Exam Essay
Health Education and Health Promotion
Health education is provision of education and instructing people as well as communities how to maintain and achieve desired and improved health. It consists of activities that help in raising awareness of individuals by giving them knowledge regarding health that makes them capable of taking specific health action. Further, it also includes legislative change, development of community, and medicine for curative purposes. Health promotion, however, focuses on environmental and socio-economic factors that exert their influence on health. Additionally, it also includes the concept of health. There exists relationship between health education and health promotion as both of them are supportive as well as advocacy policy of health. Health promotion is a mean of protecting and improving health with the help of personal activities and health education. However, it also takes assistance from socioeconomic, biological, and environmental interventions for protection and improvement of health. Health promotion consists of health education, health protection, and disease prevention. Organizational and community development, economic actions via fiscal policy, rules and regulations, and legislation are all included in health promotion.
Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Prevention
Primary prevention is prevention of a disease from taking place at primary level, and it includes all the efforts for preventing disease occurring. Secondary prevention includes those activities that help in stopping further growth or spread of injury or a disease. In secondary prevention, efforts are made in order to diagnose the disease at an early stage. In tertiary prevention, actions are taken in order to guide people regarding an injury or a disease. At tertiary level of prevention, efforts are made for eliminating harmful effects of disease, and also treatments are found for making improvements. For example, for preventing Type II diabetes, primary prevention is education regarding diet and exercise that is helpful for promoting normal BMI, secondary prevention is testing blood glucose, and tertiary prevention is medication that helps in regulating and normalizing blood glucose.
Communicable Disease Model and Multi-Causation Communicable Disease Model
The communicable disease model represents a triangle of an agent, host, and environment. Agent indicates disease, host is indication of a person, and environment shows a setting where disease spread or flourishes. However, multi-causation communicable disease model explains the fact that diseases are not caused by only one factor, in fact more factors are involved, and there may be combination of some factors such as lack of proper medical care, social and environmental situations, exposures, and behavioral choices. The fact that diseases occur because of involvement of more than one factor paves the way to transition from communicable disease model to multi-causation communicable disease model. The multi-causation communicable disease model is of the view that when there are several causes, there are several problems in finding cures or solution of the problem. This model is representation of a host with internal as well as external factors that play their role in promotion and protection against diseases. Communicable disease model consider just one factor responsible for causing disease, whereas multi-causation communicable disease model emphasize on several factors that are involved in causing disease.
Social Ecological Model
The levels of social ecological model are intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, community, and public policy. Intrapersonal or individual is the first level of model, which is influenced by other levels of the model. Obesity at this level can be explained by age and gender of a person, eating behaviors, and knowledge regarding proper diet. Such as a teenager, eating junk food, not doing physical activity, and have little knowledge regarding harmful effects of junk food. Interpersonal level, however, consists of interactions of people with one another, and it also includes relationships and associations that are shared with the society or social networks such as with family and friends. Obesity at this level can be explained by food preferences of friends and family, and leisure time activities of family. Institutional level indicates rules and policies that are particular to group of people, and their associations. Obesity at this level can be represented by food taken during lunch time in offices or schools in case of children, and accessibility to restaurants and convenience food. Community is an indication of huge societal construct, and they are composed of people that are enjoying interpersonal relationships by living in the form of groups, or working in organizations. Obesity here can be described by interaction with various people, and adopting their eating habits. Public policy is an indication of structures at state, local, and federal level that exert their influence on individuals and communities. Here obesity at this level can be described by improper implementation of rules and laws regarding ensuring healthy food for individuals because of which majority people turned obese.
Affordable Care Act or ACA
Affordable Care Act has helped in establishment of Health Promotion, National Prevention, Public Health Fund, and Public Health Council. It assisted in creation of task forces on community preventive services as well as on prevention services. It made provision of community based and evidence based prevention easy, and paved the way to ensuring wellness services. it has also played a significant role in creation of a national strategy in order to improve health of nation. Further, it has improved the access by controlling cost sharing program meant for prevention services in case of Medicaid and Medicare. It has provided grants particularly to small employees so that wellness program can be established. It has also done remarkable work for eliminating cost for prescriptions for pregnant females in Medicare and Medicaid. Further, it allowed employers to provide rewards to employees in the form of cost sharing waivers, wellness programs, and premium discounts so that health standards can be maintained. It also played its role for establishment of 10-state pilot program, which allowed the state to apply for rewards.
