Empowerment in Obesity and Diabetes Prevention

This essay discusses the role of empowerment, engagement, and motivation in preventing obesity and diabetes type II. It explores the social determinants and health promotion activities for these chronic diseases.

Running head: EMPOWERMENT IN OBESITY AND DIABETES PREVENTION
EMPOWERMENT IN OBESITY AND DIABETES
PREVENTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EMPOWERMENT IN OBESITY AND DIABETES PREVENTION
Diabetes type II is a chronic disease which has a large effect on the cardiovascular
system as well as on other organs. In diabetes type II human body does not respond to the
insulin that controls the blood sugar level in the blood and later the insulin secretion of the
body lessen in a manner that there is no enough insulin for proper control. The insulin is the
key enzyme that catalyses the glucose entrance in the cell and thus metabolism of the
product. However, without the proper amount of insulin the glucose metabolism stops and the
sugar level as well as the glycogen level of the body rises exponentially leading to the obese
condition. The main causes of diabetes type II are lifestyle, unhealthy eating, and obesity and
overweight (Bhupathiraju & Hu, 2016). The incidence and prevalence risen up to 10.4% from
1980 to 2014 in which the 90% of the diabetes patients reported to have diabetes type II and
it is the 7th leading cause of death in USA (Lewinski et al., 2017). The mortality and
morbidity rate increased as the result of the diabetes type II, 1. 6 million people died in 2016
from this disease (Who.int, 2019). Whereas, obesity has its own stake in the diabetes type II
development in the body as the obese condition prevents the insulin production of the body.
These two chronic diseases are most common ones in present days and needed to be
controlled thus the health promotion activities such as empowerment, engagement and
motivation would be needed for the awareness development among people. Empowerment
refers to a process which helps people in gaining control over factors and decisions that
properly drive their lives. It is the process by which they increase their assets and attributes
and build capacities to gain access, partners, networks and a voice, in order to gain control.
People gain empowerment through knowledge, skills and motivation. Empowerment assumes
that people are their own assets, and maintain control over their own determinants that
influence health (Who.int, 2019). Whereas, engaging with the people means the contact and
conversations that helps people to trust the health care personnel and also build a positive
relationship between them (Dietz, 2015). On the other hand the motivation is the key factor

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for the patients to motivation for the hard works or fight against the ill medical conditions of
their physical body (Robinson et al., 2015). The following essay would focus on the
discussion about the obesity and diabetes type II prevention on the basis of the health
promotion factors such as the empowerment, engagement and motivation along with the
determination of social factors contributing in these diseases.
Now I am going to explain my concept map about the social determinants of diabetes
type II and obesity and the health promotion factors of these two diseases. Here the diabetes
type II and obesity are the most common chronic diseases as the mortality rate from these
diseases increased up to 56% in the world population (Diabetes.co.uk, 2019). The social
factors or the social determinants which have crucial effects over the health condition of any
community people and leads to obesity and diabetes type II are the physical factors that are
the gender, age, unhealthy diet, exercise and employment; psychological factors that are the
education, employment, anxiety, stress; environmental factors that are the smoking,
alcoholism, addiction, community, accommodation (Helvaci et al., 2018). Here, almost 1
person in 6 people has obesity in the middle age (25-30 year old) and the male diseased are
greater in number than the female ones (Who.int, 2019). Thus resulting in the cohort risk of
diabetes type II disease among the people over 40 years old and the lack of knowledge or
education about obesity or diabetes prevention measures and lack of discipline causes these
diseases to prevail in present situation (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019).
Now the community environments are also one of the stakeholders in this disease
development as the overcrowded situation and overcrowded housing conditions and the
employment factors of the community also play a key role in the development of these
diseases (Mills, Rosenberg & McInerney, 2015). On the other hand smoking and drinking
alcohol affects the cardiovascular and liver function thus the proper digestion and insulin

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EMPOWERMENT IN OBESITY AND DIABETES PREVENTION
secretion could not function properly thus the obese condition arises and the diabetes type II
develops.
In order to prevent this ill condition the Government and the health organisations
needed to assess all the social determinants and develop health promotion programs in the
communities. Here, the health promotion activities would be taken as the prevention method
of the obesity and the diabetes type II disease are the empowerment, engagement and the
motivation for the community people. Empowerment would include the factors such as the
skill development that is the obesity control measures. Daily exercise, low calorie food
consumption, weight lose and other factors to control obesity would be included in the skill
development factor (Bartels et al., 2015). Empowerment also includes the parent
empowerment, children education and the education of the target group that is the middle
aged people (25-30 year old). The empowerment program would also comprise of the
education about the proper medication process to prevent obesity and the diabetes type II
(Sak, Rothenfluh & Schulz, 2017). The empowerment program could be done through the
social media network or practical examples such as role playing, visual interpretations and
other means. Whereas, the engaging factor comprises of conveying message, communicating
with community people, detecting the problems of the people, solving the problem and
supporting them in the context of health promotion. The engaging program also includes the
social network uses and involving the stakeholders such as Government and the health
oragnisations with the health professionals to build positive relationships with the victims of
these diseases and to aware other people (Montesi et al., 2016). This also includes the
interactions with family, students, teachers and monitoring the community as well. On the
other hand the motivation program depends on the counselling process which builds self
motivation among the diseased people to prevent the effects of these diseases. The motivation
process also targets the middle aged (25-30 year old) people who are vulnerable to these

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EMPOWERMENT IN OBESITY AND DIABETES PREVENTION
diseases and the other community people. The motivation process will lead to evocation and
collaboration with the people as well and the self motivation would help in building up
positive perception, fitness, and socialization, enjoyment among the people who suffers from
obesity or diabetes type II thus leading to stress free healthy lifestyle.
Among all these three health promotion factors motivation and empowerment of the
community people would be included in the future health promotion activity of the
community nurse as these are the most crucial factors in the prevention of the chronic
diseases. The empowerment program of the community people would be helpful in the
knowledge development of the people in the context of the healthy living practices and the
prevention of obesity and diabetes type II. Whereas, the motivation would lead to the
practical engagement of the people in development of the prevention measures of the earlier
mentioned diseases and also help in the awareness development about the ill effects of
obesity and diabetes type II (Burton et al., 2016). However, engagement with the people of
the community is needed to deliver all these health promotion activities in a positive manner
towards the targeted people. In this manner the health promotion program of third assignment
would include the empowerment, engagement and the motivation program and help in the
awareness rising and problem solving of diabetes type II patients in the community.
Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that health promotion in
community would be effectively needed for the prevention of obesity and diabetes type II.
The health promotion comprised of empowerment, engagement with the people and
motivation for them as well. Early health promotion for young people and also determining
the social determinants would be needed to prevent these diseases. The use of social media as
motivational and empowering tool would attract the young people towards this program.

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EMPOWERMENT IN OBESITY AND DIABETES PREVENTION
References
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