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Applying Epidemiology to Program Design for Chronic Diseases

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Applying Epidemiology to Program Design for Chronic Diseases

Population health remains a determinant for the thriving of individuals and communities. Population health improvement has traditionally focused on identifying apparent health risks and taking proactive measures to curtail them (Shahzad et al., 2019). However, various health risks still threaten global efforts toward preserving and promoting the health of individual within their communities. Chronic diseases are one of the health shocks that still cause immense suffering across the population (Stacherl & Sauzet, 2023). This paper scrutinizes the CDC data on chronic illnesses, identifies a concerning chronic disease, and highlights measures to address it.

Chronic Disease of Concern

Chronic diseases are a global health concern. These illnesses cause significant suffering across populations and account for the majority of reported mortalities, disabilities, and hospitalizations. They are also a reason for the skyrocketing cost of healthcare (Stacherl & Sauzet, 2023). Diabetes is one of the chronic illnesses that produces harm across populations. Diabetes is a disorder characterized by sustained hyperglycemia. It is a modifiable risk factor for all-cause mortalities and has been associated with an increased need for healthcare services. Type 2 diabetes mellitus accounts for the majority of all reported diabetic cases in persons aged 20 and above. The diseases can cause serious complications such as heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure, among other debilitations. If left unmanaged, sustained hyperglycemia, along with other aberrations inherent in the disease, results in disabling health complications. The most prominent microvascular complications of diabetes include nephropathy, peripheral neuropathy, and retinopathy. Macrovascular complications such as heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral artery disease are usually life-threatening (Galicia-Garcia et al., 2020). This warrants addressing the disease.

Geographical Region and Population of Interest

Diabetes is one of the chronic illnesses in the US. More than 38 million Americans have the disease. Further, over 98 million Americans are prediabetic. The cost of diabetes is also high, with the estimated medical costs and costs lost in productivity being more than 413 billion dollars (CDC, 2024). The prevalence of diabetes is also on an upward trend. This makes the disease a concern and warrants its address.

The population of interest for the project is younger adults aged between 15 and 39 living in a neighborhood in Minneapolis. This population group is characterized by persons undertaking formal and informal schooling, as well as those transitioning to professional careers. Younger populations are traditionally thought to be healthier and more productive due to the low prevalence of chronic illnesses and the need for healthcare consumption. However, the CDC reports reveal that over 350000 Americans aged 20 and below have a form of diabetes. Prediabetic cases are also high within the younger adult population. The estimated prevalence of diabetic risks such as obesity and overweight is also high among young adults, with over 19% of young Americans being either obese or overweight (CDC, 2024).

Patterns of Diabetes among Young Adults

Diabetes is becoming a major health concern among young American adults (CDC, 2024). The prevalence of diabetes varies across younger adults. Over 5300 children and adolescents aged between 10 and 19 have confirmed cases of diagnosis. The incidence of type 2 diabetes among young adults aged between 15 and 39 has been increasing steadily since 1990, with the current incidence standing at 59%. According to the CDC reports, if the incidence of type 2 diabetes remains constant, the incidence of type 2 diabetes among younger adults will increase to 70% by 2060 (CDC, 2024). This further highlights why the disease is a concern and provides insight into the need to ramp up preventive efforts against the disease.

Health Outcomes to Be Improved

Comprehensive diabetes management focuses on preventing the disease and aggressive therapy to optimize glycemic control and reduce disease complications. One of the health outcomes delineated in the Healthy People 2030 document and should be improved within the population under scrutiny is increasing the proportion of youth and adolescents who are formally educated on diabetes (ODPHP, n.d.). Education on diabetes is particularly important among those considered to be at high risk of developing the disease. Diabetes education programs can help them integrate healthy behaviors such as exercise and reduced consumption of high-calorie diets, which subsequently improve their overall health and lower the predisposition to the disease (Świątoniowska et al., 2019). It is thus important that diabetic education programs are rolled out among younger adults as a preventive measure against the disease.

Current Evidence That Supports Improving Diabetic Education

There is a consensual literature finding on the significance of diabetic education in lowering the risk of developing the disease. Świątoniowska et al. (2019) note that education plays a significant role in preventing diabetes and lowering the risk of developing diabetes complications. Diabetic education programs enhance the awareness of diabetics and those at risk of the various risk factors for the disease and specific measures that can be taken to curtail the disease. Specific educational components beneficial in diabetes educational programs include diet modification to minimize calorie intake. This includes emphasizing the need to lower the consumption of highly refined carbohydrates while increasing the intake of water and fiber. Carbohydrate intake control through carb-tracking is also necessitated to enhance the effectiveness of calorie-restricted diets. Education on lifestyle modification to restrict alcohol intake, stop tobacco smoking, and increase physical activity were also found to be effective in lowering the risk of developing diabetes (Shirvani et al., 2021). These interventions helped in weight loss and were associated with an overall decrease in the incidence of type 2 diabetes. It is thus important that educational interventions be implemented among young adults to lower their likelihood of developing diabetes.

EBP Program

The project seeks to develop a diabetes self-management educational program to lower the likelihood of young adults developing type 2 diabetes. Diabetes self-management programs are educational interventions targeted at expanding individuals’ knowledge of the disease. They have a positive effect on lifestyle modification and self-care for patients with diabetes and those at risk of developing the disease (Ernawati et al., 2021). The program will be implemented through video teleconferencing tools. During these sessions, the audience will be educated on a three-step approach to curtailing diabetes. This includes the need to address diabetes, risk factors for the disease, and preventive measures against the disease. This approach is best fit for young adults, as the majority of adolescents and younger adults resonate well with social media and videoconference tools (Lim et al., 2022). Through this route, the toolkit will be able to reach many people while minimizing costs. The program will leverage social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, among others, to notify the audience of the intention of the program and the schedule to enhance their participation.

Data Collection

The effectiveness of the proposed program is highly pegged on the accessibility of the tool by the targeted population. Data needed to ascertain whether the audience will receive the message is social media usability. This will inform the size of the anticipated audience and the social media platforms to use for the project. Information on social media usability can be obtained from secondary data from online sources. The Global Social Media Journal highlights the usability landscape of social media and videoconferencing tools across the globe. As of the information obtained therein, there are over 5.17 billion active social media users. The social media user base in the US is 326.75 million as of 2024. About 74% of young adults aged below 30 use a form of social media (Lim et al., 2022). Likewise, videoconferencing tools have over 200 million monthly active uses (Camilleri & Camilleri, 2022). These statistics show that the majority of the target population is likely to be using a form of social media. Social media, in this respect, remains a powerful and effective tool to deliver the proposed program. Data will also be collected on the audience’s diabetes diagnosis and risk status. This will be attained through quick in-presentation surveys to ascertain the proportion of the audience that are either known diabetics, at risk of the diseases, or healthy. This data will help evaluate the effectiveness of the program.

SMART Goals

The program is expected to expand the participant capacity to lower their risk of developing diabetes. The first short-term goal of the project is to conduct at least three live sessions of formal diabetes education through Zoom and Microsoft Teams within the first month of implementing the program. The second short-term goal is to ensure all the participants verbalize the risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes by the end of each training session. This will signify their understanding of the program and the provisions they have learned. Another short-term goal is to ensure that all participants verbalize their diabetes risk status and the preventive measures against the disease. This will also signify their understanding of the learned content.

The long-term goal of the program is to increase the number of people adopting various preventive measures against diabetes six months after program implementation. This includes those on a form of dieting to restrict consumption of highly refined carbohydrates and lifestyle modification to integrate a form of physical exercise. These activities are likely to lower the participant’s likelihood of developing diabetes.

Stakeholders

The program planning and implementation will draw diverse stakeholders. These include social media influencers, persons at high risk of developing diabetes, diabetologists, and the administration. Social media influencers will be responsible for pushing social media tags on the programs to expand their reach. Diabetologists will educate the audience on the best practices in diabetes prevention. Lastly, administrators will provide the permits necessary to conduct the program.

Program Planning Model

The program planning model selected for the project is the precede-proceed model. The model is founded on the epidemiological principles of educational, social, and behavioral sciences. It posits that health and health risks have a multifactorial etiology and that efforts to address them must be multi-dimensional. The goal is to explain health-related behavior and environment and design interventions that impact behavior and environment (Arshad et al., 2022). This model is aligned with the precinct in which the program was developed. Foremost, the program scrutinizes the environmental and behavioral factors that interplay in the development of diabetes and subsequently proposes interventions to address them. Based on the model, the planning phase of the program will entail analyzing potential causes of diabetes to identify the risk factors for the disease. This will form the section on diabetes risk factors in the project. Potential address measures will then be determined. The implementation phase will include educating the audience on the risk factors and possible address measures. The last step will be to evaluate the outcomes against the stated objectives to ascertain whether the program was effective in diabetes prevention (Arshad et al., 2022).

Cultural Consideration

The program design has significant cultural considerations. The anticipated audience is likely to be composed of persons from different backgrounds. The program planners and moderators should, therefore, maintain cultural awareness and humility when engaging them.

Funding and Marketing

The program fetches considerable financial considerations. These funds will go into paying social influencers and moderators, evaluating the program, and designing the paperwork required for the project. Funds will be mobilized from various public health agencies, such as the CDC and the Minnesota Department of Health. Several strategies will be used to market the program. The first strategy is influencer marketing. This includes pushing social media tags on the program to expand the program’s reach. The program will also be marketed through email marketing. This includes sending the provisions of the program through email to the potential audience. Social media marketing will also be used. This entails making posts on the program on different social media platforms.

In summary, diabetes remains a global health concern. Diabetes educational programs maintain effectiveness in lowering the likelihood of developing diabetes. The proposed program is expected to expand the participants’ capacity to lower their risk for the disease.

References

Arshad, A., Shaheen, F., Safdar, W., Tariq, M. R., Navid, M. T., Qazi, A. S., Awan, M. A., Sajid, M. W., & Garti, H. K. (2022). A precede‐proceed model‐based educational intervention to promote healthy eating habits in middle school girls. Food Science & Nutrition, 11(3), 1318–1327. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.3167

Camilleri, M. A., & Camilleri, A. C. (2022). Remote learning via video conferencing technologies: Implications for research and practice. Technology in Society, 68, 101881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101881

CDC. (2024, May 15). National Diabetes Statistics Report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/php/data-research/index.html#:~:text=Prevalence%20of%20diagnosed%20diabetes,-Expand%20All&text=Expand%20All-,Among%20the%20U.S.%20population%20overall%2C%20crude%20estimates%20for%202021%20were,U.S.%20youths%E2%80%94had%20diagnosed%20diabetes.

Ernawati, U., Wihastuti, T. A., & Utami, Y. W. (2021). Effectiveness of diabetes self-management education (DSME) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients: Systematic literature review. Journal of Public Health Research, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2021.2240

Galicia-Garcia, U., Benito-Vicente, A., Jebari, S., Larrea-Sebal, A., Siddiqi, H., Uribe, K. B., Ostolaza, H., & Martín, C. (2020). Pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(17), 6275. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21176275

Lim, M. S., Molenaar, A., Brennan, L., Reid, M., & McCaffrey, T. (2022). Young adults’ use of different social media platforms for health information: Insights from web-based conversations. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.2196/23656

ODPHP. (n.d.). Increase the proportion of people with diabetes who get formal diabetes education — D‑06. odphp.health.gov. https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/diabetes/increase-proportion-people-diabetes-who-get-formal-diabetes-education-d-06

Shahzad, M., Upshur, R., Donnelly, P., Bharmal, A., Wei, X., Feng, P., & Brown, A. D. (2019). A population-based approach to integrated healthcare delivery: A scoping review of clinical care and Public Health Collaboration. BMC Public Health, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7002-z

Shirvani, T., Javadivala, Z., Azimi, S., Shaghaghi, A., Fathifar, Z., Bhalla, H. D. R. D., Abdekhoda, M., & Nadrian, H. (2021). Community-based educational interventions for prevention of type II diabetes: A global systematic review and meta-analysis. Systematic Reviews, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-021-01619-3

Stacherl, B., & Sauzet, O. (2023). Chronic disease onset and wellbeing development: Longitudinal analysis and the role of healthcare access. European Journal of Public Health, 34(1), 29–34. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad167

Świątoniowska, N., Sarzyńska, K., Szymańska-Chabowska, A., & Jankowska-Polańska, B. (2019). The role of education in type 2 diabetes treatment. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 151, 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2019.04.004

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Question 

Roughly 28.5 million Americans were still uninsured as of 2017,and 133 million Americans […] suffer from at least one chronic
condition. —Nash et al. {2021, p. 5)
As you know, promoting positive social change is a part of the Walden mission. To be an effective agent for social change,nurses must be able to logically and critically analyze population health issues using epidemiologic concepts, and then translate this knowledge into evidence–based practice to
improve healthcare outcomes. This exercise will afford you such an experience at the population level. This is an exciting time to be working in the field of population health with all the new, dynamic, and innovative technologies and strategies to help patients and populations become more knowledgeable about their health.
This week ‘s Learning Resources present numerous health problems that result in a need for ongoing care. Your Assignment is to select a chronic disease of professional importance to you, and then design an intervention program to improve the health of populations affected by it.

Reference:
Nash, D. B_. Skoufalos, A., Fabius, R.J., & Oglesby, W. H. {2021). Population heerJtfr Creating a culture of we/Jness ( 3rd ed}. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

TO PREPARE:

THE ASSIGNMENT:

In a 7– to 10–page proposal [not including title page and references), address the following:

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