Community Health Problems: Nancy Milio's Health And Health Risks

Nancy Milio proposed that an individual’s health and lifestyle choices are influenced by resources, availability, cost and convenience more than knowledge obtained from education. This thought provides the framework for influencing community habits by developing policies that protect and promote health (Nies & McEwan, 2015-a). In this paper, I will identify and analyze a community health problem using Milio’s framework for prevention, use Healthy People 2020 to find national goals that relate to my diagnosis and develop one long-term goal, three short-term goals, and accompanying interventions.

Heart Disease in Franklin County with Behavioral Risk Factors

To identify a Franklin County health problem, I examined population demographics to

Individual resources such as knowledge, beliefs, time, money and personal priorities affect how a person makes health-promoting or health-damaging choices. To increase the likelihood that people choose behaviors that sustain health, initiatives must be developed to make healthy choices readily available, cheaper, and more convenient when compared to health-damaging choices (Nies & McEwen, 2015-b). For example, when considering nutrition, government agencies could use incentives to make growing fruits and vegetables more profitable for farmers, and if farmers decide that they can make more money by planting more of those crops, the cost to buy them decreases. While controversial, inflating the prices of processed, low nutrient food would decrease the number of people purchasing those items. To decrease the effect of personal priorities on healthy choices, areas of poverty could be improved by development that increases jobs and increases affordable housing. If underserved neighborhoods have access to affordable health care, primary care providers and healthy foods, it would also mitigate the effects of personal priorities. Another way to influence the choices that people make is to place heavier taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, discount gym memberships based on income, and provide parkland in close proximity to

Goals involving physical activity include decreasing the number of people who do not participate in exercise and increasing the number of people who meet the national guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercise. National guideline goals for individuals are 120 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. In 2008 the percentage of people meeting the physical activity guidelines were 18.1 and the goal for 2020 is 20.1. Nutrition goals focus on increasing the intake of whole grains, and vegetables and decreasing calories obtained from solid fats and sugars. In 2008, the average intake of vegetables was 0.76 cups per 1,000 calories and the 2020 goal is 1.16 cups per 1,000 calories (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, n.d.).

Long and Short-term Goals and Interventions

Because Franklin County is so large, initial goals would be applied to a neighborhood setting before implementation across the county. To make a positive impact on health and decrease heart disease within the community, these goals are meant to decrease barriers to exercise and provide motivation for exercise participation. Two of the short-term goals address the barriers of time and cost. The other two short-term goals provide convenience and support and recognize that people are motivated differently