A human body has different abilities, including a mechanism that controls the levels of blood glucose. When such a mechanism fails, the body is impaired and unable to process blood sugar leading to a condition known as diabetes. Diabetes is a life-threatening condition that without proper management, can lead to complications like heart disease or stroke. Available data in the United States indicate that an estimated 30.2 million, over 18 individuals live with diabetes (WHO, 2018). This population is both those who are diagnosed and undiagnosed. This presentation aims to educate the Hispanic community of El Paso, Texas, about diabetes, its epidemiology, and how the cultural impact the condition.
Some of the critical issues with diabetes include learning about diabetes, learning to live with diabetes, and challenges that people are suffering from diabetes face. The population knows little about diabetes. Knowing about diabetes is an issue of concern to healthcare providers because it can lead to preventative measures taken by the community. The El Paso, the TX population, need to learn about diabetes, its impact, and the challenges of suffering from the condition.
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The population needs to know about diabetes. Three different types of diabetes include Type 1, type II, and gestational diabetes. If the people of El Paso, TX, learn about the condition, they will know the causative factors, how to live with people suffering from diabetes and make it easy to manage the situation. Because of the large population living with diabetes, there is a need for the community to acquire knowledge and skills of living with the conditions.
The population needs to learn how to live with diabetes. Diabetic people can live for long when the condition is carefully managed. The concern for healthcare providers is to educate and help the diabetic individuals to handle the situation. For patients diagnosed with type I diabetes, to administer the condition is by using artificial insulin, which is directly injected into the body. Depending on the condition level, the physician prescribes how the patient will use the insulin injection.
A key area of concern about the population include the challenges of people suffering from diabetes. It is hard to educate people about self-management of the condition. It is a key concern among the healthcare providers on providing the necessary knowledge and skills to patients on how to manage diabetes. It is hard for patients to adhere to lifestyle changes and pharmacological interventions. Patients suffering from the condition or prediabetic have a challenge with adjusting to changes recommended by the physicians. There are also problems associated with accessing care in emergencies for diabetic people ( Blonde, 2005) . There is a high cost for screening and acquiring treatment services for the condition.
Other issues of concern are lack of numbers about the real population suffering from Diabetes, lack of sufficient clinics for the diabetic population ( Blonde, 2005) . The government needs to understand the people suffering from diabetics to have a clear picture of the magnitude of the condition and its impacts on people. Through understanding these numbers, the government will have the capacity to address the challenges of the population suffering from diabetics. Insufficient health facilities where diabetic people can attend clinics is a crucial concern for the population. With sufficient health facilities, the patients will have access to proper health care and necessary attention.
Desired Outcome
The desired outcome is to reduce the prevalence of the disease among the population. Patients to acquire the desired medical attention to help in managing the situation. To equip the community with the knowledge and skills of avoiding the risk factors of diabetes. Diabetes prevalence in the population needs to be reduced significantly.
The health department has the aim of preventing diseases and disorders from increasing in the population. It is a government goal through the health department to slow down the growth of a disease. It can be done by educating the community about the condition and providing medical attention to the patients to help in treating or managing the situation. The desired outcome by the health department is to educate the population on how to avoid the risk factors of diabetes.
Some of the actions taken are to have people tested for diabetes for the government to have accurate numbers of the diabetic and prediabetic population. Ensuring that the diabetic population receives the best of care in health facilities. Educating the community on diabetes to reduce the prevalence of the condition. Therefore, there is a need for everyone in the community to be tested for diabetes. The health department should provide diabetic clinics in every hospital to ensure that the diabetic population receives specialized care. In diabetic clinics, the patients should be taught how to manage the condition. There should be community health campaigns to educate the masses about the situation.
The timeline for having an accurate number of diabetic individuals in the country should be one year. A three-year plan should be developed where the government will help create diabetes clinics in all health facilities and position enabled human resources in these clinics. A two-year program of having community health campaigns to educate people about diabetes.
Diabetes is almost a national disaster with about 29-32% of the population in the U.S being diabetic ( Forouhi, & Wareham, 2018) . Thus, the issue should be presented to the president, health cabinet secretary, state governors, and states health departments as well as the population/ masses. The president and state governors must have a clear picture of diabetes and why it is a severe problem for the country. The health department sector also needs to know the urgency necessary in controlling the condition. The population also needs to know the risks that exist and why it is essential to deal with such health risks. The concerned authorities are the most important to address because they are in a position to influence policies concerning the raised issues. President and governors and health department can change strategies to address each of the mentioned condition above that touch on diabetes.
Epidemiology of Diabetes
Available data indicate that diabetes condition is on the rise in the population. According to Forouhi and Wareham, (2018), by 2017, an estimated population of 425 million were diabetic across the world. The number is expected to grow up to 629 by 2045. The most common type of diabetes is type I and type II. Type I diabetes refers to a condition that occurs when the body is unable to produce insulin. Insulin is a body hormone produced by the pancreas that controls the amount of sugar in the blood. People with Type I diabetes that produce insufficient or no insulin, meaning that the body is unable to control the amount of blood in the body (WHO, 2018). Juvenile diabetes patients are insulin-dependent meaning that they use artificial insulin.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body cells remain unresponsive to the insulin produced in the body. The condition affects the use of insulin in the body. It is the most common type of diabetes according to reports by the National Institute of Diabetes ( Chen, Ovbiagele, & Feng, 2016) . The condition is highly linked with obesity.
Gestational diabetes occurs in women when the body becomes less responsive to insulin. The condition, however, does not happen to all women. This type of diabetes resolves after giving birth. There are other less common types of diabetes, such as cystic fibrosis and monogenic diabetes (WHO, 2018).
Risk Factors
Type I diabetes
Some of the risk factors of type 1 diabetes include family history, genetics, age, and geography. In a family where a family member has had a history of Type I diabetes, one is at a higher risk of developing the condition. The presence of particular gene materials increases the chances of developing type 1 diabetes (WHO, 2018). Type I diabetes can appear at any stage. For children, it might seem at the age of 4to for seven years.
Type II
Research on the condition indicates that there are factors that expose a person to diabetes. Family with a history of diabetes can largely contribute to one being diabetic. Health conditions such as obesity or high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or triglycerides pose a risk of one being diabetic. The age of more than 45 years has been identified to be a risk factor. Elderly people are at a higher risk of becoming diabetic compared to the younger population. In the U.S being of Native American, African-American, or Latin American descent increases the possibilities of one being diabetic (WHO, 2018). People with a sedentary lifestyle are more likely to get the condition compared to people who live an active life.
According to WHO (2018), patients who are diagnosed with type II diabetes can manage the condition through lifestyle change and for others by using insulin. When a doctor diagnoses a patient with type II diabetes, one of the recommendations is to make lifestyle changes that support overall health. The doctor then directs the patient to a nutritionist. The nutritionist recommends the consumption of fresh, nutritious foods that include low-fat dairy, vegetables, fruits, whole grain, and lean proteins. The nutritionist advice diabetic individuals to avoid foods with high sugar or empty calories such as high sugar foods, fried foods, and sweetened soda. Diabetic people are advised to avoid excessive alcohol intake. Patients should engage in at least 30minutes exercise such as swimming, walking, bike riding, and so forth for at least five days a week. Patients are also advised to learn how to recognize symptoms of low blood sugar. The doctor can also recommend the use of insulin in some instances.
Population Culture
The Hispanic culture incorporates the traditions, idioms, language, religious beliefs, family and social values, music, art, history, practices, and cuisines of the Hispanic people. Culture is significant, especially when it comes to the health of an individual. For Hispanics, loyalty to one's family is essential as compared to the individual needs, which are concept identified as familismo. Usually, a decision that a Hispanic has to take must be made by the more significant family members, and for the Hispanics, the family is the motivator for self-management of diseases ( Abdoli et al., 2018). For example, a patient requires making inquiries on an individual treatment from the family before making a decision.
Machismo is usually a cultural term that is associated with the masculinity concept of the Hispanic which requires that men must behave in a way that they appear healthy such that they can even bear the pain for long without visiting a doctor so that they are not seen as weak. The same Machismo, however, is remarkably impactful on the health of men, mainly because the culture expects that men should work to provide for their families. Therefore, they seek help whenever illnesses affect their ability to work effectively.
Fatalism, which is constituted by hopelessness, powerlessness, and despair is a belief among the Hispanics and is mostly associated with adherence to poor medical conditions and glycaemic control. For the Hispanic community, this concept is essential, especially in the administration of treatment. Therefore, they are cultural values that should be recognized during therapies like insulin therapy since their lack of recognition can lead to a lack of follow up, adverse outcomes, and non-adherence to medication ( Hu et al. 2012) .
Social factors like lifestyle and experience are essential components of the culture of the Hispanics. The Hispanic women like to live in a certain way in which nothing should change that; they find it hard to change their behavior of lifestyle when keeping their children and husbands happy. They do not like any activity that disrupts their usual daily activities. For example, the use of insulin among Hispanic women is considered a burden since insulin injections interfere with daily activities.
When it comes to the diet and foods that they consume, they have a high amount of calories and fat, and it has been noted that in the festivals and celebrations they hold, people are pressurized socially to overeat. People are also expected to maintain relationships by not declining food at a social event and that the families should eat meals while together. The idea of sharing meals together plays a significant role in the health of the diabetes patients as it can lead to improvement of eating habits while at the same time it can lead to difficulties in modifying meal plans of the Hispanics.
Religion is an essential aspect of the Hispanic culture, and they use prayers as a tool of spiritual intervention for their needs, which include good health. They believe that some diseases are a punishment such as diabetes and therefore, they cannot do anything to change their fate ( Abdoli et al., 2018). They believe that praying to God about something such as diseases can lead to their healing, and they thus do not seek medical attention immediately.
References
Abdoli, S., Doosti Irani, M., Hardy, L. R., & Funnell, M. (2018). A discussion paper on stigmatizing features of diabetes. Nursing Open , 5 (2), 113-119.
Blonde, L. (2005). Current challenges in diabetes management. Clinical cornerstone , 7 , S6-S17.
Chen, R., Ovbiagele, B., & Feng, W. (2016). Diabetes and stroke: epidemiology, pathophysiology, pharmaceuticals, and outcomes. The American journal of the medical sciences , 351 (4), 380-386.
Forouhi, N. G., & Wareham, N. J. (2018). Epidemiology of diabetes. Medicine .
Hu, J., Amirehsani, K. A., Wallace, D. C., & Letvak, S. (2012). The meaning of insulin to Hispanic immigrants with type 2 diabetes and their families. The Diabetes Educator , 38 (2), 263-270.
WHO (2018). Diabetes . Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes
