Introduction
Caring about one’s health is the most crucial and rewarding duty of every person. Prevention plays a significant role in the process of keeping oneself healthy. Knowing one’s family health history and being aware of possible health complications makes it easier for an individual to fight dangerous conditions and diseases. The adult participant (NJ) is at risk of developing type 2 diabetes due to the prevalence of this disease in his family. A modifiable risk factor in this case is diet. The purpose of the paper is to create a teaching plan for a patient based on his family genetic history.
Preventable Disease Overview
Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common illnesses worldwide, with over 190 million people having it undiagnosed (Chatterjee, Khunti, & Davies, 2017). Signs and symptoms associated with this illness are fatigue, hunger, frequent elimination, and blurred vision (“Early symptoms of diabetes,” 2017). Type 2 diabetes develops when there is a growing insulin secretory defect on the basis of insulin resistance. The disease is diagnosed with the help of tests that measure glucose level (American Diabetes Association, 2015). The most common diagnostic measure is the glycated hemoglobin (A1C) test. American Diabetes Association, 2015). With its help, it is possible to measure the patient’s blood sugar (BS) level over past several months. Other analyses that may be used include oral glucose tolerance test, random BS test, and fasting BS test.
If a person has a family history of diabetes, there is a high likelihood that he or she may develop this disease. In NJ’s situation, there are many instances of diabetes in his family history both on his father’s and mother’s side. NJ’s paternal and maternal grandfathers had diabetes, and his both parents and father’s sister have this disease. Therefore, there is a strong possibility for NJ to develop diabetes.
Evidence-Based Intervention
A successful intervention aimed related to the modifiable risk factor (diet) is described in research performed by Miller, Kristeller, Headings, and Nagaraja (2014). The project is developed in accordance with the mindfulness-based eating awareness training (MB-EAT). Mindful eating is regarded as an effective tool to increase patients’ awareness of their eating patterns (Miller et al., 2014). The intervention involved teaching the participants to minimize stress-associated eating. The pivotal element of the experiment was mindfulness meditation. Apart from that, patients were taught to discern between emotional and physical hunger signals. Also, they were instructed on food choice preferences and social pressures to consume food.
Taking into consideration the aspects described in Miller et al.’s (2014) study, it is possible to outline the following goals for NJ related to the intervention:
- short-term: to teach NJ how to make right food choices and avoid irrational food cravings, to instruct NJ about mindfulness-based eating;
- long-term: to stabilize NJ’s diet, to make sure that his diet does not incl2ude any products or ingredients that could lead to the development of diabetes (such as sugar and fats).
Implementation: Teaching Plan
The methods used to teach NJ how to implement the intervention will incorporate lectures and video lessons. I will demonstrate on the examples of successful interventions how people with healthy eating managed to overcome their overweight problems. Even if NJ does not have such problem, it is necessary for him to be aware of the complications and try to keep his body mass index within the norm. I will arrange our meetings in the forms of lectures or dialogues.
I will ask NJ to keep a record of his food intake and make sure that his diet does not include an excessive amount of fats. I will also ask him to minimize the intake of sugar. I will encourage NJ to download an app on his smartphone that will simplify the task of self-observation. Moreover, he will be able to share the results with me. Besides the app, I will use such resources as scholarly journals and video lessons. The information found in these materials will be both helpful and encouraging.
Evaluation
In order to assess the effectiveness of the intervention, I will compare the lab values of NJ in four weeks. I will measure his weight, body mass index, and blood sugar level at the beginning of the project. In a month, I will perform the same measurements. I expect to observe the decrease in weight and the lowered level of blood sugar. If the plan proves to be unsuccessful, I will alter it by adding regular physical exercises to the patient’s schedule.
Summary
The paper focuses on creating a teaching plan for a patient with a high likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes. It presents an overview of the disease and describes the intervention that is expected to help NJ. The teaching plan includes the measures to be taken in order to enhance the patient’s health condition. Such projects are necessary to avoid the development of preventable diseases, and the significance of this intervention cannot be overestimated. Diabetes is a severe illness, and it is crucial to eliminate its instances among the population.
References
American Diabetes Association. (2015). Classification and diagnosis of diabetes. Diabetes Care, 38(Suppl. 1), S8-S16.
Chatterjee, S., Khunti, K., & Davies, M. J. (2017). Type 2 diabetes. Lancet, 389(10085), 2239-2251.
Early symptoms of diabetes. (2017). WebMD. Web.
Miller, C. K., Kristeller, J. L., Headings, A., & Nagaraja, H. (2014). Comparison of a mindful eating intervention to a diabetes self-management intervention among adults with type 2 diabetes: A randomized controlled trial. Health Education & Behavior, 41(2), 145-154.