Diabetes Education Public Health Diabetes Case Study

Thus, Arizona's state health department has made a proactive effort both to provide social services to diabetes to help them manage their illness, as well as created bridges the wider healthcare community to support diabetes education. The main fault to be found with this approach is the focus on treatment, versus prevention. Type II diabetes is the form of the disorder which has been escalating rapidly, and this disease is linked to obesity, a high-sugar and highly caloric diet, and inactivity. Promoting healthy eating and exercise amongst vulnerable populations is essential. The Arizona Health Department does provide educational resources in the form of pamphlets, but does not specifically talk about creating healthy lunch and exercise programs in the schools or working to redesign urban spaces to make them more movement-friendly for pedestrians.

The extent to which the conditions of poverty (such as a lack of access to affordable, healthy food), exacerbated by genetics is also not addressed through a specific policy, other than providing links to Indian services.For example, Apache County has 73% Native Americans; in Yuma County half the population is Hispanic. "These counties also have higher percentages of uninsured than the state's average. It is also interesting to note that these counties all have diagnosed diabetes rates higher than the state's rate of 9%" (Arizona Diabetes Burden Report, 2011, ADHS). They also have and much younger populations overall on average. Working to change the food preferences and eating habits of the upcoming generation could have a profound effect in reducing diabetes.

References

Arizona Diabetes Burden Report. (2011). Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS).

Retrieved:

http://azdhs.gov/azdiabetes/documents/pdf/AZ-Diabetes-Burden-Report_2011.pdf

Arizona Diabetes Coalition. (2013). Arizona Department of Health Services. (ADHS). Retrieved:

http://azdhs.gov/azdiabetes/coalition.htm

Self-management education. (2013). Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS). Retrieved:

http://azdhs.gov/azdiabetes/mgmt-education.htm

Webinar: Diabetes. (2013). Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS). Retrieved:

http://azdhs.gov/azdiabetes/documents/pdf/PrediabetesWebinar.pdf.....