Analysis of Diabetes as a Public Health Issue in the UK

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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Practice-based public health profile
and Strategy
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Table of Contents
Topic........................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
Area of Representation...............................................................................................4
Identification of Diabetes as a major public health issue in the UK.............................6
Local public health policies and services available.....................................................9
Present employment settings....................................................................................10
Outline an area of intervention or service improvement............................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 12
References................................................................................................................13
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Topic
“Diabetes as a major public health issue in the UK”
Introduction
The profile of Brent population and its changing communities is changing
dramatically over time and it is getting more challenging for the agencies to forecast
the future of long-term conditions for the population. In order to ensure that the
estimation related to diabetes is made accurate in a diverse setting such as in the
London borough of Brent, it is important to have a strong understanding required the
communities and their health conditions.
This report will look at diabetes as a major public health issue in the UK. Diabetes is
a chronic disease with a long-term effect that causes premature death, disability and
illness that stays throughout life, specifically in Brent. Diabetes has a close
association with poor health and one of the most significant factors of this disease is
type II which causes an excess in weight and an increase in depression levels.
The health condition of people residing in the London borough of Brent is different
from the average health conditions in England. Almost 18% of children residing in
Brent are from families with low income (Lorenc et al 2014). The life expectancy rate
is also higher than the average of England. The health inequalities in Brent can be
shown with the figures that the life expectancy of a male is 6.4 years less and for a
female, 3.3 years lower, in the most heavily deprived areas of Brent. The rate of
diabetes occurrence in Brent is worse than average. This report seeks to address
the issue of diabetes along with the change in service that has taken place in the
NHS. The main area of focus will be the transfer of health service by three major
health organizations (Clinical commissioning group, NHS England and Local
Authority) (Williams et al 2014). This report will contribute to the existing
understanding of the contributions of healthcare departments and how the needs of
diabetes patients have changed considering an extensive range of comorbidities.
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Area of Representation
North West London as a region has more than 6500 individuals suffering from
diabetes out of which 873 reside in the borough of Brent. The major issues in Brent
are that 29% of their patient’s suffering with diabetes has at least one comorbid
disease, some of which are mental health disorders. More than 11% of people in
Brent have poor mental health which is a higher proportion than in London and the
United Kingdom as a whole which is 8.7% and 10.9% respectively. Out of these
patients’, most of them are white, older and ale patients. One interesting observation
identifies was that these comorbidities tent to appear significantly independent on the
duration of diabetes (Torjesen, 2012)
Diabetes and health-related inequalities
Asian and Black ethnic groups showed the highest diabetes prevalence in the
community. A report by “Shaping a healthier future” published by the NHS informed
that diabetes is one of the biggest challenged faced by communities today locally. It
has been found to be the most prevalent in areas that are considered deprived
areas. It was reported that out of 20% of the people in these deprived areas, 56% of
them are diagnosed with diabetes (Bowen & Fogarty 2008). This is because of
significant health inequalities in wellbeing and health which are faced by residents of
these deprived areas compared to the one in the most affluent of Brent. However, an
interest factor that was seen in the observation was that diabetes and its associated
symptoms were more common among Minority Ethnic Groups and Black people.
This shows the level of health inequality in Brent which is related to the poor
socioeconomic status which is one of the major risk factors among CVD patients
(Joannou et al 2011)
12% of the deaths reported in Brent were due to Alzheimer’s, senility and dementia
in 2008-2010. Government health agencies have shown stats that project a 32%
increase in cases of dementia patients over the age of 65. Dementia cases under the
age of 65 are extremely rare in Brent. There is a need for tailor-made provision for
people diagnosed with diabetes and dementia to reduce their morbidity and mortality
risks and increasing their changes in lifestyle and widening their understanding of
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
self-management, especially for those suffering from multiple long term conditions
(Kershen 2016)
Recent changes in the diabetes guidelines have greatly emphasized the care models
for treating diabetes diagnosed patients. However, one of the major issues here is
keeping the status of diabetes patients undisclosed and remains a major barrier.
Another major issue in Brent is the level of health inequalities between the two is
almost 8.8 years. Tackling health-related inequalities in Brent is crucial and it needs
to be countered with addressing those vulnerable families that have complex needs
(Macfarlane & Dorkenoo 2015).
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Identification of Diabetes as a major public health issue in the UK
Diabetes is considered as the condition which arises due to the way in which there is
a production of insulin’s and uses. Insulins are considered as the hormone that will
help in facilitating the making of glucose through producing energy and cells. Further
on, it promotes the storage of glucose as the glycogen. It plays a very crucial role in
lipid metabolism. Due to the lack of insulin’s, there is the cause of a high level of
blood glucose that results in life-threatening. In the UK there are three million people
who are suffering from diabetes diseases. The cost of health services and societies
worldwide is increasing day by day with these diseases. According to the survey it
has been analyzed that there is total spacing every year is US$421.7 billion and the
alone the UK spends nearly £10 billion on diabetes. It is believed that this ratio will e
doubled by 2030 (Chatterjee, et. al., 2015).
Therefore diabetes is the diseases that cause a lot of health problems to the human
body may be permanently disability considerable the suffering and at the last stage
may cause untimely death. Already there is high rise value cost of economic, social
and individual. Now the incidences of diabetes are epidemic worldwide. In the UK
the national institute for health and clinical exchange states that diabetes is
increasing fast due to being overweight and obese. It is important to take more
exercise and losing weight. Diabetes 2 becomes a serious issue for whole world-
wide and there are some countries such as South Asians that are having a high risk
of developing the diseases and thus it needs particular attention.
Acid-base balance is known as the body’s PH balance which can be explained as
the level of acids and different bases in the blood that will lead the body to function at
best. The human body makes a healthy balance of acidity and alkalifies by itself. In
this process lungs and kidneys play a very crucial role. Normal blood ph level is
having 7.40 on scales in which 14 shows as basic and 0 shows most acidic. Ph
balance can be imbalanced when the lungs and kidneys are malfunctioning. This
disruption within the acid-base balance can cause the medical condition that is
known as acidosis and alkalosis (Mounika, et. al., 2018).
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
The research analyzed various social determinants of diabetes and health in order to
accomplish the objectives and goals for sustainable improvement in terms of good
health. For example, by 2020 the main aim of the people ill is reducing the economic
burden of diabetes mellitus through improving the quality of life of all the persons that
are having the risk of diabetes. Social determinants are considered as the social-
ecological factors that may affect the health of an individual. The diabetics can be
caused by the environmental condition, social network, and cultural condition.
There are various social determinants of diabetes and some of are as follows
Cultural and environmental condition: Components of the environmental and
cultural environment may include neighbourhood safety, transportation, healthy food,
and safety. When these factors act as a barrier they can cause diabetes, inadequate
access to the resources in order to provide a disadvantage to the population that
means fewer barrier will be available in order to overcome with these kinds of
barriers. The culture of the environment is helping in controlling the risk of diabetes.
For example, the urban centres are having high crime rates that mean there are very
less employment and business may be reduced to the access to the services which
may include the food and medical care and so on. It has been analyzed that good
Socio-economic status, healthy food is considered as a strong indicator to deal with
diabetes.
Living and working condition: Research it has been analyzed there is a direct
relationship between the health outcomes and socioeconomic status. The other
factors may include relationship ion degree of variance. Socio-economic status in
diabetes may be affected by the lack of employment, education level, and family
income (Sankar & Jeyanthi, 2016).
Social and community influences: Formal and informal considered as the reason
of rising the belief that one will care the individual who suffers from the diabetes is
defined as the platform for working towards improving even the worse health
situation. The degree of social support will help the individual in recovering with the
diseases fast. This may change between the ethnic groups and the individuals. The
greater social support for the person is related to the improvement of self-
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
management outcomes. On the other hand, the low and negative support from
society may increase the risk of the amount of behaviour of self- management.
Individual lifestyle factors: The individual is subjected as the inequality of
availability of healthcare resources which may include the medical care that is based
on the factors for example place of residence, culture, social economies status, and
culture. This social economic factor includes individual lifestyle factor which may
include an educational level that may influence the health insurance status. Remote
rural regions and low income are considered as the primary health care provider
which decreases, assess to the healthcare that may include chronic illness, for
example, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and diabetes. The inadequate care
may result in the worse and compounding long term effect of chronic diseases. The
lower socioeconomic may be related to the perception of the individual that is having
a lack of collaborative patient-provider relationship which is related to improving the
diabetes outcomes (Rezaee, et. al., 2017).
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Local public health policies and services available
CDC helps in providing the national leadership and complete support in order to
implement the high impacted prevention approach. This will help in reducing the new
diabetes cases through using the combination of cost-effective, scalable intervention
and prevention of strategies towards the most vulnerable population of the UK that is
having the greatest risk of diabetes. The other diabetes programme may involve
diabetes state and local program, national diabetes prevention program, national
diabetes educational program, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Initiative, Native
Diabetes Wellness Program, Vision Health Initiative (VHI), Appalachian Diabetes
Control and Translations, Vulnerable Populations and Prevent Diabetes STAT:
Screen, Test, Act – Today (Sanda & Mamilla, 2017).
In the UK there are 86 millions of people who are having pre-diabetes and in which
90 per cent of people are not aware of it. Both the American Medical Association
(AMA) and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) help in joining the
urgent action in order to prevent diabetes.
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Present employment settings
According to the research, there are 23.6 million people who are suffering from
diabetes and who are participating as members of the workforce. Usually, diabetes
does not have any impact on the ability of the individual in order to do a particular job
but still, it acts as a hindrance in their work (Singh, et. al., 2018). School, hospital
service, caring home is having a set of guidelines that help in evaluating the
individuals and diabetes for employment. The main aim of the different firms is not to
stereotypes or generalized the effect of diabetes. Therefore, the proper assessment
of the individual for employment is to take the variability into the account.
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Outline an area of intervention or service improvement
Diabetes is not in hand of individual person but it can take various measures to
improve the condition of diabetes. Through improving the quality of care, it is
possible to make it safe, effective, timely, efficient, equitable, timely and patient-
centred. In order to accomplish the goal for service improvement, NHS organization
across the UK is using quality improvement approaches. An individual with having
diabetes is needed for the accommodation in order to perform well in the work
responsibility to make it more effective and safe. This may also include benefiting
with the daily needs of diabetes when there is the presence of complications of
diabetes. The patient who is suffering from diabetes must need to focus time and
need to follow the evidence-based guidelines which must be tailored according to the
preference, comorbidities, and prognoses of the individual. Besides this, the
individual must have good communication with their doctors and must address the
cultural barriers (Ali & Abdullah, 2017).
Care of the individual that is suffering from diabetes must have the components of
the Chronic Care Model (CCM) that will enable the productivity interaction in
between the informed activated patient and proactive practice team. At the time of
feasibility care system must support the team-based care, patient registries,
involvement of communities, decision supporting tool in order to meet with the need
of the patient.
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Practice Based Public Health and Health Promotion
Conclusion
From the above data and information, it has been concluded that diabetes is a
serious issue that is occurred in the body of individual and having the issue of
regulating the amount of dissolving the sugar in the bloodstream of the human body.
In order to understand the diseases of diabetes, it is important to understand the role
of glucose within the body. People who are suffering from diabetes must be treated
with proper care. The grow in the amount of diabetes and drawing the NHS
resources may become the topic of concern for the UK in terms of life expectancies
and life quality of the patient. There are many health inequalities that are exiting in
the people in terms of diabetes. This will lead to deprivation and obesity and
sometimes it is hard to provide the proper care to the diabetes patient. It has been
analyzed that a person who is having better GP surgeries may receive better care
than the person who is busy with the housebound. Even the inequality is also
addressed and care is also improved. The NSF is considered as a useful framework
for the diabetes patient and for the healthcare professionals to get the proper care.
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