Anaemia entails the lack or deficiency of iron in the human body. According to Skalicky et al., (2006) anaemia results primarily from food insecurity that is the limited or uncertain availability of socially acceptable food in a household. Iron deficiency and iron anaemia remain the key nutritional deficiencies in the United States and across the world. Well, in my experience with a local poor Hispanic community at a health department, I figured that most poor people lack the access to balanced diets and as such miss out on sufficient iron in their foods making them suffer from anaemia. Furthermore, mothers and children are more vulnerable when suffering from anaemia because they need it during giving birth and growing up respectively.
Poor people struggle to put a balanced diet on the table. It becomes even more difficult for them to acquire food that provides the body with enough iron that is necessary for blood formation and muscle growth. During my time at the local health department, I observed countless children and women diagnosed with anaemia that traced back to the food they ate. Child bearing mothers were at a higher risk of the fatalities that come with the sickness because they are in much need of blood supply in their bodies. According to Alexander et al. (2014), community health is closely associated with economics and as such poverty levels significantly influence the health of a community. It becomes very difficult for a society to stay healthy if the community dwells in poverty and as such cannot facilitate a lifestyle that ensures health and proper upkeep for both adults and children.
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A good number of the patients that walked in the health department were malnutrition and this could be seen physically. In this regard, Skalicky et al., (2006), maintains that research has provided proof that dietary supplementation does well to improve the stores of iron in a body that works to improve the development and cognition levels in children. Judging from the malnutrition levels and specs of the children I saw during my time at the health department, it is well to insist that the children lacked proper dietary intakes. Iron deficiency anaemia is closely associated with biophysical effects and this could be seen evidently among the people that came along. A good majority of the people were Hispanic immigrants whose adults mainly worked as foremen at construction sites and taxi drivers while the women were mostly waitresses and housekeepers. The salaries provided that these families did not have enough income to maintain a consistent nutritional diet. It is precisely the reason why a good number of patient even those that were not related to anaemic symptoms showed low amounts of key nutritional elements with one of these elements being iron.
I happened to take records and study the same as well. In my study, it became clear that most children in the Hispanic culture or neighbourhood grow up knowing certain meals and certain meals only. It thus becomes very difficult for them to adjust to new foods as they grow older because they are used to the less nutritional cultural foods. This observation falls in line with the argument that there is immense need to institute theoretical basis for the application of applying the nursing process by families (Allender et al., 2014). Families find it a hurdle to maintain proper diet and this perhaps goes back to the cultural set up in as much as poverty has a hand in play.
One thing that seems striking is the fact that the anaemic patients did not particularly get sick through hereditary means but rather through inadequacy of iron in their food. Indeed anaemia comes in numerous types and this was observed in the Hispanic community that I served during my time at the health department. Analytically, in my experience I believe that iron is not a scarce commodity in the local community considering most of them can afford meats like liver that comprise of a lot of iron content. However, the key thing that causes this iron deficiency in an entire community is the cultural foods and attachment to such foods that is a generational pass on attribute of the society. Lack of iron inhibits proper growth in infants and deprive women the chance and graceful opportunity of giving birth with ease and comfort because of the major complications that usually accompany iron deficiency in women. In such an urban setting, the cultural ties inhibit external input and clogs the ability of the society to improve on their nursing techniques. Social economics plays a part of the problem by ensuring the society continues to suffer at the merciless hands of a culture that cannot allow nutritional balance among people. It is clear that anaemia in the local society has caused tremendous setbacks.
Conclusion
Anaemia entails the lack or deficiency of iron in the human body. Anaemia results primarily from food insecurity that is the limited or uncertain availability of socially acceptable food in a household. Judging from the malnutrition levels and specs of the children I saw during my time at the health department, it is well to insist that the children lacked proper dietary intakes. Iron deficiency anaemia is closely associated with biophysical effects and this could be seen evidently among the people that came along. Anaemia is caused by iron deficiency that is closely associated with poverty and cultural foods as confirmed by my experience.
References
Allender, J. A., & Spradley, B. W. (2014). Community Health Nursing, Promoting and Protecting the Public Health.
Skalicky, A., Meyers, A. F., Adams, W. G., Yang, Z., Cook, J. T., & Frank, D. A. (2006). Child food insecurity and iron deficiency anemia in low-income infants and toddlers in the United States. Maternal and child health journal, 10(2), 177.
