The development of measures helping to protect family health is among the key priorities emphasized by healthcare providers all over the world. Assessments focused on factors impacting the health situation of the entire family are particularly important given that proper family care is a prerequisite to national well-being. Within the frame of the previous assignment, an American family was studied with the help of observations and interviews. In this paper, the findings are summarized and used to provide improvement recommendations and design a health promotion strategy.
Determinants of Health and the Family
The social determinants of health (SDOH) are presented by specific circumstances in which the family exists at the moment. Just like any small group, the family is influenced by numerous SDOH, but the most important ones are employment (in particular, work-related stress) and healthy behaviors (Thornton et al., 2016). As for the first factor, it has been found that the parents experience occupational stress, and it may impact the degree to which they implement the principles of a healthy lifestyle. This SDOH is prevalent for them since they acknowledge that the lack of time to cook healthy food results in problems with digestion. Speaking about the next determinant, healthy behaviors, it impacts the family’s health in at least two generations. The father of one of the parents was addicted to alcohol, which is a potential risk factor. Moreover, both parents’ BMI scores are not perfect, and it can be related to their everyday habits. In the absence of significant financial constraints, the factor of the interviewees’ behaviors is prevalent for this family.
Screening Recommendations
Judging from the assessment results, all family members have actual or potential health issues. Since she reports stress at work and suffers from headaches, the mother is recommended to go for neurological screenings and check for a tension-type headache (Berry & Drummond, 2018). These measures are expected to help the woman to identify the potential physiological causes of her condition and learn how to reduce workplace stress. Due to his weight, inactivity, and family history of diabetes, the father should have diabetes risk tests to get recommendations from specialists (Giblin, Rainchuso, & Rothman, 2016). It would also be pivotal to screen for the locomotor system disease or infections since his joint pain can have several dangerous causes (Arendt-Nielsen, 2017). As for the kids, both of them report difficulty defecation, and screening for chronic constipation that often affects children of their age is needed to prevent complications (Howarth & Sullivan, 2016). Thus, all family members have issues that may require healthcare specialists’ intervention.
Health Belief Model
Efforts aimed at improving family health should be informed by an effective model. As for the discussed case, the health belief model (HBM) can be applied to maximize positive outcomes. The chosen model will assist in plan creation because its components are aimed at encouraging more responsible attitudes to health (Yue, Li, Weilin, & Bin, 2015). Thus, HBM singles out several components that increase people’s willingness to engage in healthy behaviors. Among them are the perceptions of some practices’ benefits and limitations and the degree to which health risks are recognized (Yue et al., 2015). HBM also emphasizes the ability of the feeling of personal efficacy and the presence of cues to action to predict people’s readiness to improve their approaches to health (Yue et al., 2015). Therefore, HBM presents and explains a variety of factors impacting individuals’ attitudes to their physical and mental condition.
This model is the best choice due to the interviewees’ attitudes to health and the factor of age. Firstly, the parents have enough financial resources to live a healthier lifestyle. It also seems that their problems come from the lack of proper beliefs and the tendency to underestimate health risks, and this is why the model will assist in plan development. This point is supported by the fact that the parents suffer from headaches and joint pain but report no efforts to cope with these problems, which resembles an example of medical self-neglect. Secondly, the model implies that people’s self-care efforts are predicted by some individual factors, including “age, gender, socioeconomics, and treatment regimens” (Yue et al., 2015, p. 669). Therefore, HBM is reflective of the interviewees’ situation, in which younger family members need their parents’ participation to improve their health.
Family-Centred Health Promotion
Using HBM, it is possible to develop a health promotion strategy including three steps. The first step is to improve the family’s understanding of the benefits of healthy behaviors; this goal can be achieved with the help of patient education on positive lifestyle changes (Yue et al., 2015). Next, all family members are to be explained the unobvious threats associated with their health condition to improve their recognition of risks (Yue et al., 2015). Finally, after the necessary screenings and general health assessments, all four people will receive specific recommendations for health improvement stressing an individual’s role in this process (Yue et al., 2015). At this stage, education will be aimed at increasing their perceived self-efficacy.
The health promotion intervention can be implemented with the help of different communication strategies, including scheduled phone calls and in-person consultations. To work with the adult family members effectively, specialists will need to attract their attention to the great role that their decisions play in children’s health. To reach this goal, they will be able to provide the parents with online sources encouraging their self-teaching. Increases in the parents’ knowledge will positively impact the effectiveness of patient education for the children since the mother and the father are their role models.
Conclusion
To sum up, despite the absence of severe issues, the family needs professionals’ help to improve attitudes to health and prevent high-risk conditions. The previously reported health concerns allow providing all family members with recommendations concerning the necessary medical tests. Given these people’s access to financial resources and the need to focus on health beliefs, HBM is the model that can inform an effective health promotion plan.
References
Arendt-Nielsen, L. (2017). Joint pain: More to it than just structural damage? Pain, 158, S66-S73.
Berry, J. K. M., & Drummond, P. D. (2018). Psychological generators of stress-headaches. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 41(1), 109-121.
Giblin, L. J., Rainchuso, L., & Rothman, A. (2016). Utilizing a diabetes risk test and A1c point-of-care instrument to identify increased risk for diabetes in an educational dental hygiene setting. American Dental Hygienists’ Association, 90(3), 197-202.
Howarth, L. J., & Sullivan, P. B. (2016). Management of chronic constipation in children. Paediatrics and Child Health, 26(10), 415-422.
Thornton, R. L., Glover, C. M., Cené, C. W., Glik, D. C., Henderson, J. A., & Williams, D. R. (2016). Evaluating strategies for reducing health disparities by addressing the social determinants of health. Health Affairs, 35(8), 1416-1423.
Yue, Z., Li, C., Weilin, Q., & Bin, W. (2015). Application of the health belief model to improve the understanding of antihypertensive medication adherence among Chinese patients. Patient Education and Counseling, 98(5), 669-673.