Health Education of Hypertension: The Hispanic Population in Philadelphia - Research Paper Example

? Health Education Plan Health Education Plan: Hypertension Introduction A health education plan can be described as any plan thatseeks to help individuals and groups of people learn to promote, maintain and restore their health. Health education plans are common in most countries as governments seek to ensure the health of its citizens. This paper seeks to discuss a health education plan on hypertension as a health problem on the Hispanic population of Philadelphia. In order to do so, the paper will establish health education outcomes, design the health education plan and evaluate its effectiveness. This will include measures to be taken to ensure that the education plan works efficiently. Background to the Hispanic Population in Philadelphia According to 2010 Census bureau, Philadelphia has a population of 1,526,006 consisting of Whites: 626,221; Blacks: 661,839; American Indian and Alaska Native: 6,0996; Asian: 96,405; Hispanic: 187,6111. Philadelphia can be regarded as of Delaware Valley’s economic and cultural center, home to over 6 million people and the country’s largest metropolitan area. According to the American Community Survey, the median income amounted to $36,669 and the median income for a family was $45,842. Philadelphia’s economic sectors include manufacturing, IT, food processing, oil refining, biotechnology, tourism and health care. The primary language spoken in Philadelphia is English with the second language most used at home being Spanish. Over the past two decades, the number of non-Hispanics whites in the city fell by 31.9 percent (Perez & Luquis, 2008) while the Hispanic population has increased by leaps and bounds with the biggest concentration getting noted in the Juanita/Feltonville section of the city. Identification of a Health Promotion Need As earlier indicated, this paper will discuss hypertension as a health promotion need to the Hispanic population of Philadelphia. Cases of hypertension which got initially reported in people, at their advanced age, can now be reported in people at their early ages. Hispanics, however, face even higher risks associated with cardiovascular health complications that result from high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. While this has been alarming, there is a need to address this health issue. One way that can be used to address the issue is through carrying out a health education plan that will seek to promote health on the Hispanic people in regard to hypertension (Perez & Luquis, 2008). About 65% of the Hispanic people in Philadelphia aged 60 and above have hypertension. Hypertension can, therefore, be associated with advanced age. The lifestyle of individual contributes to the chances of such a person getting health problems relating to hypertension. There is a need to educate the Hispanic people in Philadelphia about the need to adopt various health measures that will seek to promote their health in relation to hypertension. The draw to the city for this population has been the promise of economic prosperity and new opportunities. A major challenge to the provision of this health education to the Hispanic population of Philadelphia would be the apparent negligence of people to appreciate and adopt healthcare measures. This can be drawn from the little population of the people that have taken insurance policies. As such, providing health education to such a population may be challenging considering the probability that most of this population may not be willing to receive such education (Bartholomew, 2011) Health Education Outcomes When carrying out a health education plan on the Hispanic people in Philadelphia, there are several outcomes that can be expected from such a plan. These outcomes should be considered before the plan gets formulated so that the plan will focus on their achievement. One such an outcome is an increase in the knowledge of the health problem. The health problem in this case is hypertension. When the education plan gets executed, people should get to have more knowledge of this health complication than they had before. This should include knowledge on the causes of the disease, how to cope with the disease and the various medications available for the disease. Another outcome that could be expected is a change in behavior of the Hispanic people in this city. Hypertension, being a lifestyle disease requires that people get to re-evaluate their lifestyles and adopt ways that are healthy (Bartholomew, 2011). An efficient health education plan should help people change behaviors that are likely to lead to hypertension cases. This may include taking a balanced diet and exercising regularly. Such an education plan should seek to help these people identify some of the behaviors that can be encouraged and those that should be discouraged in order to regulate the disease. Participant satisfaction can as well be a possible outcome of a health education plan on hypertension on the Hispanic people. Data on participant satisfaction can be collected at the end of the program. The data helps to identify the areas that the plan needs to work on next time in order to help improve on the efficiency of the education plan. This data is in most cases collected by use of questionnaires. The information indicated on the questionnaires should be treated with confidentiality to ensure that participants feel secure to provide personal view of the education plan. Once the expected outcomes of the education plan get established, formulation of the actual education plan starts. Designing the Health Education Plan The expected outcomes of the education plan established earlier should help to formulate the actual health education plan. In order to have an efficient health education plan, one should consider the population of these people and their distribution in the city of Philadelphia. This demographic information helps in establishing appropriate methods to use when carrying out the plan. Information provided when executing the plan should include the origin and the nature of the hypertension. Although the cause of hypertension has long been associated with obesity, the underlying mechanisms that lead to hypertension are yet to be established. The origin of hypertension can be traced many years back. During the pre-modern era, cases of hypertension would be reported among people. However, these cases were not common. The modern era brought a lot of change in the lifestyles of people. People became more conservative than they had been before. As such, cases of unhealthy lifestyles increased. This consequently led to increased cases of hypertension. It is also worth looking at the risk factors of hypertension. One such factor is age. Hypertension increases as one advance in age. During early middle age, hypertension is more prevalent in men than in women. Most women who get hypertension experience it during once they reach their menopause. Race is equally another risk factor that affects hypertension. Hypertension is more prevalent in black people than it is in white people. Hispanic people being white are, therefore, not affected by race as a health risk factor of hypertension. Family history can also influence the possibility of one having hypertension. Other risk factors include being obese, lack of physical exercise and use of tobacco. These risk factors can be categorized into two. The first category is that of natural risks. This includes race, family history and age. The second category is that of those risk factors that result from lifestyle behaviors. In order for the plan to be effective on the Hispanic people, there is a need to emphasize more on the second category of risk factors than the first. There is a need to include further all classes and groups in the population to whom the education get provided. Health seminars can be carried on the shopping centers or in the streets of Philadelphia. These seminars will mainly target the aged group of people. The use of seminars is the most successful way of reaching and educating this group of people. In order to reach the youthful population of Hispanics, use of plays and road shows would be the most appropriate way. This is because such methods have the ability to attract many youth. Use of posters to pass various messages to the Hispanic people would be equally helpful. Such posters can be use to pass messages related to individuals taking personal responsibility of their health in relation to hypertension. Through educating the population of Hispanics on the risks of leading unhealthy lifestyles, this education plan will seek to help promote their health. Information provided in this program would further help this population to be aware of other health complications that come with leading unhealthy lifestyles. Implementation of the Health Education Plan A health education plan to the Hispanic population would have to be implemented in a way that considers the demographic patterns of the region. In order to ensure that all parties get equally reached, use of a flexible way method of presenting this information would be appropriate (Fertman & Allensworth, 2010). Videos and plays can be used to reach the youthful population. This section of the population gets best reached using this method. The timing of the presentation should be in such a way that it manages to reach the maximum number of these youths. Use of lectures would be appropriate for the working class. This is the case where the presentation gets done at the places of work. Considering that such methods as videos and plays cannot be used in these environments, lectures would serve best to pass this education. Workers in the corporate world would require relatively more explanation as compared to most of the other groups of the population considering that these people can be `expected to have more knowledge on the health problem. These environments are also suitable when it comes to looking for participant feedback. The level of education of the Hispanic people should further determine the methods to be used. In a region where most of the Hispanic people are relatively illiterate, use of such methods as plays would be most appropriate. The group providing this health education plan should assess the level of this Hispanic people at different areas of presentation before deciding on the method of presentation to use. Posters can be used in such places as streets frequented by Hispanic people. The content in the posters should be easy to understand and memorize (Fertman & Allensworth, 2010). Evaluation of Educational Effectiveness A major way that can be used to assess the effectiveness of this education plan is by getting feedback from the Hispanic people, to whom the education got carried. This feedback should include personal opinion of the program and what each person learns from the program. The information obtained from this feedback to a great extent will indicate the level of success of this program. The feedback should indicate that this people indeed learnt most of the things that they we're meant to learn for the program to be considered successful (Hodges & Videto, 2011). There should also be positive remarks about the program from the feedbacks given. In order to establish the outcomes of the education plan, there should be people sent to the field to assess the level of behavioral change in the population. This could be done through randomly picking individuals from the population and assessing their behavior prior and after the education plan got carried out. This assessment should indicate a level of positive change in lifestyle behaviors. Such individuals can also be interviewed to assess their level of knowledge as regarding to hypertension (McKenzie et al, 2012). Other health indicators that can be used to assess learning include an overall change in the perception of health to most of the Hispanic people in this region. People should be seen to be taking personal responsibility of their health as a way of indicating that they have learnt. Conclusion Health education plans play a vital role in promoting the health of people in a society. These programs seek to shed more light to the public on the presence of health problems and the measures that can be taken to help reduce the effects of these health problems. If properly utilized, these plans can go a long way in ensuring that healthy societies get establish. Both the government and health professionals should be seen to be advocating for this method as a way of promoting health. References Bartholomew, L. K. (2011). Planning health promotion programs: An intervention mapping approach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Fertman, C. I., & Allensworth, D. D. M. (2010). Health promotion programs: From theory to practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Hodges, B. C., & Videto, D. M. (2011). Assessment and planning in health programs. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. McKenzie, J. F., Neiger, B. L., & Thackeray, R. (2012). Planning, implementing, & evaluating health promotion programs: A primer. San Francisco, Calif: Benjamin Cummings. Pe?rez, M. A., & Luquis, R. R. (2008). Cultural competence in health education and health promotion. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Read More