Obesity in the Elderly
Florida has the greatest proportion of older population in the country (Zevallos, Wilcox, Jean, & Acuna, 2016). In Florida, around 19% of the general population are people ages 65 or older (Zevallos et al., 2016). Elderly people living in Miami-Dade County are exposed to various health issues. However, obesity is among the most common problems. Around 67.4% of adult population in the county is obese (Division of Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2013). Taking into account the given statistics, it is necessary to introduce policies aimed at reducing the incidence of obesity and associated health problems among the community elderly (Holden & Norrell, 2014). This report aims to design the obesity prevention policy that will be further introduced to Lillian Rivera, RN, MSN, PhD, Administrator of the Miami-Dade County Health Department.
Formulating a Health Care Policy
It is suggested to reduce the incidence of obesity among Miami elderly through the educational intervention that is legislatively fixed at the county level. The objective of the educational intervention is to increase elderly people’s awareness of obesity risk-factors and strategies to respond to the problem. This section, thus, summarizes the information required for designing and implementing the initiative. Particular attention is paid to examining the context of change, setting goals, and assessing the proposed option.
Background
Obesity has become a matter of concern due to its effect on an individual’s health status. For instance, obesity is associated with hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, and dyslipidemia (Jahangir, De Schutter, & Lavie, 2014). At the moment, there is no single approach to reducing the incidence of obesity among adults and elderly. However, it is considered that a balanced consumption of calories is an effective solution to the problem (Black, 2014). To date, there have been submitted a number of initiatives aimed at reorganizing adult population’s eating habits. At the federal level, these initiatives include Food for Your Heart, introduced by American Heart Association, and Dietary and Coronary Heart Disease, proposed by U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Health Needs. Despite some progress, these initiatives should be complemented by new ones to facilitate the reduction of obesity rates among elderly population in specific communities.
Context
Obesity is one of the most urgent problems in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The constantly growing rate of obesity in the county is attributed to two major reasons: physical inactivity and poor diet. Indeed, around a quarter of the targeted population reported no physical activity within a month (Division of Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2013). However, the most important is the fact that only 22.1 % of the targeted population meets the Federal government’s guidelines for fruit and vegetable consumption (Division of Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2013). As a result of growing obesity, Miami elderly report a range of health problems. For instance, 62.6% of Florida elderly have high blood pressure (Zevallos et al., 2016). It is argued that health problems …
