Health Assessment & Prevention: Nutritional Priorities in Diabetes

This essay serves as a health assessment teaching resource, emphasizing nutritional priorities for managing diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. It highlights the significance of dietary modifications in preventing and managing diabetes, focusing on the endocrinal system's role. The resource aims to educate patients and healthcare professionals about the impact of nutrition on disease risk, advocating for healthy eating habits and lifestyle changes. It also addresses the economic burden of diabetes and promotes evidence-based practices for health assessment and disease prevention, emphasizing the importance of patient education and health promotion programs. Desklib provides this document and other study resources for students.

Running head: HEALTH ASSESSMENT AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Health Assessment and Disease Prevention
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to produce a health assessment teaching resource for the
patients and the colleagues. By producing a health assessment teaching resource, the prevention
of a specific disease is also promoted. As a part of this, a health promotion program is also
promoted so that the disease can be managed and prevented. In this specific essay, the researcher
mainly emphasizes on the Nutritional priorities for diabetes and other disorders (heart disease,
stroke) and the main area of physical assessment in this assessment for diabetes is the endocrinal
system of the body. The main reason of diabetes is the malfunction of insulin and a few receptors
of the hormone. The nutritional factors in the diabetes and in other disease are very important as
by modifying the diet plan of the patient, the disease can be managed in a well manner (Hall et
al., 2016). However there are also other factors like physical exercise, medications that can
minimize the risk of the diseases. In this essay, the nutritional factors in diabetes and in other
disease are discussed. In addition, the prevention and health promotion method are also
highlighted in the later part of the essay as a part of the teaching resource for the clients and
colleagues.
Nutritional factors in Diabetes and other disease
Nutritional factors in the diabetes and in various other disease are a serious area of
concern. According to a report of National Institutes of Health (NIH), it is seen that too much or
too less eating of specific type of foods can enhance the risk of stroke, diabetes type 2 and
various other heart disease. In this report, the researcher have found that, consumption of fat,
sugar or salt in a high amount can enhance the risk of certain diseases in the human body (NIH,
2017). It is observed that, an unhealthy diet or nutritional practice can be the cause of type 2
diabetes, heart disease and stroke and this may enhance the burden of the society regarding

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health and economic factors. The researcher found that, there is a direct relationship between 10
foods and nutrition with the mortality rate of the patient caused by type 2 diabetes, stroke and
heart disease. They found that, in US, 45% of total death among the adults is due to the lack of
adequate consumption certain foods and nutritional factors and those are essential for daily
healthy living. In that study it was revealed that, those people used to consume unhealthy foods
in a high amount (NIH, 2017).
Purpose of the Resource
It is observed that, the knowledge about the diabetes and its relation to the food and
nutrition are less among the people. This number is higher in the rural areas while comparing
with the urban areas. In India, almost 900000 deaths are associated with the diabetes in a direct
or indirect method. India is the second position in the list of diabetes patients and also India
holds first position in the list of the 10 countries that have altered glucose tolerance (WHO,
2016). So it is very important to enhance the education related to diabetes and other health
related problem among the patients so that the awareness regarding the disease among the
patients can be enhanced. The primary resource of this teaching resource is to educate people
about the nutritional factors of diabetes and other health related problem among the people.
Target Population
This teaching resource will be mainly used to educate the diabetes patients of the health
care setting by the other health care professionals of that health care center.
The use of Resources
The evidence based practice is very popular among the health care professional and the
health care personnel are quite familiar with the system. The health care professionals are also

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aware about the effectiveness of the evidence based practice. So, other health care professionals
of that health care center can use the teaching resource as an evidence based practice and can
enhance the awareness among the patient. In various studies, it was observed that, the use of
evidence based practice by the health professionals to educate the diabetes can be an effective
process (Patelarou et al., 2017). So, this evidence based practice can be used in this health care
center. In addition, the medical practitioner can continue medical education among the patients
of diabetes by using the teaching resource and this process can be continued in every week.
Moreover, educational programs, such as lectures on diabetes, can be launched for the dieticians
and paramedics and educational lectures can be given to the patients once in a month. Not only
this, the educational resources can be used to enhance the awareness among the people who have
diseases other than diabetes. Those diseases can be stroke, cardiac diseases and these diseases
should also be handled in a serious manner as they are also capable of causing death among the
patients. The nutritional aspects of the various diseases should be more emphasized while
creating awareness among the patients who have such diseases (International Diabetes
Federation, 2019).
Health Assessment, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Diabetes and other diseases like heart disease and stroke can impose economic burden on
the patients and patient’s families. In 2013, almost 10.8% of total health cost was spent on the
treatments of diabetes patients in the world. This expenditure includes the costs of living of the
diabetes patients, medications of those patients and the expenditure of other disease like heart
disease and stroke are added, the expenditure will increase to a high rate (Forouhi et al., 2018).
In 2013, global health spending on diabetes was almost $548 billion US dollar and by the end of
2035, the amount will probably touch the amount of US$ 627 billion (WHO, 2016). So it is

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evident that, to reduce this huge expenditure for the treatment of diabetes, the health assessment
is surely required. In the assessment of the diabetes, mainly the endocrinal system of the human
body is examined as the hormone responsible for the diabetes is insulin and it is a part of the
endocrinal system. In this assessment process, mainly two factors are observed. Firstly, whether
there is adequate amount of insulin is produced in the body or not. Secondly, the insulin receptor
of the body is properly working or not and due to ineffectiveness of insulin the blood glucose
level is increased.
To enhance the awareness among the patients, it is recommended that there should be
promotional plan for healthy living in which patients will be encouraged to consume healthy diet
and nutrition so that they can reduce the risk of diabetes and other diseases by modifying their
diet and food habits. It is recommended that healthy eating can decrease the risk of diabetes,
stroke and heart diseases and also this healthy habit can keep the heart in a healthy condition.
Patients should be instructed to continue a healthy diet plan that includes fruits, vegetables, low-
fat diet, whole grain, fish, nuts beans and eggs. In addition, the amount of trans-fats and saturated
fats, should be limited in the diet plan of the patients. Along with this, the patients should avoid
extra sugar from their daily diet as a part of the disease prevention plan (NIH, 2017).
Conclusion
The nutritional factors of diabetes and other diseases are very crucial as it is observed
that, diet modification of diabetes patients can be a preventive measure. As the knowledge
regarding the nutritional aspect of the disease is very low among the patients, it is very important
to educate the patients and as a part of their education, this teaching module can be used by the
other health care professionals of that health care center. The health care professionals can
educate the people by continuing various promotional and preventive plan and the use of the

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evidence based care has been proven to be very effective as a part of the health assessment
program.

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References
Forouhi, N. G., Misra, A., Mohan, V., Taylor, R., & Yancy, W. (2018). Dietary and nutritional
approaches for prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. BMJ, 361, k2234. Doi=
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2234
Hall, C. E., Hall, A. B., Kok, G., Mallya, J., & Courtright, P. (2016). A needs assessment of
people living with diabetes and diabetic retinopathy. BMC research notes, 9(1), 56.
Doi: 10.1186/s13104-016-1870-4
International Diabetes Federation (2019). Diabetic Association of India. Idf.org. Available at:
https://www.idf.org/our-network/regions-members/south-east-asia/members/94-
india.html?layout=details&mid=244 [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].
NIH (2017). How dietary factors influence disease risk. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Available at: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-dietary-factors-
influence-disease-risk [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019]. Retrieved from :
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-dietary-factors-influence-
disease-risk
Patelarou, A. E., Kyriakoulis, K. G., Stamou, A. A., Laliotis, A., Sifaki-Pistolla, D.,
Matalliotakis, M., ... & Patelarou, E. (2017). Approaches to teach evidence-based practice
among health professionals: an overview of the existing evidence. Advances in medical
education and practice, 8, 455. Retrieved from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5508813/

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WHO (2016). World Health Day 2016, Diabetes.Searo.who.int. Available at:
http://www.searo.who.int/india/mediacentre/events/world_health_day/whd-technical-
paper-4-april.pdf?ua=1 [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].