Reference no: EM133292180

Case Study on Populations with Special Needs

Patient education is a necessary component of prevention, intervention, and treatment programs. Medical providers and allied health professionals must be mindful of using best-practice communication skills when educating patients through health promotion and intervention initiatives.

Introduction

Obesity is a leading cause of mortality among specific ethnic groups, and increasingly among youth and young adults. To address this problem, it is essential to understand the health, social, and environmental characteristics of these at-risk subpopulations. An effective obesity intervention and health promotion campaign must target these specific high-risk patients with a proven, evidence-based approach to achieve maximum outreach and results. 

Case Report

Established in 1819, the University of Cincinnati (UC) and its associated medical school have a distinguished reputation for academic medicine and leading-edge research. The university's health system, UC Health, operates a weight-loss center that has been a model program in the partnering of various stakeholders in the community to create best practices for the promotion of healthy lifestyles and weight management.

Physical activity and exercise are the best forms of intervention and prevention to avoid the ills of chronic obesity. The challenges that prevent many people from exercising include limited physical mobility, lack of motivation, and the absence of proper amenities or equipment. Thus, a primary goal of exercise health promotion is assisting patients in overcoming the challenges of mobility and the limited possibilities they experience in their daily lives (Jensen & Pals, 2015).

During the height of the program's effectiveness, UC Health created a daylong program for working women that provided weight management education, resources, and counseling (Rege, 2018). The success of UC's program was grounded in two primary interventions for the women's center: (1) a low-calorie diet featuring liquid fasting and (2) a healthy living plan geared toward helping patients lose a minimum of 1 pound per week. The programmatic outcomes included successful weight management interventions for dozens of UC executives through the years by creating a culture of exercise.

Resource allocation can be both ethical and effective by spreading the cost across the entire spectrum of a chronic disease population. For example, the cost of treating obesity per patient begins to drop as effective therapies are spread out across a larger population. Clinical efficiencies and synergies can help to eliminate some ethical dilemmas as a result of the overall costs decreasing due to the creation of economies of scale and best medical practices.

Discussion

To maximize success and enhance efforts to promote exercise, it is essential that patients understand why physical activity is beneficial to their overall mortality (Beighle & Morrow, 2014). This understanding enables the targeting of specific strategies to remove and eliminate barriers to adopting a physically active lifestyle. Additionally, the use of motivational coaching and interviews with patients with chronic medical conditions can result in increased physical activity (O'Halloran et al., 2014). Finally, patient participation and collaboration are fundamental to a successful health campaign for getting key stakeholders to change their behavior. Those patients who are physically inactive and live a sedentary lifestyle are an ideal target population for health intervention but will be the most challenging to improve the outcome.

Conclusion

Health education, promotion, and prevention programs must raise patients' awareness of the role of diet and exercise in staving off obesity. Anecdotal evidence suggests that motivational coaching and moderate physical activity produce a modest improvement in some patients. However, with adequate training, this type of intervention can be productive and beneficial by integrating it into the patient's care plan.

Question

Discuss three strategies to care for patients diagnosed with obesity from the perspective of population health management.

What are the most significant factors that have led to the obesity crisis in the United States?

Describe the coordination of care between providers and patients as it relates to obesity disease management.