Problem, Solution, Justification Essay on Elderly Population

Introduction

According to the world health organization (WHO), health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (WHO, 1948). Martino (2017) also states that this is consistent with the biopsychological model of health that considers physiological, psychological, and social factors in health and illness.

WHO (2016) also states that health promotion allows individuals to increase control over their own health. Health promotion covers a wide range of social and environmental interventions and they are designed to benefit and protect people’s health and quality of life by addressing and preventing the root causes of ill health. There are 3 main key elements of health promotion and they are good governance for health, health literacy, and healthy cities (WHO, 2016). Under good governance for health, policymakers are needed as they must factor health implications into decisions, they as well as prioritize policies that prevent people from being ill and protect individuals from injuries. Health literacy on the other hand is about having the knowledge, skills, and information in order to make healthy choices, for example, choosing what people eat and the healthcare services they need. Healthy cities have a key role in promoting health. having strong leadership and commitment is important to healthy urban planning and building up preventative measures (WHO, 2016)

Diabetes is being focused on this promotion. research and diabetes is defined as a serious condition where an individual’s blood glucose level is too high. There are 2 main types of diabetes which are type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, these are 2 different conditions, however, both are serious (Diabetes UK, no date).

Outline of the resource.

According to an article published in 2017, there are five risk factors of deaths around the world and one of the risk factors included is poor diet. Healthline (2016) states that the more foods that are high in calories and sugar an individual consumes, the more a person is at high risk of developing diabetes. A statistic from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation carried out in 2016 shows that poor diet is the second leading cause of death worldwide (Boseley, 2017).

The most common metabolic long-term condition in the elderly is diabetes (British Geriatrics Society, 2009). The British geriatrics society (2009) also states that the effective way of caring for older people with diabetes is requiring clinicians to aim for the highest category of health status and quality of life commensurate and achieve a level of metabolic control that minimizes both diabetes-related complications and the adverse effects of treatment. It is also mentioned that the aims of care can also be classified from medical/healthcare team perspectives also patient/carer perspectives. This means that maintaining a normal healthy lifestyle, a high level of functioning, minimizing complications, and access to education.

Food labels are important as a useful part of managing diabetes as well as following a healthy diet and lifestyle. The resource made for this health promotion is carrying out the traffic light food method for diabetics. The idea of the traffic light method is to help raise awareness and help make a quick assessment of whether foods are good choices or not. The way traffic light method is going to be carried out is through using the visual aid whereby, the elderly people will be given a picture of or a diagram of the foods that are categorized as a traffic light which shows the appropriate foods that should be eaten and the foods that are unhealthy and are not allowed for diabetics. For example, the red light represents the foods to avoid, the yellow light represents the food that can be eaten but in moderation and the green light represents the foods that can be eaten for the diabetics.

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Justification of why it is needed.

The NHS (2017) carried out an audit which is called the National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA) in 2017 whereby the audit measures the quality of diabetes care provided to patients with diabetes while being admitted to the hospital whatever the cause and aims to support quality improvement. According to Diabetes UK (no date) there are 4.7 million people in the UK that are diagnosed with diabetes and an individual is diagnosed with diabetes every 2 minutes. In the audit carried out in 2017, the results show that 1 in 6 or 18% of all people in hospitals had diabetes. 1 in 4 (25%) of inpatients had diabetes in some of the hospitals.

A statistic shows that half of people with diabetes in the UK are people aged over 65 years old and a quarter are over 75 years (British Geriatrics Society, 2018). NHS spend 5% of their budget on diabetes and its complications. Elderly people in nursing homes or care homes are more likely to be underweight compared to being overweight (Diabetes UK, no date). Reducing fat, salt, and sugar is not always appropriate for older people with diabetes however, poor diet and irregular eating can often cause hypos (Diabetes UK, no date). There are some medications that can have poor effects on the digestive system as well as poor oral health, limited mobility, and dexterity, all of these can contribute to discomfort with eating. Poor fluid intake is very common in elderly patients and poor fluid intake can lead to dehydration it is important for a diabetic to always be hydrated, the reason to this is because according to the Royal Doulton Elite (2017), drinking water helps the kidneys flush excess sugar out of the body. If an individual has a high level of glucose, it draws out fluids which put people with diabetes at a high risk of being dehydrated (Royal Doulton Elite, 2017).

The elderly are vulnerable to malnutrition according to WHO (no date). WHO also states that several attempts in providing adequate nutrition encounter many practical problems. Based on research showing how the elderly are very much prone to malnutrition and not having enough knowledge on the foods that should be eaten, the traffic light method would be a great promotion to raise awareness on the different kinds of foods that elderly patients with diabetics can eat.

Aims and objectives of the resource

As already mentioned above, the aim of this promotion is to raise awareness among elderly patients with diabetes on healthy food choices and the importance of a good diet to help decrease symptoms of diabetes arising and to help avoid hypotension and hypertension or manage the symptoms. The objective of this resource is to provide and come up with a health promotion plan which is the traffic light method and ensure that it is easily understood by elderly patients and is educational.

Target audience

The target audience chosen for this resource or promotion is the elderly with diabetics and elderly people who are borderline diabetics. The reason why the elderly was chosen is because the elderly is more prone to diseases due to poor immune system and poor physical activity and most elderly patients lacks awareness of the food-appropriate foods that should be eaten. However, this resource or this promotion may not only benefit the elderly but as well as adults, young adults, and children. According to Diabetes UK (2010), about 22,000 people are diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 17 and under. In 2018, a new analysis has been carried out whereby 6,836 children and young adults were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in England and Wales.

According to a study carried out in 2009 by Rizvi, A. there are several studies that show the impact of nutritional and lifestyle changes in the elderly with diabetes. He also states that the popularity of diabetes increases with age because the rate of metabolism slows down when aging due to the decrease in lean body mass and an increase in sedentary lifestyle leading to reduced daily energy requirement.