After reviewing Module 3: Lecture Materials & Resources, briefly describe one community health problem from your communitys health improvement plan. What structure, process, and outcome st

You should respond to at least two of your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts. 

Reply #1

Roostha Lusma

St. Thomas University

Dr. Tina Roberts

NUR-420-AP1

1/26/22

Community health problem

Obesity is one of the major problems faced in our community. Obesity is a common disease that affects many people (Rector & Stanley, 2022). It is characterized by excessive fatty tissue accumulation resulting from excessive food intake or low energy expenditure. The United States obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% in 2017 to 41.9% in 2020(CDC, 2020). The related conditions to obesity are stroke, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer. The increased cases of obesity in the community have increased healthcare costs. Therefore, the community and the government spend a lot of money treating obesity. Apart from adults being obese, the rise of childhood and adolescent prevalence rates has become a major public health concern. About 17% of children have obesity in the United States. Therefore, obesity has reached epidemic levels.

The prevalence of childhood obesity has doubled, while that of adolescents has tripled over the past three decades (Brown et al., 2019). The risk factors associated with obesity include; socioeconomic status, genetics, lifestyle, and the environment. Community health programs aim to prevent and control obesity by combining physiological factors, psychological factors, diet, and exercise. My community has developed strategies that help to prevent and control obesity. Community collaboration has shown effectiveness in controlling obesity. Community health awareness programs on obesity have been established, and people are educated on the importance of a healthy lifestyle and the dangers of obesity. Despite community awareness programs, obesity is still a public health concern. Therefore, the federal government and the community should devise effective strategies to deal with the problem exclusively.

Structure

The program to address obesity should have a clear, concise, effective, and efficient structure. The organizational structure should be able to monitor all the activities of the program and ensure that the program provides equity of services to all individuals. Moreover, the structure should ensure that qualified and well-staffed personnel carry out the activities in the program. For example, I would suggest an equity-driven structure to facilitate the program. The structure should reduce health disparities and prevent and control obesity in individuals from diverse backgrounds (Pettersen et al., 2019). Moreover, it will ensure that the populations affected by obesity benefit from the preventive strategies because health disparities are one of the unmet challenges of obesity prevention and control programs.

Process

I would suggest an evidence-based program that addresses all the problems of obesity in the community. Studies show that individuals of low-socioeconomic backgrounds are more affected by obesity. Therefore the programs should focus more on the affected population, such as children and adolescents, and not leave behind others from vulnerable populations who need these services. The program should enhance prevention and control by increasing healthy options and access to nutrition programs and physical activities (Kumanyika, 2019). Secondly, by improving economic and social resources by identifying the charitable programs that alleviate poverty and address food security and disparities in employment, education, legal protections, and housing. Thirdly the program should reduce deterrents by reducing the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages, thus enhancing the balance between health-promoting and health-damaging exposures. Moreover the process should be able to understand more about people's needs and circumstances to prevent and control obesity. This will help in putting more focus on people's needs.

Outcome

The interventional program should reduce obesity and its complications among the populations affected in the community. Moreover, the program should ensure that people understand more about obesity, its risk factors, prevention, and control. The program should be evaluated regularly to meet the desired goals and outcomes. If not so, policies should be made to establish more effective programs.

References

Brown, T., Moore, T. H., Hooper, L., Gao, Y., Zayegh, A., Ijaz, S., … & Summerbell, C. D. (2019). Interventions for preventing obesity in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (7).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, April 30). CDC data & statistics

https://www.cdc.gov/DataStatistics/ Links to an external site.

Kumanyika, S. K. (2019). A framework for increasing equity impact in obesity prevention. American Journal of Public Health, 109(10), 1350-1357

Petersen, R., Pan, L., & Blanck, H. M. (2019). Peer reviewed: Racial and ethnic disparities in adult obesity in the United States: CDC's tracking to inform state and local action. Preventing chronic disease, 16.

Rector, C., & Stanley, M. J. (2022). Community and public health nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

REPLY #2

Danis Napoles Pernas

St. Thomas University

NUR 420 AP1: Community Health Nursing

Dr. Tina Roberts

January 26, 2023

Community Health Problem and Improvement Plan

The growing problem of chronic diseases poses significant health challenges in the Floridian community.  A health improvement plan is required to address this health challenge holistically . Data from CDC show that the larger Florida community faces health disease as the leading cause of death. Heath disease not only affects the people of Florida, but it is also a leading cause of death for men, and women, across most racial and ethnic groups in the U.S (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2018). Recent data from CDC show how health disease accounts for the death of one person in every 34 seconds in the U.S and how more than 697,000  people in the U.S  died from heart disease in 2020— which translates to one  person dying from cardiovascular dies in every five deaths (CDC, 2022).  Implementation of a community’s health improvement program would help mitigate cardiovascular diseases. 

Strong evidence suggests that lifestyle improvements in health behavior, such as diet, can substantially reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases (Lacombe, et al., 2019). Even though lifestyle interventions such as diary and physical exercise interventions have been proven effective in managing cardiovascular disease, these measures may not be available or financially inaccessible. As a result,  health improvement programs in Florida should involve assessing the availability of resources such as finances, healthy dietary resources, or physical facilities for physical exercise such as walkways. Specifically, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, and poor nutrition are common risk factors for heart disease and hypertension. By assessing fundamental structures and resources that support the fight against obesity and poor nutrition, there will be gradual progress toward the community’s health improvement program that targets heart disease in the Florida community. For example, a percentage increase of adults and children who are at a healthy weight increased access to resources that promote healthy behaviors and reduced chronic disease morbidity and mortality, which could be used as metrics for improvement programs in Florida.  In addition, community-based lifestyle interventional programs have shown promising results, but more programs and strategies are also required to address the needs of marginalized communities. There is also limited assessment of implementation processes, which allows a better understanding of program effectiveness and suitability for particular contexts (Sriram et al.,2019).

Specific processes and outcomes standards should be developed to achieve better program evaluation and improvement. Formative evaluation should be used to assess whether a program activity is feasible, suitable, and acceptable by communities in Florida before it is fully implemented. Second, there shall be a Process or implementation evaluation which shall determine whether program activities targeting heart diseases have been implemented as planned.

Outcome or effectiveness evaluation will establish whether the program has achieved specific goals and objectives, such as increasing the percentage of adults and children with healthy weight by 20-40% and reducing the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases by 20% in five years. It can also mean assessing key outcomes such as reduction in mortality and morbidity associated with heart diseases or the cost-effectiveness of such programs. These assessment approaches contribute to program evaluation, and performance measurement is increasing. They help provide information that informs performance decisions, which can ultimately contribute to improving the community's wellbeing by reducing the prevalence of heart diseases. Evaluating the programs' effectiveness helps improve project outcomes by engaging community Stakeholders,  describing the program,  focusing on the evaluation,  engaging in fact-finding, justifying the conclusion, and sharing lessons learned. With improved health outcomes, based on assessment findings, various stakeholders in Florida can develop and implement policies that help sustain or improve such health outcomes.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022).  Heart disease facts. https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm#

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2028).  Stats of the state of Florida. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/florida/florida.htm

Lacombe, J., Armstrong, M. E., Wright, F. L., & Foster, C. (2019). The impact of physical activity and an additional behavioural risk factor on cardiovascular disease, cancer and all-cause mortality: A systematic review.  BMC Public Health,  19(1), 900.  https://doi.org/10.1186%2Fs12889-019-7030-8Links to an external site.

Sriram, U., Sandreuter, K., Graham, M., Folta, S., Pullyblank, K., Paul, L., & Seguin, R. (2019). Process evaluation of Strong Hearts, Healthy Communities: a rural community-based cardiovascular disease prevention program.  Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior,  51(2), 138-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2018.10.011

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