NR 508 Week 4: Open Forum Discussion
NR 508 Week 4: Open Forum Discussion
NR 508 Week 4: Open Forum Discussion
Problem Statement
Healthcare problems vary across communities depending on behaviors, resources, and access to healthcare, among other factors. Obesity is a severe health problem in New Jersey, as demonstrated by prevalence and national ranking. The America’s Health Rankings (2023) show that obese adults occupy 28.2% of the population in New Jersey, ranking fifth nationally. The implication is that people’s health will continue deteriorating unless practical interventions are implemented to control obesity. Health policies represent political and legal decisions influencing people’s actions and behaviors (Teitelbaum & Wilensky, 2017). Due to the far-reaching effects of obesity, such decisions are needed to improve people’s health and well-being. Nurses can play a critical role in policy formulation and implementation as advocates of healthy living in the community.
Background
Healthcare problems necessitating policy interventions could be best understood in terms of their causes and impacts. Understanding the causes helps healthcare professionals, policymakers, and stakeholders to design impactful and people-centered interventions. A major cause of obesity in New Jersey is unhealthy behaviors, particularly poor diet and physical inactivity (America’s Health Rankings, 2023). Others include the social and physical environment and prenatal life experiences, such as smoking and alcoholism, intensifying the risk for gestational diabetes. Obese people are more likely to have a low-quality life and a high risk for chronic diseases (Stephenson et al., 2021). Type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and some cancers are directly linked to obesity.
Landscape
Obesity’s landscape further demonstrates its severity and the need for intensified efforts at the local, state, and federal levels. Broadly, obesity is a national health concern since all populations are affected irrespective of race, geographical location, social class, and other variables. The prevalence varies across races, gender, age, and income. Men are more affected than women, and adults in households with an annual income of less than $25,000 are affected the most (America’s Health Rankings, 2023). Obesity rates are also projected to increase over time. The rate in New Jersey increased progressively from 9.9% in 1990 to 28.2% in 2021 (America’s Health Rankings, 2023). With health costs increasing as obesity rates increase, a multifaceted approach is crucial to address obesity.
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Options
Options for obesity control represent the available interventions for promoting healthy living and risk reduction. A suitable option that could be supported by a policy is health promotion. For instance, health education programs promote behavior change by improving health literacy, leading to better decision-making (Walters et al., 2020). Other practical measures include food policy and government regulations such as mandatory and accurate labeling. Increasing public health nurses can also ensure people get quality health and education for healthy living. Appropriate policy recommendations include increasing the price of sugary and fatty foods to discourage consumption and limiting the advertisements of unhealthy foods that target children.
Recommendations
Among the available policy measures, the highly commendable is controlling fast food consumption. Such a policy should focus on two interrelated areas: banning advertisements targeting children and limiting the number of fast-food shops operating in a particular area. Control would discourage fast food consumption, a leading cause of obesity. Wise (2022) found junk food advisement bans effective in reducing obesity and related diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease within three years of the advertisement restriction. The policy approach is government-regulated hence high impact. Its other justification is its evidence-based nature since past research shows a positive link between limiting advertisements and obesity reduction.
NR 508 Week 4: Open Forum Discussion References
America’s Health Rankings. (2023). Obesity in New Jersey. https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/measures/Obesity/NJ
Stephenson, J., Smith, C. M., Kearns, B., Haywood, A., & Bissell, P. (2021). The association between obesity and quality of life: a retrospective analysis of a large-scale population-based cohort study. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12009-8
Teitelbaum, J. B., & Wilensky, S. E. (2017). Essentials of health policy and law (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Walters, R., Leslie, S. J., Polson, R., Cusack, T., & Gorely, T. (2020). Establishing the efficacy of interventions to improve health literacy and health behaviours: a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08991-0
Wise, J. (2022). Junk food advertising bans do help reduce obesity, say researchers. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 378, o1930. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o1930
NR 508 Week 4: Open Forum Discussion – This is a required, but not graded open forum. Please feel free to post questions related to content or assignments
For the open discussion this week, I decided to go over a few of the concepts from the Midterm study guide just to help myself study!
Concomitant Diseases are defined as “occurring or existing at the same time as something else. In medicine, it may refer to a condition a person has or a medication a person is taking that is not being studied in the clinical trial he or she is taking part in” (National Cancer Institute, n.d.). This means that when a patient has heart disease, but also diabetes, and is in a study for diabetes treatment, the heart disease would be a concomitant disease.
SSRIs are known to have interactions with a few different herbal and homeopathetic treatments. The most important interaction is between SSRIs and St. Johns Wort. St. Johns Wort is a plant that is thought to help mild depression. However, “as a result of its ability to induce CYP3A4, 2E1, 2C9 and P-glycoproteins,” it is dangerous in conjunction with SSRIs (Bleakly, 2016). This can cause “transplant rejections, reducing the effectiveness of oral contraceptives causing unintended pregnancies, and studies demonstrate reduced levels and effectiveness of warfarin, digoxin, methadone and some benzodiazepines” (Bleakly, 2016).
It has been found that for pregnant patients with heart failure that diuretics are the best drug of choice. There is no evidence that diuretics harm the baby whatsoever and “the use of diuretics in circumstances where the mother becomes symptomatic on the basis of increased preload complicating left ventricular dysfunction justifies the use of diuretic therapy as first-line treatment” (Anthony & Silwa, 2016). Beta Blockers should only be taken if the life of the mother or child are at risk and ACE Inhibitors, Spironolactone, or Nitroglycerine should not be taken at all (Anthony & Silwa, 2016).
Good luck on the midterm, everyone!
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NR 508 Week 4: Open Forum Discussion References
Anthony, J., & Sliwa, K. (2016). Decompensated Heart Failure in Pregnancy. Cardiac Failure Review, 2(1), 20–26. http://doi.org/10.15420/cfr.2015:24:2
Bleakly, S. (2016). Antidepressant drug interactions: Evidence and clinical significance. Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/pnp.429
National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). Definition of concomitant. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/concomitant
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