Barriers and Solutions to Health Promotion

Barriers and Solutions to Health Promotion

Health Promotion Across the Life Span

According to the center for disease control (CDC), heart disease, cancer, stroke, accident, and diabetes are the leading causes of death in the state of Maryland. The number one cause of death in both the United States and the state of Maryland is heart disease, and Maryland ranked thirtieth for heath disease nationwide. The root causes of the number one cause of death in Maryland include obesity, diabetes and physical inactivity, in which Maryland rank twenty fifth, nineteenth, and twenty forth respectively nationwide. Physical inactivity and poor dieting can lead to obesity, and obesity is one of the major risk factors of diabetes (Shub, 2018). Obesity is a growing problem that requires continuous awareness, creative activities such as a community walk, cycling, and or roller-skating every other Saturday. Such will reduce the rate of physical inactivity, while promote weight loss and creating unity in the community and thereby reduces diagnosis of diabetes.

Characteristics of a healthy life include sufficient sleep, healthy diet, safe practices, routine exercise, community connections, good mental health, healthy relationships, and some kind of spiritual practices (Schmidt, 2019). Healthy dieting and routine exercise would greatly help the community in an effort to combat obesity. Therefore, incorporating businesses that promote healthy dieting such as wholefood, smoothie king, cleansing and detox shakes will help improve dieting within the community. Promoting price reduction for fitness centers such as gold gym, and planet fitness, with availability of other outdoor recreational activities year round, physical inactivity within the community will improve. According to American Heart Association, roller-skating is comparable to jogging with similar health benefits such as weight loss, calorie burned, and leg strength. In a community of predominantly black or African American, reintroducing roller-skating which has greatly improve physical inactivity in the past with skating ring having over 90% African American at all times, will greatly improve on their physical inactivity (Farber, 2018). Irregular working hours has been a major barrier for community members to be able to participate in community events. Most of the working class do not have fixed schedule, they work on a rotating shift bases. There are mostly focused on family needs such as rent, food and clothing. Others have a taste preference that is not suitable for the healthy food. Single male and older adult lack the interest to prepare healthy food in the comfort of their homes, they will rather visit a fast food restaurant (Fruh et al., 2013). City approval to block off a two miles stretch for three hours every other Saturday for such sporting activities to take place will probably be an obstacle.

Majority of the population in the African American communities are working class with variable shifts. The availability of a twenty four hours fitness center will benefit the community members by allowing opportunity to fulfil their workout routine around their work schedule. For some of the single men and women, and older adults who lack the desire to cook delicious healthy food, the availability of weight loss centers that specialized in preparing and delivering healthy delicious food such as Jenny Craig Weight Loss Center, will help that population significantly. Lastly, the Maryland Community Connection continues to impact the community in various ways; provide recreational activities, weight loss management, and free transportation of the elderly to various community events. A working middle class community would benefit from free health and wellness clinics. Free health and wellness clinic available in Maryland provide routine immunization, diabetic education, and nutrition counseling.

The African American communities in Maryland have a huge percentage of overweight and diabetic patients. There is lack of compliance in self-care and initiatives to tackle the root cause of the diabetes. Community awareness, fares, recreational activities, and free resources are example of solutions needed to fight obesity and diabetes.

References

Fruh, S. M., Mulekar, M. S., Hall, H. R., Fulkerson, J. A., Hanks, R. S., Lemley, T., … Dierking, J. (2013). Perspectives of Community Health Advocates: Barriers to Healthy Family Eating Patterns. The journal for nurse practitioners : JNP, 9(7), 416–421. doi:10.1016/j.nurpra.2013.04.010

Hope Excellence Wholehealth. Health and Wellness Services. Retrieved from: https://cciweb.org/services/

Impact on the Community. Maryland Community Connection. Retrieved from: https://www.marylandcommunityconnection.org/impact-on-the-community/

Jim Farber. (2018). And The Beat Goes On. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/style/black-roller-skating-united-skates.html

Lena Schmidt. (2019). 5 Healing Modalities That Could Change Your Life. The Chopra Center at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa. Retrieved from: https://chopra.com/articles/5-healing-modalities-that-could-change-your-life

National Center for Health Statistics. Stats of the State of Maryland Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/maryland/maryland.htm

Schub, T. B. (2018). Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 in Adolescents. CINAHL Nursing Guide. Retrieved from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nup&AN=T704261&site=nup-live&scope=site