Global Epidemic: Understanding About Type 2 Diabetes

The rate of people who has type 2 diabetes all over the globe is increasing rapidly. As discussed by Wallerstein (2017), an imbalance of the sugar level in the body is the leading cause of diabetes. In the case of type 2 diabetes, the human body cannot respond to insulin, which is referred to as insulin resistance. High blood sugar is one of the major causes of severe health-related issues such as heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease. The major factors, which are leading to type 2 diabetes as a global epidemic are overweight, sedentary lifestyle, and consumption of unhealthy diets like red meat and processed meat, refined grains, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Comprehensive reports are showing that about 1 in 11 adults, across the globe, have type 2 diabetes. Asia is considered the historic center of this disease. It had been reported that in the year 2018, 34.2 million, which is 10.5% of the entire population were suffering from diabetes in the UK (Diabetes UK, 2017). Among the 34.2 million people, 26.8 million people were diagnosed, while 7.3 million were undiagnosed. There are more than 1.5 new cases of diabetes, the rate of which is increasing every year.

Older adults are suffering the most. This is the growing health burden, the rate of which is drastically increasing across the globe. Gyawali (2019) showed that consumption of unhealthy diet and alcohol and obesity are some of the major causes of the increasing rate of type 2 diabetes. People aged above 65 are highly prone to diabetes. As per the report published by WHO, the prevalence of diabetes is increasing especially in low or middle-income countries. It is reported that 1.6 million death across the globe is the direct outcome of type 2 diabetes. According to WHO, diabetes is the seventh leading cause of diabetes around the world (Who. int, 2020). It is essential to take an early intervention, lack of which can lead to severe health-related issues like blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, and lower limb amputation. The global prevalence of diabetes was 8% in the year 2011, and it is expected that this rate will be increased to 10% by 2030 (Who. int, 2020).

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Healthcare practitioners must think beyond their customer's points of view and involve the community within their intervention program. According to Blanks (2016), the population is defined as the non-spatial dimension, which includes the people, who exist as a heterogeneous group. Community-based interaction is one of the primary ways of addressing any broader issue by implementing collaborative action. This is the mode of enabling the community to address the broader issue. Cefalu (2016) shaved light on the fact that this is the key to accomplishing community readiness and participation. As the elderly community is more prone to suffering from type 2 diabetes, the implementation of community-based interaction will help in addressing their common problem by encouraging them to share their ideas and perception.

The ladder of community-based interaction is needed to be followed by the healthcare practitioners as it offers a practical framework that comprises community readiness, participation, engagement, organization, development, capacity-building, collective action, and community empowerment. Collaboration (2015) highlighted by saying that preparedness is the initial parameter of the ladder of the community-based program, which shows the readiness of the community to engage them to implement an intervention program. Lifestyle change participation program is a significant community-based intervention program, through which readiness can be generated among the people to accept the changes from one stage to the other, by creating willingness among them.

Participation is another significant aspect of the ladder of community-based interaction programs. This is the mode of understanding the universal need of people by encouraging them to share their ideas and experiences. Active listening is one of the major strategies, which healthcare practitioners can implement to carry out community-based intervention programs. Dunkley (2014) showed that this is the way of keeping people informed about the issue that can affect their health and wellbeing. As older people are more prone to type 2 diabetes, it is the prime responsibility of healthcare practitioners to keep them informed about how high blood sugar levels can cause severe health-related issues such as heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease. This is the way of generating awareness among them to get effective treatment to address the item at the early stage. Henry (2017) showed that need assessment is another primary strategy of implementing a community-based intervention program. This is the way of identifying the need for people and take action accordingly. The healthcare practitioners must be committed to offering the people a sense of ownership about their own health needs. In this case, also, the healthcare practitioners should provide necessary information to the older adults and encourage them to take action on their own for the sake of resolving their health-related issues. Working together in partnerships is another vital strategy for implementing a community-based program. External agencies like NGOs need to develop an equal company and treat all people equally. As the prevalence of diabetes is high in middle or lower-income countries is relatively high, it is essential to conduct community-based programs in these countries also without discriminating against people based on their socio-economic background (Walker, 2014).

Type 2 diabetes is the leading cause of poor health quality of a wide range of people across the globe. Thus, it is essential to take effective action at the early stage, which will help in conducting this program and promote the health and wellbeing, especially of older adults. The community-based program plays a significant role in the way influencing the decision-makers to take effective action for the sake of addressing the health concern among the people. Capacity building is the key to strengthening the engagement of the community, which is the key to resolving the degree of health concern among the people (Philip, 2018). Capacity building is one of the major of developing a productive relationship between health promoters, health agencies, and community members. Capacity building plays a pivotal role in the way of strengthening the health infrastructure and the capacity to deliver a particular program that can help in addressing specific health concerns. In this program, it is imperative to accelerate the support of health governing bodies for the sake of improving the participation of the local community. Capacity building plays a significant role to encourage the local people to take effective action. To address the growing rate of diabetes among older adults, healthcare practitioners need to use the capacity building as a strategy for the sake of fostering a sense of ownership among the people to take effective action on their own to address the health-related issue among them. By using a capacity-building strategy, healthcare practitioners would be able to encourage the elderly community to have greater control over their health and wellbeing by addressing their health-related issues (Koonce, 2015).

Appropriate redistribution of power is very much needed in this context. Engagement is the third significant parameter of the ladder of the community-based program. This leads people to involve people in identifying problem-solving. This is the collaborative process, which requires external agency and the community. Capacity building is one of the significant ways of having sustainable development within the city, which is the key to engaging the older people within the decision-making process and thereby address the growing health concern of type 2 diabetes.

To address type 2 diabetes among older adults, healthcare practitioners need to implement practical approaches. It is a widely admitted fact that the prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing rapidly. In this situation, healthcare practitioners must take effective action to generate awareness among the people to take effective action in terms of making awareness, especially among the older adults regarding the disease. The health belief model (HBM) is one of the significant social-psychological health behavior change models, which intends to predict health-related behavior among people regarding competent health services. Diabetes can harm the quality of life of people. Self-care is one of the primary ways of controlling diabetes among people, the lack of which can lead to a severe health-related issue. Thus, people need to take effective self-care measures such as maintaining a healthy diet, regular use of medications, regular exercise, and monitoring blood glucose daily.

By following these measures, people can control their blood sugar level and thereby promote their health and wellbeing. The role of healthcare practitioners is needed to be considered in this context. In this situation, healthcare practitioners should apply the health belief model to promote self-care behavior among diabetic patients. Conduction of health education programs is the critical aspect of the health belief model. This model of health education is entirely based on the prevention of diseases by adopting active behavior. This is the way, through which illness can be prevented. It is the prime responsibility of healthcare practitioners to implement this model, to identify the illness and disease chains and mitigate the chain by analyzing the relationship between health beliefs and behaviors. According to the health belief model, it is essential for healthcare practitioners to generate awareness among the people, so that they can show effective practice. The health belief model plays a pivotal role in disseminating knowledge among people, which is the key to assessing the response of people towards their health-related issues. However, Glenn (2020) argued by saying that this model lacks the discussion of relevant factors, which can make it difficult for healthcare practitioners to build a healthy relationship with people, who are suffering from type 2 diabetes.

Model for Health Education Planning is another vital model of educating the community about type 2 diabetes. This model comprises various steps such as initiation, needs assessment, goal setting, planning/programming, implementation, and evaluation that play a significant role for the healthcare practitioners to carry out the education program in a systematic manner. The education approach is also a considerable way of educating people regarding type 2 diabetes. Community-based education program plays a pivotal role in preventing life-threatening disease and thereby improve the quality of life. By implementing the community-based education approach, the health care practitioners would be able to reach a wide range of people and generating awareness among them regarding the prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Through this way, healthcare practitioners can change the aspect among the elderly community towards type 2 diabetes and promote appropriate behavior among them. Patient-centered care is another dominant approach for addressing growing health concerns among people. This is the mode of self-care behavior among people to have self-monitored blood sugar.

With time, the prevalence of life-threatening is rapidly increasing. People are becoming much more aware of promoting health and wellbeing by preventing the occurrence of such diseases. In this situation, it is the prime responsibility of healthcare practitioners to generate awareness among the elderly to take early intervention for addressing type 2 diabetes. There lies the significance of the community-based initiative, which is the key to creating awareness among the people. By implementing a Lifestyle change participation program, the health care practitioners would be able to change the perception among the people towards type 2 diabetes and show effective health-related measures and thereby growing health-related concerns.