Addressing Health Inequalities: Current Public Health Issues and Interventions for Obesity

This presentation discusses the current public health issues related to obesity in the UK and explores different types of interventions used to address this issue. It also highlights the role of statutory bodies and compares the roles of different healthcare professionals in promoting infection control. The presentation provides strategies aimed at reducing the incidence of disease in a local community and assesses the challenges for healthcare professionals in preventing the spread of disease.

ADDRESSING HEALTH
INEQUALITIES
TASK 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION
 P1: CURRENT PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES RELEVANT TO UK
 P2: USE OF POPULATION DATA TO HIGHLIGHT HEALTH DETERMINANTS CONTRIBUTING
TO OBESITY
 P3: DIFFERENT TYPES OF INTERVENTION USED TO ADDRESS OBESITY
 P4: DESCRIPTION ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF HEALTH INTERVENTION
 P5: STRATEGIES AIMED AT REDUCING THE INCIDENCE OF DISEASE IN A LOCAL
COMMUNITY
 P6: ROLE OF STATUTORY BODIES
 P7: COMPARE THE ROLES OF DIFFERENT HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
 P8 WAYS THAT HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS PROMOTE INFECTION CONTROL
 M4: ASSESS THE CHALLENGES FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS IN PREVENTING THE
SPREAD OF DISEASE
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
 Health inequalities is defined as the empirical conceptual frameworks to understand the
health status differences of individuals.
 This social determinant of health is defined as the situational conditions in terms of
socio-economic and political parameters which has an impact on the entire population.
 This presentation is based on understanding the multidimensional concept of obesity as
a social determinant.

P1: CURRENT PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES
RELEVANT TO UK
 Obesity is one of the public health concerns which impact the quality of living
standards in United Kingdom population.
 This is defined as the excessive or abnormal accumulation of fat in the adipose tissues
which affects the health adversely.
 It is also referred as the consumption of calories in the form of sugary and fatty foods
due to the modern lifestyle patterns.

CONTINUE…...
 Overweight is the resultant of this condition and is mostly measured using the Body
Mass Index (BMI).
 It has been demonstrated that there are two implications in terms of obesity, firstly the
reduced calorie intake and secondly, decreased intake of calories in absence of
government's activity.
 The individual's weight has been rising on consistent manner and sustained excess
energy which reflects on the high energy consumption than energy expenditure levels.

P2: USE OF POPULATION DATA TO HIGHLIGHT
HEALTH DETERMINANTS CONTRIBUTING TO
OBESITY
 Population data is useful in highlighting the health determinants of the current public
health issue by using statistics.
 The determinants of obesity include family influence, body mass index (BMI),
biological traits, surrounding environment, physical activity and nutrition.
 For example, there is a pattern of consumption between men and women regarding the
calories' intake and its effects on the mental well being and health of the individuals.

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 There are several associated risks such as health disease like diabetes and
cardiovascular diseases which impact the discreet contribution on the health of
individuals such as children and adults.
 Additionally, BMI has brought to radical changes that has impacted the cases of obesity
and shed light on its increasing prevalence among the children.

Cont..
• It has been noted that 1 out of 5 men and 1 out of
4 women in England are classified as physically
inactive.
• In addition, there are demonstrations that men are
more prone towards sedentary lifestyle where men
are spending 6 or more hours doing noting when
compared with women in both weekdays and
weekends.
• Overweight and obesity is the resultant of cancer
and smoking in the UK.
25/04
/19

Cont..
• The 15th Euro Obesity and Endocrinology Congress,
London, UK is going to be held in London, UK from
17th to 18th June 2019 with the theme as “ Convening
trivial keys to enormous risks in obesity and
endocrinology
• 21st Obesity Conference at international levels is going
to be held in London from 23rd to 24th May, 2019
• The below shows the relevancy of discussing this topic
on immediate basis to generate awareness about the
consequences of obesity on human population.
25/04
/19

P3: DIFFERENT TYPES OF INTERVENTION USED
TO ADDRESS OBESITY
 Public Health Intervention is refereed as the policy or effort to maintain the overall well
being of the entire population or an individual.
 There are different interventions such as primary, community- based, government led,
medical and instructional interventions which have been implemented to overcome the
obesity condition under ethical standards.

CONTINUE…...
PRIMARY/INSTRUCTIONAL INTERVENTIONS
 This is considered as the formal type of intervention in which family support and the
practitioners' participation is the most crucial.
 It is useful in minimising the effects of obesity by using strategies like adopting playing
sports or exercising, eating healthy options and following diet to manage the BMI
according to age and height.

CONTINUE…...
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS
 The focus is to integrate the government bodies in context to funding and making the
insurance policies flexible to make the patient centered care appropriate.
 They must try to promote health programs on the basis of national policies and other
bodies like PHE, NHS,CQC etc.

CONTINUE…...
COMMUNITY BASED INTERVENTIONS
 These interventions are useful in overcoming the obesity where the entire focus is on a
region or local area ad help the residents to understand the importance of healthy living
fruitfully.
 This includes community based activities to engage the children and adults in
discarding the unhealthy lifestyle patterns.

P4: DESCRIPTION ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF
HEALTH INTERVENTION
 It has been already established that there are several types of health interventions which
has proved effective to bring improvements at both local and national levels.
 These interventions have been proved beneficial to generate awareness regarding the ill
effects and negative consequences of obesity among both children and adults.

CONTINUE…...
AT NATIONAL LEVEL
 The primary interventions help in maintaining the awareness about obesity through
organizing events or programs to make people realize the need to adopt them on urgent
basis.
 The government interventions help in giving relevant platforms to people to take free
check ups and consultation processes to know about the status and BMI.
 Such interventions lead people to become health conscious and take immediate steps to
tackle this condition by adopting the instructions.

CONTINUE…...
AT LOCAL LEVEL
 The family based interventions strongly influence the affected individual and help in
supporting via unconditional terms.
 Here the focus is on parental modelling of exercise and eating habits where the
individual has been educated to follow the weight management plan efficiently.

P5: STRATEGIES AIMED AT REDUCING THE
INCIDENCE OF DISEASE IN A LOCAL
COMMUNITY
 The strategies are aiming at reducing the cases related to malnutrition and diet plans
which is on rise due to obesity in South Yorkshire.
 The children especially has been affected due to inclination towards snacking and
processed food available in the markets.
 It has also been seen that children are getting obese due to unhealthy lifestyle patterns
on the whole.
 The schools have initiated weight management programs in measuring the kids on
more regular basis to know about the BMI and plan activities accordingly.

CONTINUE…...
 Additionally, nurses and a medical team has been appointed to check the activities of
kids on weekly basis whether they have been allotted substantial amount of time on
physical activities like sports, swimming etc.
 Moreover, the local government led body has also collaborated to educate the teachers,
fitness trainees, dieticians, professionals like nurses etc.
 It supports in bridging the communication gaps and make the children more upfront
about their challenges and gradually start living a healthy lifestyle pattern.

P6: ROLE OF STATUTORY BODIES
 There is great need to understand the relevancy of forming regulatory bodies in
developing health protection strategies.
 These organizations play important role in improving and managing the patient centred
care at local, national and international levels.
 Such public health related bodies such as WHO, PHE, NHS, Clinical Commissioning
Groups etc. help in framing legislative outline to enforce the policies and regulations in
effectual ways.

CONTINUE…...
WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO):
 It serves as the specialized agency of the UN (United Nations) which was established in
1948.
 This agency helps as advisory board to the other national level organizations and also
assist in technical help or support any research program.

CONTINUE…...
PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND (PHE):
 This is national level authoritative regulatory body to protect the targeted population
from diseases and hazards like physical, environmental etc.
 The major purpose is to develop strategic planning and design the health system for
patient centered care.
 Along with, they guide and direct the other health institutions of UK and promote
cutting edge developments in this sector.

CONTINUE…...
LOCAL AUTHORITIES:
 This plays significant part in delivering the care services under proper layout of
national policies and act as bridge.
 This also lead in ensuring coordinated commissioning strategies to combine the NHS
services, social care by improving the health systems

P7: COMPARE THE ROLES OF DIFFERENT
HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
 There are several professionals working in the social care sector that help in the
prevention and control of the spread of disease.
 Their contribution is not comparable as each member has its own importance,
however, one must ensure that patients are risk prone and not vulnerable.
 This is possible only when collaborative approach is adopted for promoting the risk
management program.

P8 WAYS THAT HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
PROMOTE INFECTION
CONTROL
 Infection control is necessary tool to maintain healthy lifestyle throughout an
individual's life span.
 This is mitigated through complete analysis of spread of cause and other parameters
and accordingly help the affected population in mitigating it.
 There are several ways through which healthcare professionals working for the
promotion of infection control.
 Primarily, people lack the basic knowledge and education regarding the diseases and its
effects on the well being.

CONTINUE…...
 The individual responsible behaviour is important in this aspect, however people must
be given proper training about shaping the perspectives.
 The professionals must interact on one to one basis in order to make them realise the
importance of eating healthy and following healthier choices for sustenance.
 Along with, they must give specific instructions on the energy intake or calories to stay
away from unnecessary unhealthy food substitutes.

M4: ASSESS THE CHALLENGES FOR
HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS IN
PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF DISEASE
 There are several factors that affect the professionals in their working practices for
safeguarding the patients and their families as well.
 There is lack of social awareness among professionals who belong to different cultures
and sometimes adopt the traditional ways of preventive measures.
 Absence of Education and proper training programs given to the professionals who
further are not able to help the patients and their families in understanding the root
cause of the spread of diseases.

CONTINUE…...
 Surveillance systems also lack the flexibility and active participation which is required
to make the public realize about spread of disease.
 There are several outbreaks that lead towards the absence of basic amenities while
dealing with such emergency situation and make the professionals forcefully adopt the
measures which is not useful.
 There are also lack of financial resources that help the professional in adopting the
strategies to make people fully equipped with the necessary details to fight against and
disease or spread of infection.

CONCLUSION
 It has been emphasized that health inequalities are evident due to several factors like
lack of education, poverty or policy making.
 The public health issue of obesity has been plaguing the United Kingdom population
from decades and must be intervened with strict adherence.
 It has also shed light on the role of interventions and its types that has provided a
platform to mitigate the effects of social determinants of health.

REFERENCES
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University Press.

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