Cholesterol: Risk Factors, Intervention and Teaching Plan

This article discusses the risk factors, intervention and teaching plan for high blood cholesterol level. It explains how poor diet and lack of physical exercises contribute to the disorder and how lifestyle modification can help. The article also includes a teaching plan based on the teach-back method and colorful pamphlets for better understanding. Effective evaluation methods are also discussed.

Running head: CHOLESTEROL
CHOLESTEROL
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Introduction:
The health disorder that has been recognized in the family is high blood cholesterol level.
Obesity with poor diet and lack of physical exercises is mainly seen to be the contributing factors
for the disorder. Therefore, this assignment would show how the risk factor is contributing to the
disorder and the intervention that can be allocated for overcoming the disorder. A teaching plan
would be also developed for educating patients about the way to maintain a healthy lifestyle free
from high cholesterol complications.
Preventable Disease Overview:
Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is found in the lipid content of the blood. Studies are
of the opinion that body requires cholesterol for the development of healthy living cells.
However, too much of this compound can result in increasing the risk of heart disorders. When
individuals are seen to have high cholesterol level, fatty deposits would be found in the blood
vessels (Woodruff et al., 2015). This makes it difficult for enough blood to flow in the arteries.
Heart will not be able to have enough oxygen-rich blood as it needs. This increases the risk of
the heart disorders. Poor diet like eating of saturated fat present in animal products as well as
Trans-fat increases the cholesterol level. Exercise boosts the development of good cholesterol
and increases the size of particles making the bad cholesterol. In this way, exercise makes the
situation less harmful. Therefore, poor diet and lack of exercises increases the chance of
cholesterol. Symptoms and signs are not present as such and cholesterol tests are done to identify
their levels in blood. When this is found beyond the normal range, the patient may be seen to
suffer from complications.

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Description of this intervention:
Apart from the various pharmacological interventions, researches also show the
importance of management of lifestyles as an effective intervention for high cholesterol
management. Two important steps that should be included in the lifestyle management sessions
is eating of heart-healthy food and exercise on most of the days of the week and increase
physical activity. The researchers had described the importance of the reduction of the saturated
foods, elimination of the trans fat as well as eating of the foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty
acids. Increasing soluble fiber as well as adding whey protein was also recommended
(Colantonio et al., 2015). The studies have stated the important of adding physical activities in
short intervals several times a day and this can help in losing weight and controlling obesity.
This would help in the controlling of the modifiable risks factors of poor diet and poor physical
activities. The short-term goals would be developing the health literacy of the patients regarding
the risks associated with the disorder. The long-term goals would be modification of their
lifestyle regarding the diet and weight management (Dasseux et al., 2014).
Implementation: Teaching Plan:
The teaching plan would be mainly based on the teach-back method. Initially the patient
would be discussed in details about the disorder in a nonprofessional language without the use of
any technical jargons. The patient should be discussed about the modifiable risk factors and state
how they result in the development of the disorder. The patient would be motivated to identify
his own lifestyle that contributes to the development (Kelly et al., 2015). Through motivational
interviewing, the patient would be motivated to change the risk factors. Studies are of the

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opinion that interventions like diet management and exercising only acts well when patients are
motivated. Therefore, the teach-back method would help the nurse to identify whether the patient
had understood the entre session. The nurse would be also able to understand whether the person
is motivated or not (Song, 2017). To make the sessions more exciting and less strenuous, colorful
pamphlets with diagrammatic representation would help the patients to understand the disorders
well. The pamphlets can be also handed to the patient to be carried home so that they can also
follow them when required by them.
Evaluation:
For effective evaluation of the success of the intervention, the first test that should be
done is the lipid profile test. This would help in measuring the total cholesterol level, low-
density-level as well as high-density level and even the content of the triglycerides. These would
help me to identity whether the diet management intervention had positive effects of the lipid
content in the body of the patient (Mahvan et al., 2015). Secondly, the weight of the patient
would also indicate whether exercise regimen allocated to the patient had helped in reducing the
weight of the patient or not.
Summary:
From the entire discussion, it becomes clear that cholesterol when present in high level in
the body can cause many cardiac complications. Out of the different modifiable risk factors, poor
diet and sedentary lifestyle can result in development of the disorder. Hence, in this situation,
nurses might encourage the patients to undertake lifestyle modification interventions like heart-
healthy foods with low fat content and exercise and physical activities. The nurses might take the
help of teach-back method to develop health literacy and motivational interviewing for lifestyle

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behavior determination in the patients. Effective evaluation like lipid profile tests and weight
management are important to measure the success rate of the interventions.

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References:
Colantonio, L. D., Baber, U., Banach, M., Tanner, R. M., Warnock, D. G., Gutiérrez, O. M., ... &
Muntner, P. (2015). Contrasting cholesterol management guidelines for adults with
CKD. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 26(5), 1173-1180.
Dasseux, J. L. H., & Oniciu, C. D. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,642,653. Washington, DC: U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office.
Kelly, S. C., Li, S., & Petrasko, M. (2015). Implementing the 2013 cholesterol management
guidelines into clinical practice. South Dakota Medicine.
Mahvan, T. D., Hilaire, M. L., Vigil, A., & Mlodinow, S. (2015). cholesterol management in
Geriatric Patients: new Guidelines. The Consultant Pharmacist®, 30(2), 68-76.
Song, T. J. (2017). Cholesterol Management After Stroke. In Stroke Revisited: Diagnosis and
Treatment of Ischemic Stroke(pp. 285-294). Springer, Singapore.
Woodruffe, S., Neubeck, L., Clark, R. A., Gray, K., Ferry, C., Finan, J., ... & Briffa, T. G.
(2015). Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association (ACRA) core
components of cardiovascular disease secondary prevention and cardiac rehabilitation
2014. Heart, Lung and Circulation, 24(5), 430-441.