Weight Control Strategy: Health Promotion for Elderly Individuals

This report focuses on health promotion strategies, specifically weight control, for elderly individuals. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy weight to mitigate the risks of age-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and osteoarthritis. The report highlights the significance of diet and physical activity, recommending a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, grains, and lean proteins while advocating for at least 150 minutes of intense exercise or twice-weekly body weight training. It also discusses the role of nutritionists and dietitians in providing personalized guidance and the effectiveness of community-based health campaigns in promoting awareness and healthy habits. The report underscores the need for a multidisciplinary approach to enhance the well-being of the elderly population through effective weight management strategies.

Running Head: HEALTH PROMOTION STRATEGY, WEIGHT CONTROL 1
Health Promotion Strategies, Weight Control
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HEALTH PROMOTION STRATEGY, WEIGHT CONTROL 2
Health Promotion Strategies, Weight Control
Living a healthy life is the goal of every person. However, a healthy life doesn’t come
automatically but requires efforts. Health promotion is among the major approaches to achieve
healthy life. In its basic definition, health promotion is the process which enables people increase
control over, and improves their health status. This process extends beyond individual behavior
control to assuring social and physical environment that promotes health. Health promotion is
important in various ways. First, it improves the health status of an individual, family,
community and the nation (Naidoo & Wills, 2016). Secondly, it enhances the quality of life and
reduce chances of premature deaths. Lastly, it reduces the cost which would otherwise be
incurred on medical treatment. Health promotion can be achieved through a number of strategies.
The three main strategies are: weight control, appropriate use of alcohol and foot health. This
paper focuses on weight control as effective health promotion for elderly people (Salazar, Crosby
& DiClemente, 2015).
The Importance of Weight Control for an Elderly Person
Weight control describes both the techniques and the underlying physiological processes
which contribute to a person’s efforts to attain and maintain certain body weight. Most of the
approaches to weight control entail long term lifestyle strategies mainly on healthy eating and
physical activities (Graham, Scott, Lopeyok, Douglas, Gubrium & Buchanan, 2018). In addition,
weight control may involve the development of a meaningful approach to track individual weight
rage over time. Proper weight control mainly focuses on attaining healthy body weights through
slow and steady body weight loss over time.

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Elderly people are highly prone to infections than all other age groups. This is because
the immune system of a person tends to weaken with age. Weight control is important because
weighing too much increases the risk of getting infections. some of the common infections
associated with excess weight are: type 2 diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure (Veale,
Sacks-Davis, Weaver, Pedrana, Stoové & Hellard, 2015). Being overweight is also risky because
it increases the risk for osteoarthritis (common joint problem), respiratory problems and other
complications like sleep apnea (breathing abnormality at night). Considering the fact that elderly
people have weak immune systems, being exposed to these diseases which are mainly associated
with overweight will shorten their life spans. Weight control is therefore important for elderly
people because it enables them to mitigate the risks of getting some of the infections listed
above.
Ways of Achieving Weight Control
Research has revealed that numerous factors contribute to elderly weight. Some of the
factors include diet, medications, physical activity and illnesses. Each of these factors affects
body weight in a different way. However, health professionals have listed diet and physical
activity as the crucial factors which affect elderly body weight because they can be affected by
individual conscious behavior modification (Beale, 2017).
Elderly people can achieve weight control by adopting a healthy diet. The foods and
drinks taken by elderly people are very important when it comes to weight control. Although it is
important to ensure that elderly people get an adequate amount of nutrients and vitamins required
by their bodies, it is equally important to regulate their intake of certain types of foods and drinks
like those which have high energy density and sugar content. This is because those foods have

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profound effects on their body weight. Sugary drinks like sodas have a high amount of calories
and may lead to excessive weight gain (Santos, Vieira, Silva, Sardinha & Teixeira, 2017). To
control weight, elderly people should major on diet comprising of vegetables, fruits, grains, fat-
free dairy products and other foods with high protein content like lean meat.
The second approach for elderly weight control is getting into physical activities.
Physical activity is among the major components of a person’s daily energy expenditure.
Physical activity can be achieved in three ways: exercising, activities in daily living and through
work or occupation related activities (Santos, Sniehotta, Marques, Carraça & Teixeira, 2017).
Remaining physically active in the three sectors is very important for elderly people to maintain
a healthy weight and mitigate the risks of developing diseases such as dyslipidemia and diabetes.
For elderly people, physical activity can be achieved by ensuring at least 150 mins of intense
exercise or participating in body weight training at least twice per week.
Multidisciplinary Team to help in Weight Control
In order to promote the engagement with elderly clients with weight control, Nutritionists
and Dietitians will play a major role (Butt, 2019). Nutritionists are experts in the field of food
and nutrition while dietitians are health professionals who assess, diagnose and treat dietary
related problems (List & Samek, 2015). Through the services of these two professionals, elderly
clients will be advised on the best diet in order to lead healthy lifestyles and achieve health-
related goals like weight loss.
Community Services which Enhance Weight Control for Elderly
Health campaign programs which are community- based will play a major role in weight
control among the elderly. For instance, most of the elderly in society are not aware of the health

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impacts associated with some of the foods they take on a daily basis. Some of the elderly people
are addicts of the second generation drinks like soda but they don’t know how such drinks are
harmful when it comes to weight control. Getting to know the health impacts of such drinks and
other foodstuffs through community health campaign programs will play an important role in
ensuring weight control.

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References
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Butt, K. A. (2019). Dietitians Role in the Assessment and Treatment of Dysphagia.
Graham, L. F., Scott, L., Lopeyok, E., Douglas, H., Gubrium, A., & Buchanan, D. (2018).
Outreach Strategies to Recruit Low-Income African American Men to Participate in
Health Promotion Programs and Research: Lessons From the Men of Color Health
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List, J. A., & Samek, A. S. (2015). The behavioralist as nutritionist: Leveraging behavioral
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Naidoo, J., & Wills, J. (2016). Foundations for health promotion. Elsevier Health Sciences.
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Santos, I., Sniehotta, F. F., Marques, M. M., Carraça, E. V., & Teixeira, P. J. (2017). Prevalence
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Santos, I., Vieira, P. N., Silva, M. N., Sardinha, L. B., & Teixeira, P. J. (2017). Weight control
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