Introduction to Health Promotion and Public Health Essay 2022

INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH PROMOTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH 1
What is the most Important Health Intervention in East London in 2019?
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INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH PROMOTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2
What is the most Important Health Intervention in East London in 2019?
Introduction
In any population, one of the most important things that should always be taken care of is
its health. Some illnesses that are highly likely to affect a large portion of the population are
considered as public health issues hence there are bound to be health intervention programs and
healthcare promotion programs that are meant to remedy the issues (Frieden, pp. 592, 2010).
These programs can take different forms varying from ones that focus on prevention, others on
raising people’s awareness of the symptoms, while others teach on why it is important to seek
early treatment and others how to manage their symptoms (Watts, Buck, Netuveli and Renton,
pp. 310, 2015). Areas such as East London have taken the initiative to find out what public
health issues are present there and come up up with appropriate health interventions (Bonell,
Fletcher, Morton, Lorenc and Moore, pp. 2300, 2012). This essay will look at diabetes as a
public health issue in East London and analyze one of the health interventions that are in place to
provide a remedy to the issue.
Diabetes Facts.
Diabetes cases in the United Kingdom (UK) have in recent years increased with statistics
showing that there are roughly 4.7 million people who have been diagnosed with diabetes with
90% of that being diabetes type 2. It is such an issue that previous studies showed that one in
every ten people aged over 40 years have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (Diabetes U.K.,
2010). Another worrying fact is that there are approximately 1 million citizens in the UK who
have yet to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. On the other hand, there are approximately
400,000 people in the UK who have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes with 29,000 of them

INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH PROMOTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH 3
being children (Diabetes U.K, pp. 16, 2016). Many people across London are suffering from the
symptoms of diabetes without knowing this and hence they are spending a lot on the wrong
diagnosis focusing on the small issues instead of the bigger picture simply because they do not
now they are at risk (Dyson, et.al, pp. 1286, 2011).
East London specifically has a high prevalence of new individuals developing diabetes
especially type 2 diabetes due to the population make up that is,50% of the population is made
up of ethnic minorities with 10% being Afro Caribbean and 25% being of south Asian descent. It
is a fact that people of south Asia descent are six times more likely to develop diabetes and
people of Afro Carribean descent are five times more likely to develop the disease (Sivaprasad,
et.al, p.e32182., 2012). This part of the population is considered to be at a higher risk of
developing diabetes by virtue of the high rates of social deprivation they are exposed to. Their
lifestyles and environment, therefore, increases the risk factor of developing the condition. An
analysis carried out on the healthcare habits in relation to diabetes of the three major ethnicities
in East London found that there were high rates of admissions to treat the symptoms of diabetes
and not to treat and manage the disease (Diabetes UK, 2012). Therefore this shows that most of
them are not aware that they have developed the disease or even know that they are at risk of
developing it. Some of the greatest risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes in East London
include being of south Asian descent, being male, aging, obesity and deprivation (Tompkins,
Luginaah, Booth and Harris, pp.2410, 2010).
Key National and International Public Health Policies and Drivers
There exists various policies and drivers that are in health to help guide the public health
setor in areas such as East England with the aim of remedying any health issue that arises. One
health policy that is in existence in East London and benefits the diabetes prevention programme

INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH PROMOTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH 4
is the NHS Health Check program. The initiative is set up in away that maled betweenthe age of
40 and 75 year are subjected to a range of tests every other five years to ensure that they are not
at risk of developing conditions like type 2 diabetes and cancer which are common conditions for
this age group (Crisp, et.al, pp 26, 2016). Next a driver that is essential in the public health status
in East London is ethnicity of the population. Some ethnic groups are more prone to developing
some conditions like in this case, south Asian and Afro Carribean people are more likely to
evelop type two diabetes an they make up most of the minority groups in East Lonon (Diabetes
UK, 2012).
Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme
One health intervention for diabetes that has been implemented in East London is the
Healthier You Programme which is being jointly implemented by NHS England, Public Health
England and Diabetes UK. The program is mainly focused on intervening with the behaviors of
people who are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Therefore, the main objective of this
intervention is to reduce the possibility of people developing type 2 diabetes across England and
in this case specifically East London (Penn, Dombrowski, Sniehotta and White, pp. 2949, 2013).
The first wave of the intervention program was rolled out in 2016 across 27 areas in England
with the East London area being one of them. The program is being delivered to the people who
need it in East London by Reed Momenta who are providers of well-being and lifestyle programs
aimed at helping people better their health. This intervention focuses on type 2 diabetes since it
is mainly caused by lifestyle factors like obesity, lack of exercise and poor diet and the program
being behavior centered makes it a good fit to help remedy the issue (Barron, Clark, Hewings,
Smith and Valabhji, pp. 515, 2018).