Functional Health Patterns Community Assessment

This article discusses the functional health patterns community assessment of Long Island, New York, including the summary of the community, interview findings, and the issue of obesity among the population.

Running head: FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PATTERNS COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PATTERNS COMMUNITY
ASSESSMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PATTERNS COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
Introduction
Functional health providence is a factor that can be achieved by the proper assessment of
the area of interest. Here the Long Island population of New York would be the place where the
health providence should be improved. On the basis of the assessment of the place it has been
found that there are several problems regarding the cultural and the lifestyle aspects of the
community. Hence, the health provider is interviewed and on the basis of the interview the
following section would be discussing about the summary of the community and the interview
outcome along with the health issue of the community.
Summary of Community
Total area of the Long Island is approximately 1400 square meter and it has been
differentiated into four counties that are Kings County, Queens County, Nassau County and
Suffolk County. According to the census data the community of the Long Island is consisting of
7.5 million people approximately in the year 2017 (Usgs.gov, 2019). Hence, it can be said that
the Island is over populated. The population is consists of 40 percent Catholic religious people
and also 20.5 percent Hispanic and Latin ethnic people (Tyrrell, 2019). On the other hand it can
also be seen that the population has the predominance of African American race of people as the
percentage of these people can be depicted as 20.4 percentages (Eidler, 2018). Hence, it can
easily be seen that the community is a multicultural however; the predominance of Catholic
religion is prominent. On the other hand the multi origin of people also puts an impact over the
lifestyle of the people of the community. The factor of the socio-economic structure also can be
described as in a good condition as majority of people are service holders and the amount of

2FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PATTERNS COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
salary they draw that is $100,000 to more than $200,000. The percentage of people obtaining the
salary of $100,000 to $149,000 range is 20 percent on the other hand 16 percent of people draw
more than $200,000 (Osc.state.ny.us, 2019). Thus it can easily be seen that the majority of
people are from the moderate to high socio-economic group. On the basis of this discussion it
can be said that the Long Island has a population of people with different beliefs and origin and
the lifestyle of the community is sedentary as well as there are a number of educational
institutions and the approximately 1300 companies are situated in the Island.
Summary of Interview
On the basis of the interview of the health provider it can be seen that the person is an
experienced person in different sectors of the public health providence and also has a good
amount of knowledge in the sector. On the other hand she has a good observation on the
population of the Long Island. She is the person responsible for the public health providence and
conveying the health accessibility of the Island to the people also observation and evaluation of
the lifestyle, habit and health condition of people of the community. On the basis of her
observation and evaluation it can be said that the community people are from different cultural,
racial and ethnic origin however, their knowledge towards the effects of obesity and prevention
process of obesity is very low. Hence, the prevalence rate of the chronic disease is high among
the people of the community. She also stated that the most affected age group is the middle aged
and elderly people that are 47 to 5 year olds are the most vulnerable ones. On the basis of her
analysis the people should be educated about the disease and controlling process of the disease.
Fund raising, health promotion campaigns, health care accessibility development and other

3FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PATTERNS COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
aspects of public health providence should be developed for sustaining against the adverse
situation of the community.
Issue
Based on the data it can be seen that 54 percent of the Long Island population is obese
that is overweight (Gillibrand.senate.gov, 2019). On the other hand the interview of the health
provider also revealed that the condition of obesity among the population of Long Island is in
worst condition as it is the most predominant disease among the people of the community. On
the basis of the community analysis it can be seen that the easy lifestyle and the high socio-
economic structure is one of the major cause of the prevalence of the disease. On the hand the
low amount of knowledge about the disease and prevention of the disease also leads to the
increasing amount of obesity affected people. Hence, it can be said that the lower amount of
education and the negligence towards the disease impacts over the body of people of the
community that increases the rate of obesity as well. On the other hand the beliefs of different
cultural, ethnic and racial people also prevent the health care providence to affected people. Thus
the need of the health promotion can be seen for sustaining against the disease and preventing the
increase of obesity among the people of the Long Island. According to the health provider the
fund rising and the health promotion campaign should be provided to the people of the
community in order to eliminate the threats of obesity and also changing the cultural beliefs
about the disease that prevents proper treatment of the disease (Hales, Fryar, Carroll, Freedman
& Ogden, 2018).

4FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PATTERNS COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
Conclusion
Based on above discussion it can be concluded that the Long Island is an overpopulated
Island in the New York province and consisting of high socio-economic people. The easy
lifestyle and the cultural beliefs along with the lesser amount of knowledge about obesity is the
factor that leads to increasing amount of obesity among people of the community. Thus it is
recommended by the health provider to raise funds in order to develop an empowerment
campaign that can be able to develop the adequate knowledge about obesity among the people of
the community. This is the most convenient way for the prevention of obesity among the adults
of the Long Island community.

5FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PATTERNS COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
References
Eidler, S. (2018). Newsday | Long Island's & NYC's News Source | Newsday. Retrieved from
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/census-race-age-1.19330905
Gillibrand.senate.gov. (2019). NEW GILLIBRAND REPORT: NEARLY 60 PERCENT OF
NEW YORKERS OVERWEIGHT. Retrieved from
https://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Obesity1.pdf
Hales, C. M., Fryar, C. D., Carroll, M. D., Freedman, D. S., & Ogden, C. L. (2018). Trends in
obesity and severe obesity prevalence in US youth and adults by sex and age, 2007-2008
to 2015-2016. Jama, 319(16), 1723-1725. Retrieved from
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/2676543/jama_hales_2018_ld_180012.
pdf
Osc.state.ny.us. (2019). Long Island Region Economic Snapshot. Retrieved from
https://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/economicprofile/long-island-region.pdf
Tyrrell, J. (2019). Newsday | Long Island's & NYC's News Source | Newsday. Retrieved from
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/long-island-catholics-see-religion-as-key-part-of-
life-poll-says-1.10837826
Usgs.gov. (2019). Long Island Population. Retrieved from https://www.usgs.gov/centers/ny-
water/science/long-island-population?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-
science_center_objects