. Access to medical centers and health equalities will be ensured. The application of the medical model emphasizes on the prevention in health promotion. A system has been developed for program planning, evaluation, and implementation, and build partnerships. It is also capable of communicating and writing reports.⁸

The acronym Re-aim used as a tool to design and evaluate health promotion planning represents five stages. The first one is, reach which stands for the spread of a promotion program within a certain population. The second one is effectiveness which represents the benefits of a program. The third one is the adoption which represents how the health promotion professionals take the program. The fourth one is an implementation that represents how the program is used by health promotion professionals. The fifth and final one is maintenance which represents how the continuity of the program. The conclusions of health promotion research programs have an impact on public health. For example, research has proved that the increase of taxes on cigarettes reduces consumption which is a strategy used for health intervention. Research has also shown that the individual acceptance of vaccines help in improving health. Another example is the use of bed nets in areas affected by malaria.⁹

There are two mainly used types of research which are, observational and experimental. Observational research is when elements are seen as they naturally exist. This is where behaviors are observed and recorded. This is a non- experimental research because the variables are not controlled or changed. Experimental research involves manipulating and controlling variables. The variables can be measured, counted and be compared. It is a method of assessing the effectiveness of a health intervention.⁹

Gender, age, social, and economic factors have been associated with obesity. Obesity occurs when the intake of calories is more than the body can burn. This is mostly due to overeating and not exercising. It can be defined as excessive fat accumulation in the body caused by increased intake of food and no physical activity, various studies show that physical and mental disorders are contributed by overweight and obesity. In most developed countries, obesity caused by unhealthy lifestyles is similar to the one caused by old age. Interestingly in these developed countries, the most affected gender is women. Most of the people living in urban lifestyles tend to develop obesity more than the ones living in rural lifestyles. This is brought by poor health diets and lack of physical exercise. ³

Obesity in children too seems to be on the rise. The number of overweight children who are below 5 years of age globally has increased from 32 million to 41 million in the year 2000 and 2014 respectively. Research shows that globally the number of obesity in adults has doubled from the year 1980 to 2014 from 5% to 11% in men and 8% to 15% in women. This has led to many deaths and disabilities hence the need for prevention. The main reason for the increase in this condition is access to unhealthy food and drinks which are cheaper and quicker to get compared to healthy foods.⁴

The mortality and morbidity rate tend to be higher among obese people compared to other individuals.  Obesity is closely related to risks of other diseases like high blood pressure, heart diseases, kidney disease, breathing problems and stroke among others. Prevention of the disease is viewed to be more cost-effective than the treatment itself which is costly. Health providers should come up with epidemiological measures for obesity since it has become a serious condition. Cost-effective policies and programs should be developed to prevent the disease. To prevent and reduce obesity worldwide, there is a need for an increase in awareness to help in the development of solutions. The organization responsible for coming up with strategies for preventing and managing obesity should be able to come up with weight loss and prevention strategies.³

Identifying the most affected population by the condition will help the policymakers to come up with improved programs that will help to improve their well-being and health. Exclusive breastfeeding for children has been proven to reduce the risk of obesity and overweight in the later years of life. This makes an environment that supports mothers to breastfeed very important since it is a prevention strategy. Taxes on healthy foods need to be reduced to make it affordable to everyone thus preventing the condition. Easy and correct labeling of food and drinks will help to improve the consumer’s knowledge of healthier products. The marketing of foods that are high in fat should be limited and the overall elimination of solid fats from processed foods. There should be school policies set to promote physical activity and healthy food intake. Physical activities in the communities and workplaces should be promoted.⁴

Another strategy is to reduce the portions of food intake for obese and overweight people and eating slowly to know when one is full. This will help to reduce weight and stop the habit of overeating. An increase in fruits and vegetable intake compared to high energy food intake will help in the prevention of the condition. The ban on sales and distributions of unhealthy food within and around schools should be considered. Systems that monitor the lifestyle and diseases should be developed globally to provide detailed data that will help in decision-making. The system will help to monitor how and where common the condition is and assess the need for intervention and the strategies to be used.⁵

In the clinical management of obesity, the reduction of weight loss should not be the ultimate goal. The goal is to communicate with the patient and make them understand and practice the ways of living healthily. Motivation and counseling have been proven to help patients lose weight and prevent them from going back to unhealthy lifestyles. Research has shown that the loss of 10% of body weight which is achieved by losing fat tissue is capable of reducing morbidity linked to obesity. Dietary education is very important in educating people on how to prevent themselves from obesity. Foods enriched with fiber that can help to reduce weight and are the most preferred. Scientific research shows that an active lifestyle plays a protective role in preventing weight gain and obesity. It also shows that an inactive lifestyle promotes the condition. The primary prevention of obesity starts with maintaining your body against it and not losing weight. It has been proven that in all treatments for weight loss is physical activity has the most effective results.⁶

The government should invest in every way possible to help see that all the prevention strategies are achieved. They should help to fund these prevention programs and strategies. Proper outdoor playground and walking tracks should be developed to enable regular physical activities to take place with ease. Cycling is another example of physical activity that could be used to prevent obesity and help in weight loss. The appropriate physical activity should be done for at least 30 minutes for more days in a week. Disease control and prevention centers advocate for 150 minutes a week. The reduction of salt and fatty acid intake decreases the risk of the condition. High calories and sugars lead to obesity so their intake needs to be controlled.⁷

Effective management of obesity in children is identifying and assessing the weight changes. Parents should be able to recognize their child’s weight gain. Children’s weight varies throughout their growth and is different between sexes. Therefore both gender and age need to be considered when interpreting weight. Appetite control could be used to control obesity both in children and adults. For the ones that re already affected, completion of a pediatric weight management program will motivate them to embrace behaviors associated with physical, physiological and emotional health. From a medical view, people will learn how to achieve and maintain weight loss. Healthy eating patterns will be acquired from this program.¹⁰

Conclusion

 Health promotion and disease prevention tend to be related. When health is improved, solutions to prevent diseases are implemented. Health education is the most important factor in effective health promotion. People get to learn about themselves, increase their self -esteem and learn the art of communication. Skills are also acquired through health education enabling people to adopt new living and health ideas. This knowledge helps them to understand what it entails to attain an effective goal in improving health. Obesity is a disease that is mainly caused by lifestyles. Intake of unhealthy foods and lack of physical activities are a large contribution to obesity. Obesity could be prevented by having healthy diets, controlling one’s appetite and the major one is physical activities. These physical activities include walking, running, cycling, exercising and any other activity that involves body movement.

 

References

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