Social Determinants in Healthcare
Abstract
Diabetes and obesity have recently become a great concern among children below ten. The McAllen Pediatric health facility in Texas is renowned for offering several services to its patients, including children suffering from obesity. The community has a population of more than 6,000 children below ten years. Therefore people must take major steps to prevent obesity and other associated diseases such as heart disease and obesity. The healthcare system is putting in strategies and using vast resources to help prevent obesity through awareness where individuals are motivated to change their lifestyles and those of their children if they want obesity prevented. This paper discusses methods that obesity has impacted the healthcare system, its causes, and measures to prevent it from an early age in an individual’s life.
Social Determinants in Healthcare
The Setting of the Facility
The McAllen children’s clinic is a pediatric health facility in South Texas. It focuses on treating and helping in the prevention of obesity and also the management of obesity and other diseases that affect children. It offers both outpatient and inpatient services to children. Furthermore, it is equipped with the most current screening procedures and technology that is certain to offer the proper healthcare that every child in the community needs. The McAllen medical facility has several qualified professionals, physicians, and staff that are confident to take care of the children in a very friendly way and treat them professionally in the manner required.
Describe the chosen population
Texas is a big state located in the southern part of the United States. It borders Mexico. The American Census report concluded in the year 2020, reported that the population of more than 29 million people with over 70,000 residing in the McAllen community. There are over 8 million children aged below 18 years living in Texas. Twenty thousand of these children reside in the great community of McAllen. More than 6,000 children aged below ten years reside in the McAllen community. The pediatric center in the McAllen community serves as a great medical facility for the community due to the large population of children staying in the McAllen community.
How do social determinants affect the population’s health status?
Social determinants of health are the conditions under which a person is born, lives, learn, learns, or works. Studies have shown that Policies across several sectors affect health status and health services (Wallace et al., 2019). They consist of several things that affect an individual’s health and quality of life. They entail tangible factors such as socioeconomic conditions and political and cultural constructs. Other factors include education systems, safe environmental conditions, accessibility to health care, personal behavior choices, availability of healthy foods, and genetic and biological factors.
In Texas, specifically the McAllen community, the social determinants that affect the health of the residents include the choice of food since the residents love junky foods. Furthermore, there are many well-doing fast food outlets in the community. Besides the social determinants, an offspring inherits biological and genetic factors from obese parents. For instance, an obese child inherits genes from obese parents, and their behavioral choices may be affected when they opt for an unhealthy lifestyle, especially when they do not take good care of themselves and opt for unhealthy foods besides avoiding exercise. This has resulted in many individuals suffering from diabetes and obesity. One in every five households in the community will be obese, with children and parents being obese. Every one in three households has an individual with either diabetes or obesity, or both (Calcaterra et al.,2022). The number of children with diabetes and obesity is also high since, besides inheriting bad genes, they also practice bad behaviors of unhealthy eating. Healthcare facilities have started to solve these issues of social determinants by buying healthy foods to the patients (Castrucci & Auerbach,2019) Social Determinants in Healthcare
How does this health status affect the demand for health care?
The increase in the number of individuals suffering from obesity, specifically children, has resulted in a high demand for healthcare services to try and prevent the diseases associated with obesity, such as coronary diseases and obesity. This has strained the healthcare system since it attempts not to treat the patients besides teaching them the measures to undertake to help them prevent the occurrence of obesity and other diseases associated with it. The need to control these bad behaviors at an early age in an individual’s life is significant since it would help improve the individual’s health would also help reduce the expenditure in the healthcare system. That is why the pediatric health facility with professional physicians is important to the McAllen community. The professionals offer the necessary health advice to the community members. The health facility receives several patients with diabetes and obesity, and the residents have prioritized the prevention of these two diseases.
Ways this health issue can be addressed.
Children suffering from obesity should get more attention toward preventing long-lasting risks for upcoming chronic diseases(DeBoer,2019). There are numerous ways that diabetes and obesity can be solved and prevented simultaneously. One of the primary ways that help solve the issue is by practicing healthy eating habits. Individuals, including children, should watch what they eat. The American Heart Association, the World Health Organization, and the American Heart Association have recommended dietary changes among children as the primary approach to address this issue (DeBoer, 2019). They encourage a high intake of fruits and vegetables and, at the same time, reduce the consumption of sugar and saturated fats instead of unsaturated fats such as olive oil and other vegetable oil.
Another key approach is exercising since it burns body fats and aids in keeping an individual in shape. With regular exercise, obesity can not only be prevented from an early age but also be curbed. The management of obesity can be improved by using a tiered system that involves health management centers, cohesive lifestyle involvements, strong obesity education and awareness, and progressive electronic health technologies. Resource mobilization, support from key stakeholders for individuals with obesity or overweight, and education and transformations to social norms among the public are also essential (Zeng et al., 2021). The National health regulations should prioritize the prevention of obesity and also improve its treatment and management.
Conclusion
Obesity is one of the main issues affecting the global population. Several individuals die from diseases or complications associated with obesity. It is a global menace that needs much attention, and health institutions across the globe have put much effort into solving the issue. Health facilities in Texas spend many resources on making sure that obesity is curbed and also prevented at an early stage in an individual’s life. Fast food joints and processing factories have been encouraged to deal with foods with low cholesterol. Residents are encouraged to eat healthy foods and make sure they exercise regularly.
References APA
Calcaterra, V., Verduci, E., Vandoni, M., Rossi, V., Fiore, G., Massini, G., … & Zuccotti, G. (2022). The Effect of Healthy Lifestyle Strategies on the Management of Insulin Resistance in Children and Adolescents with Obesity: A Narrative Review. Nutrients, 14(21), 4692.
Castrucci, B., & Auerbach, J. (2019). Meeting individual social needs falls short of addressing social determinants of health. Health Affairs Blog, 10(10.1377).
DeBoer, M. D. (2019). Assessing and managing the metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents. Nutrients, 11(8), 1788.
Wallace, S. P., Young, M. E. D. T., Rodríguez, M. A., & Brindis, C. D. (2019). A social determinants framework identifying state-level immigrant policies and their influence on health. SSM-population health, 7, 100316.
Zeng, Q., Li, N., Pan, X. F., Chen, L., & Pan, A. (2021). Clinical management and treatment of obesity in China. The lancet Diabetes & endocrinology, 9(6), 393-405.
