200 words for each respond

1)

Obesity has become a common and problematic epidemic within the United States in which communities are gathering in forces to provide prevention tactics for the individuals as well as family oriented to encourage healthier lifestyle choices. Currently today an estimate of about 39% of the population struggled with obesity and unfortunately about 18.5% of these overweight categories were centered on youth in particular (Kelly, 2019).  Being obese adds to increased risk of various kinds of debilitating illnesses and the criteria for obesity has now been clearly defined by the measurement of the body mass index in which health providers can effectively begin aggressive prevention once diagnosed. Heart disease, diabetes, psychological, and lifestyle issues with supposed potential cancers have been researched in the overall illness range that obesity influences (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). Contributing factors that increase the likelihood of overweight tendencies surface from genetic and socioeconomic influences. Those who have family that struggle with weight gain are highly likely to struggle also. Ethnic races have shown Hispanic and African American are the highest rates on obesity, 50% in both, while Caucasian and Asian are the lowest ranging scale of 37% to 12%. (Healthy People 2020, 2019).

            Tactics to promote healthy lifestyles within a community are bringing awareness and prevention opportunities for families and individuals who acknowledged the risk factors of certain obesity formation. Individual or family adapted health behavior changes, prompts to encourage walking paths, trails, or public organizations that encourage healthy lifestyle such as the YMCA , enhanced school-based physical education with nutrition promotion and media campaigns that deliver the messages by television, social media, newspaper or radio are strong community strategies that can address the obesity epidemic today.

            We as nurses can act as role models by educating the public on nutrition and obesity related problems.  A healthy diet is a key component to reducing weight gain and overall health. As a community health nurse, the opportunity to closely work with people in providing education and healthier choices that help people feel they have options for nutrition can be seen as a personal counselor to develop goals and a plan for positive achievement. A form of exercise to complement the healthy diet can be applied by giving support to help individuals identify a safe and effective activity plan that they will stick to with encouragement to use public outlets. The community nurse can promote change by explaining the risk factors that cause obesity and provide more scientific elements of the health issue. By opening communication through means of community boards, social media, and leaflets or presentations in public areas such as YMCA or Health Department interest can be supported by explaining change does not have to be drastic or scary and prevention begins with self-management. Youth can be reached with after school programs that explain the fad/crash diets. Activity for youth can be encouraged by providing exercise projects after school such as the YMCA basketball or volleyball competitions. Once proper information and support is achieved the goal of personal investment with community involvement can bring about positive results in battling obesity.

References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Community health assessment and health improvement plans. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/stltpublichealth/cha/assessment.html

Healthy People 2020 (Internet). (2019). Washington, dc: department of health and human services, office of disease prevention and health promotion. Retrieved from https:// www.healthypeople.gov/2020/tools-resources/Evidenc-Based-Resources

Kelley, A. (2019). Obesity and environmental interventions in tribal nations. American Journal of Public Health, 109(1), 21.https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304828

2)

• My health concern is smoking prevention among the young adults in my community. According to Song and Ling (2011), the incidence of smoking among young adults is very high. The authors report that most young adults usually begin the habit of smoking before the age of 18 years. During the period of adolescence, peer group influence is very common as these individuals try to find their identity. This behavior continues into young adulthood and the addictive property of nicotine make the habit difficult to avoid even if persons want to stop smoking. Fortunately, young adults who quit smoking before the age of 30 have a good chance of reducing the long-term effects of smoking (Song & Ling, 2011). In addition, the authors found that young adults are more likely to quit smoking than adults. Reading this article gave me some encouraging for my project. Finding the right strategies might be helpful in curtailing the habit of smoking in my target group of young adults.
   I will be using three nursing intervention strategies to address the problem of smoking. They are health teaching, social marketing, and collaboration. Health teaching is an effective strategy because it provides information that can be effective in behavior change. Different methods can be used in health teaching. These include video presentations, Power Point presentations, lectures, question and answer forums, and charades. Many times, persons practice certain behaviors because they become habits for them; smoking is one such behavior. Health teaching can therefore help young adults to understand the present effects of smoking on their health and the long-term effects on their quality of life.
  Social marketing is a relatively new health promotion strategy. This strategy can be effective in changing attitudes toward health and promoting behavior change (Campbell, Finlay, Lucas, Neal, & Williams, 2014).  Health messages can be relayed to the target audience through different methods including billboard advertising, radio, television, the internet and other social media platforms. Other social marketing strategies include promoting the health message through other young persons who can model the behavior change to other young adults.
  Collaboration is also a very good nursing intervention strategy for effecting behavior change in my target group. Collaboration involves joining forces with community groups like the public health department, business leaders, community leaders, and key persons in the community. The three strategies mentioned earlier, can be integrated to make the effort more effective. Forming a liaison with business leaders can be helpful with the social marketing strategy. The business leaders will have the capital and the skills set to promote the social marketing strategy. The business leaders can also be helpful in providing the venue for the health teaching.
  References
  Campbell, M. A., Finlay, S., Lucas, K., Neal, N., & Williams, R. (2014). Kick the habit: A social marketing campaign by aboriginal communities in NSW. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 20(4), 327-333. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/PY14037
  Song, A. V. & Ling, P. (2011). Social smoking among young adults: Investigation of intentions and attempts to quit. American Journal of Public Health, 101(7), 1291-6. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/877968620?accountid=34574