Diabetes Health Promotion Intervention in London Borough of Hellingdon

This article discusses the health promotion intervention for diabetes in London Borough of Hellingdon through social media campaign. It covers the rationale for choosing diabetes, health needs of diabetes patients, benefits of the campaign, and the campaign strategy. The article also provides tips for diabetes management and evaluation of the campaign.

DIABETES HEALTH PROMOTION INTERVENTION
Diabetes
Diabetes is the life-long condition that increases the blood sugar level. It is the chronic illness and is one of the
major health concerns in many developing and developed countries (Papaspurou et al. 2015). In 2014, 422 million
adults were living with diabetes (World Health Organization 2016). Talking about UK, as per 2016/17 reports 3.5
million people diagnosed with diabetes (Hillingdon.gov.uk 2018).
(World Health Organization, 2016)
Diabetes - London borough of
Hellingdon
 In London borough of Hellingdon, 17,618 people over 17
years of age, are diagnosed with Diabetes as per the Quality
Outcomes Framework (QOF) (2016-17). This is slightly
above the average 6.5% in London. The total population in
this borough in 2016 was 20,940 (Hillingdon.gov.uk 2018).
 According to Team (2016), number of diabetes in Hellingdon
by next 20 years will increase to 8,363. It calls for immediate
intervention.
 Majority may have type 2 diabetes due to increasing
prevalence of obesity and lifestyle factors
Rationale
The rationale for the choice of the disease for health promotion intervention -
 The rationale for choosing this disease is the comorbidities and
complications
 Adults are at high risk of heart attack and stroke, kidney disease,
retinopathy, amputation, and others (Papaspurou et al. 2015)
 Across the world there were 1.5 million deaths in 2012 (World
Health Organization 2016)
 By 2035, there will be 895,489 diabetes sufferers in 330 boroughs
of London and 3.3% of them will live in Hillingdon (Team 2016).
Health needs of Diabetes patients
 Awareness on disease management- Diabetics needs awareness on lifestyle changes such as exercises,
physical activity, monitoring of symptoms, and dietary changes. People with low education attainment
have poor awareness on diabetes management compared to people with high educational attainment.
People with diabetes show curiosity on lifestyle changes and learn importance of physical; activity.
There are people aware of dietary changes but fail to implement because of lack of access to
nutritionist and adequate information from nurses (Vivienne et al. 2014)
 Psychological support- Diabetes comes with the emotional and psychological problems such as
depression, anxiety and emotional distress due to complications. Therefore, the patients are in need of
support such as counselling sessions, referral to therapists, dialectic interventions, and other mental
health programs such as motivational counselling. Addressing this need is the important part of the
diabetes care delivery (Papaspurou et al. 2015; Verma et al. 2017).
 Education - Diabetics need education on self examination of glucose, insulin injection, recognise and
prevent hypoglycaemia, recognising complications and seeking support and preventing foot infections
(Rosales et al. 2017).
Health promotion intervention – Social
media campaign
Considering the severity of the heath concerns and needs of Diabetes, a health
promotion plan is developed. The health promotion intervention chosen for this
purpose is the social media campaign to address the health needs of the Diabetic
people in London borough of Hellingdon. The aim of the campaign is to reduce
the diabetes prevalence in this borough. Two tools of Social networking sites
that will be used are Facebook and Twitter (Lim 2016; Thornicroft 2011).
The objectives of the social media campaigns are-
 Increase awareness about disease management- such as lifestyle
changes and preventive steps
 health education – recognise complications and techniques to track
hypoglycaemia
 Increase access to mental health support programs
Rationale for social media campaign
Social media campaign are considered the “evidence
based option” and is most widely used method for health promotion.
Every day millions of people use social media for varied purposes.
Health care providers use social networking sites, websites and blogs
for promoting health. It is evident from websites like “Medscape”
and Facebook promotions such as “Breast cancer prevention
Facebook page”.. Facebook users exceed one billion and over 100
million for Twitter (Thornicroft 2011). Therefore, this strategy is
employed for health promotion intervention to reduce diabetes rates
in London borough of Hellingdon. The tool helps nurses and
volunteers communicate with large number of people in small span of
time (Mirowsky 2017).
The target population for the social media campaign –
adolescents and adults
Campaign strategy
The stakeholders are- physicians specialized in health education and nurses and mangers from various counties to
supervise the intervention. Next step is to build partnership with Non-Governmental organisation for funding (Ventola
2014). Standard guidelines of CDC will be followed as framework such as Brand identity standards. Take safety
approval prior to implementation of campaign and conduct privacy impact assessment (CDC Social Media Best
Practices 2018)
Time frame for the plan- one year and continue if needed further.
Budget- low cost budget that is $100 for preparing videos, graphics and brochures and posters on diabetic
diet, types of exercises, self monitoring of glucose and motivational speeches, information referral services in London
borough of Hillingdon. There will be two months of skills share. Further, money will be used for social media
management, schedule posts, Instagram marketing (CDC Social Media Best Practices 2018)
Benefits of campaign to target population
 Improved awareness of exercises, proper diet and healthy
habits on diabetes management and recognition of
complications
 Increased participation of the target population in dietary
counselling, physical activity programs and regular
exercises
 Increased access to the mental health programs for
emotional and the psychological support
 Increased communication between the health care
providers
 Increased participation in screening services (Hunter et al.
2014)
Health promotion
 Post videos, graphics and brochures and posters on diabetic diet, types of exercises, self monitoring
of glucose and motivational speeches, information referral services in London borough of Hillingdon
(Thornicroft 2011)
 Give people the access to like, comment and share their feedback and posts
 Nurses to address the patient’s concerns
 Help with insurance programs to better access health services
 Nurses to provide tailored information to meet the patient’s needs on fruits and vegetable choices,
Insulin therapy and other new interventions
 (Potter et al. 2016)
Health messages will use words like “join now to beat diabetes”, “diabetes diet
plan”, “Act now’, “win over diabetes”, “Say no to sedentary style”
Evaluation
 Increase in awareness about diabetes and complications
 increase in screening activities or participation in mental health programs and diet counselling
 increasing rate of participation in physical activity due to motivation
 There may be barriers to access to mental health program due to stereotyping and stigmatisation
 lack of effective feedback monitoring
 The campaign message may not be specific for given local community, it is fixed and can be misunderstood by people
with low education
 The drawback can be overcome by tracking the increase in traffic to Twitter and Facebook (Adobe SiteCatalyst)
 Further strategy to track barriers to mental health programs and diet counselling - surveys and interviews
 Access chart beat to see number of visitors on site in real time ad make changes to media content to address time
intensive problem of campaign (Cdc.gov. 2018).
References
CDC Social Media Best Practices. 2018. CDC Social Media Tools, Guidelines & Best Practices. www.cdc.gov. Retrieved 16 April 2018, from
https://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/tools/guidelines/index.html
Cdc.gov. 2018. Facebook Guidelines Best Practices | Social Media | CDC. Cdc.gov. Retrieved 16 April 2018, from
https://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/tools/guidelines/facebook-guidelines.html
Hillingdon.gov.uk., 2018. Diabetes. [online] hillingdon.gov.uk. Available at: https://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/article/29740/Diabetes [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018].
Hunter, R.F., Tully, M.A., Donnelly, P., Stevenson, M. and Kee, F., 2014. Knowledge of UK physical activity guidelines: Implications for better targeted health
promotion. Preventive medicine, 65, pp.33-39.
Lim, W. M. 2016. Social media in medical and health care: opportunities and challenges. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(7), 964-976.
Mirowsky, J. 2017. Education, social status, and health. Routledge. Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=Hqw0DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT8&dq=higher+level+of+education+is+associated+with+better+outcomes&ots=0lEyjdqGkf&sig=WkP3K5sZ
0XlZ90njvTOs7kFg4Mo#v=onepage&q=higher%20level%20of%20education%20is%20associated%20with%20better%20outcomes&f=false
Papaspurou, M., Laschou, V.C., Partsiopoulou, P., Fradelos, E.C., Kleisiaris, C.F., Kalota, M.A., Neroliatsiou, A. and Papathanasiou, I.V., 2015. Fears and health
needs of patients with diabetes: A qualitative research in rural population. Medical Archives, 69(3), p.190.
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P., and Hall, A. 2016. Fundamentals of Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from:
https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=eCKKCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Fundamentals+of+Nursing&ots=oSOeDD4xpz&sig=b4xOkzOGTCQ9TYC2EnFWFiXTvRk#v=onep
age&q=Fundamentals%20of%20Nursing&f=false
Rosales, C.B., de Zapien, J.E.G., Chang, J., Ingram, M., Fernandez, M.L., Carvajal, S.C. and Staten, L.K., 2017. Perspectives on a US–Mexico Border
Community’s Diabetes and “Health-Care” Access Mobilization Efforts and Comparative Analysis of Community Health Needs over 12 Years. Frontiers in public
health, 5, p.152.
Team, U.. 2016. Hillingdon has one of the lowest diabetes rates in capital but the problem is growing. [online] Urbs.london. Available at:
http://urbs.london/diabetes-in-hillingdon/4382 [Accessed 18 Apr. 2018].
Thornicroft, G. (Ed.). 2011. Oxford textbook of community mental health. Oxford University Press. Retrived from: https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=v6Lmp8sUZf4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=Oxford+Textbook+of+Community+Mental+Health&ots=r50M4K11fI&sig=Ib5s1pWRaTKhRXcjn5pZxy
Tips!!!
 On time medication
 Brisk walking
 Exercise- Healthy weight
 Healthy diet
 Insulin therapy