Health Promotion

Title: Health promotion regarding Type-2 diabetes in the UK

The type-2diabteies develops as a result of insulin resistance in the body or the incapability of the body to use insulin (Chatterjee et al., 2017). The signs and symptoms related to type-2 diabetes include increased thirst, extreme hunger, frequent urination, unexplained loss of weight, irritability, fatigue, blurred vision and others (Chatterjee et al., 2017). Target group: The target group of the campaign are individuals of age 18 years and above. The specific target group has been chosen because there is a clear association between high prevalence of diabetes with age. This is evident as per reports of 2015 in which it was mentioned that only 0.8% of the population within the age of 16-24 years are diabetic and the percentage rises with age such as 1.2% of population of 25-34 years, 3.5% of individuals of 35-44 years, 9% of people of 45-54 years, 12.7% of population of 55-64 years, 16.9% of people of 65-74 years and 23.8% of people of 75+ years of age are suffering from diabetes in the UK (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2016). Therefore, to focus on all the major adult individuals from different age group such wide range of target participants are selected in the campaign. Moreover, the adults are targeted in the campaign as with age, the risk of diabetes increases. This is because ageing leads the body cells in the kidney to get older and develop hindered functioning at being able to remove diabetes medication which on staying for long creates further drop in blood sugar (Morton et al., 2020). Aim: The aim of the health promotion is to promote awareness regarding control and management of risk towards health regarding type-2 diabetes by adults within the UK.

Objectives:

To provide concept regarding type-2 diabetes as a health issue To inform risk factors related to type-2 diabetes among adults To provide details regarding the government initiatives and policies present in managing type-2 diabetes among adults that can be available by them

Type-2 Diabetes Overview

The type-2 diabetes is long-term health condition which leads individuals unable to use insulin in the body to control the blood sugar level leading people to develop high blood glucose level (Ligthart et al., 2016). In 2019, it is reported in the UK that nearly 4.8 million people are diagnosed with diabetes among which 90% of them have type-2 diabetes. There are no separate results available to indicate the number of people suffering from different type of diabetes (diabetes.org.uk, 2020). It is reported that in every 16 individuals in the UK is suffering from diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes (diabetes.org.uk, 2020). This indicates that many individuals in the UK are suffering from diabetes and it is one of the major health issues in the country. In the UK, men are more vulnerable than women to get diagnosed with diabetes. This is evident as 9.6% of men and 7.6% of women in the UK are currently suffering from diabetes (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2016). As per statistics, the NHS spends nearly £10 billion each year for managing diabetes and 80% of this expenditure is made to help people with type-2 diabetes in overcoming health complication regarding the disease (diabetes.org.uk, 2015). This indicates that huge expenses are made by the NHS for managing diabetes complications among the individuals so that they are able to lead a better life. According to current progress in the prevalence of diabetes in the UK, it is predicted that by 2030 nearly 5.5 million of the people in the country is going to suffer from the diseases with type-2 diabetes as the major nature of health issue (diabetes.org.uk, 2020). Thus, the campaign is focused on the health issue of type-2 diabetes so that better control towards its prevalence and progress can be attained in the UK. Moreover, the campaign is also effective in creating greater awareness among the public in the UK to determine actions to be avoided in experiencing the health issue. In addition, it would aware the public regarding the intervention already available for type-2 diabetes so that they can avail them in the early stage and avoid complicated progression of the disease that leads NHS to spend extra money in supporting the patient care.

Risk factors of Type-2 diabetes

The presence of type-2 diabetes in family history is one of the risk factors for the disease. This is because the gene responsible for causing type-2 diabetes is present in the family members that get passed on from one generation to another leading individual to develop the disease (K Papazafiropoulou et al., 2017). The genes responsible for causing risk of type-2 diabetes include TCF7L2 that influences glucose production and insulin secretion in the body, ABCC8 that helps to regulate insulin, GLUT2 that assist to move extra glucose from the blood into the pancreas and GCGR which is a glucagon hormone responsible in regulating glucose in the body (Yahaya and Salisu, 2020). The increased inactivity among the individuals is also responsible for developing risk of type-2 diabetes. This is because sedentary lifestyle leads the glucose produced in the body unable to be used by body cells as they do not require enough amount of energy to perform. It makes the body cells insensitive in using blood glucose to avoid type-2 diabetes (Eaton and Eaton, 2017). The presence increased BMI rate or body weight is risk of developing type-2 diabetes. This is because increased body weight indicates presence of high amount of fatty tissues in the body. This fat deposition leads to create barrier for the body cells to use glucose present in the blood in turn raising the overall blood sugar level in the body (Apovian et al., 2019). The presence of abnormal amount of cholesterol and triglyceride in the blood leads to create risk of type-2 diabetes. This is because the triglyceride is considered to fat carrier in the body which in turn creates barriers towards use of glucose from the blood to avoid diabetes (Low et al., 2018). The individuals belonging from certain race such as Hispanic, Black, Asian American people and others are considered to be at high risk of type-2 diabetes. The exact reason behind the relation of the race with the risk of type-2 diabetes is not identified (Xu et al., 2018). The older people are also found to be high risk of developing type-2 diabetes.

Government intervention in managing Type-2 diabetes

One of the UK government initiative in managing type-2 diabetes was introduction of NHS Diabetes Prevention Program (NHS DPP). The NHS DPP was introduced with the aim to support individuals at risk of experiencing type-2 diabetes to reduce their risk with 9-month supported lifestyle intervention. The intervention include teaching them increase physical activity, healthy eating habit and maintaining healthy weight (NHS, 2020). The evaluation of the impact of NHS DPP till 2018-19 indicates that they have provided assistance to over 400,000 individuals and exceeded their target in the Five Year Forward View Target of 100,000 people by delivering the services to 105,000 people (NHS, 2020). This indicates that NHS DPP is a successful health promotion program for type-2 diabetes running in the country which is effective to provide assistance to the public to become aware and avoid experiencing the disease. The UK government as a national prevention policy has developed Diabetes Prevention Week. In this program, week-long activities are been arranged for raising awareness regarding type-2 diabetes, complication associated with it, way to prevent the complications and which are the high-risk group for type-2 diabetes (gov.uk, 2018). Under this program, a Diabetes Prevention Week Toolkit is also provided to general practitioners and other local organisation for free of cost (gov.uk, 2018). The toolkit acts as assistance to the practitioners in hosting effective own local diabetes prevention events and advertising awareness regarding the disease (gov.uk, 2018). Thus, the program is available for assisting public as well as healthcare practitioners in managing the spread of type-2 diabetes.

Description of messages and tools used for health campaign

The health promotion approach that is followed in developing this campaign is educational health promotion approach. This is because health education helps to reduce mortality a well as morbidity regarding preventable health problems such as type-2 diabetes which can be prevented with effective lifestyle and health management (Sharma, 2016). Moreover, the health education approach in health promotion leads the health professionals to create sensitivity among the public regarding the risk of any health issues and raise awareness among them regarding the need of their involvement in the health promotion process by highlighting key advantages toward health to be faced by them on following the information provided in the campaign (Sharma, 2016). The key message to be informed through the campaign is “Be smart to understand the risk of type-2 diabetes caused by your everyday activities”. The tools to be applied in accomplishing the aim of the campaign is framing a poster as well as leaflets. This is because the poster will alert the public about type-2 diabetes by creating greater visibility of the information. It would also impact to create wider change in attitude and knowledge of the public regarding type-2 diabetes. In addition, leaflets are to be made available because they act as brief informative material which can be carried by the public to use as reference in remembering the information from the poster and follow them to lead their life in changed manner to avoid the risk of development of type-2 diabetes. The posters are to be attached at public places and the leaflets are to be made available in healthcare clinics, schools, colleges, office area and others to create greater reach. A social media campaign is also to be organised regarding type-2 diabetes by following the aim of this promotion. This is because currently wide number of adults frequently use social media each day and therefore using social media platform to make the information of the campaign to be reached to the adults who are target participants would be easy. It is evident as 96% of the household in the UK uses internet and access social media each day (ons.gov.uk, 2020). The social media platforms to be used are Facebook and Instagram as they are most frequently media platform been used (ons.gov.uk, 2020). The wide health policy changes that are required to be addressed in the campaign to be successful is the way the UK government can create changes in the nutrition program arranged for the children so that it can also cover the adults to educate them about the diet to be taken in avoiding type-2 diabetes. Moreover, the other policy changes to be addressed is regarding the way the UK government can involve adults to execute everyday physical exercise to avoid risk of type-2 diabetes. The strength of my health promotion campaign is that the tools and approach to be used in framing the campaign is already identified. The knowledge of tools and approach to be used in health promotion is important because it helps to guide and support the individuals framing the health promotion to execute the campaign in an effective way (Edelman et al., 2017). The weakness of my campaign is that it educates people regarding type-2 diabetes identification and management, but does not empower them to take self-decision or steps in controlling the prevalence of the health issue. Thus, it would create awareness regarding the health issues but the way activities to be performed in preventing the risk of type-2 diabetes would be unknown to the public.

Ethical Consideration

The confidentiality of the participants is to be maintained by avoiding revealing their real name and identity as well as allowing anonymous participation. The informed consent of the participants is to be accessed by using a consent form fulfilled in and approved by each of the participants. The autonomy of the participants in health promotion is to be maintained by allowing them to decide whether or not to participate in the campaign. The non-maleficence in the healthcare campaign is to be ensured by remaining honest and upholding professional integrity in circulating the information.

Continue your exploration of Health Outcomes in Elderly Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes with our related content.

References

Apovian, C.M., Okemah, J. and O’Neil, P.M., 2019. Body weight considerations in the management of type 2 diabetes. Advances in therapy, 36(1), pp.44-58.

Chatterjee, S., Khunti, K. and Davies, M.J., 2017. Type 2 diabetes. The Lancet, 389(10085), pp.2239-2251.

diabetes.org.uk 2015, Us, diabetes and a lot of facts and stats, Available at: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/resources-s3/2019-02/1362B_Facts%20and%20stats%20Update%20Jan%202019_LOW%20RES_EXTERNAL.pdf [Accessed on: 4 January 2020]

Eaton, S.B. and Eaton, S.B., 2017. Physical inactivity, obesity, and type 2 diabetes: an evolutionary perspective. Research quarterly for exercise and sport, 88(1), pp.1-8.

Edelman, C.L., Mandle, C.L. and Kudzma, E.C., 2017. Health promotion throughout the life span-e-book. Elsevier Health Sciences.

gov.uk 2018, Health matters: preventing Type 2 Diabetes, Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-preventing-type-2-diabetes/health-matters-preventing-type-2-diabetes#lifestyle-interventions-and-national-policies [Accessed on: 4 January 2020]

K Papazafiropoulou, A., Papanas, N., Melidonis, A. and Maltezos, E., 2017. Family history of type 2 diabetes: does having a diabetic parent increase the risk?. Current diabetes reviews, 13(1), pp.19-25.

Ligthart, S., van Herpt, T.T., Leening, M.J., Kavousi, M., Hofman, A., Stricker, B.H., van Hoek, M., Sijbrands, E.J., Franco, O.H. and Dehghan, A., 2016. Lifetime risk of developing impaired glucose metabolism and eventual progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes: a prospective cohort study. The lancet Diabetes & endocrinology, 4(1), pp.44-51.

Low, S., Khoo, K.C.J., Irwan, B., Sum, C.F., Subramaniam, T., Lim, S.C. and Wong, T.K.M., 2018. The role of triglyceride glucose index in development of Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 143, pp.43-49.

Morton, J.I., Liew, D., McDonald, S.P., Shaw, J.E. and Magliano, D.J., 2020. The association between age of onset of type 2 diabetes and the long-term risk of end-stage kidney disease: a national registry study. Diabetes Care, 43(8), pp.1788-1795.

NHS 2020, NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP), Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ltphimenu/diabetes-prevention/nhs-diabetes-prevention-programme-nhs-dpp/ [Accessed on: 4 January 2020]

ons.gov.uk 2020, Home internet and social media usage, Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage [Accessed on: 4 January 2020]

Sharma, M., 2016. Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Xu, G., Liu, B., Sun, Y., Du, Y., Snetselaar, L.G., Hu, F.B. and Bao, W., 2018. Prevalence of diagnosed type 1 and type 2 diabetes among US adults in 2016 and 2017: population based study. Bmj, 362, p.k1497.

Yahaya, T.O. and Salisu, T.F., 2020. A review of type 2 diabetes mellitus predisposing genes. Current diabetes reviews, 16(1), pp.52-61.