Introduction
Health is a complex phenomenon, and many factors influence its state when it comes to different individuals. Many people tend to believe that clinical services are the only factor that can either improve or worsen a health status. However, since people are social beings, it is impossible to neglect the impact of the social environment on individuals and their health. The components of this environment are known as the social determinates of health (SDOH), and they have a significant impact on the family under consideration. Thus, it is necessary to develop a specific plan that will minimize the harmful effect of these determinates.
SDOH Explained
To begin with, one should understand what the SDOHs are. The term refers to those conditions in which people live, learn, work, play, and stay for a particular time. According to Adler, Glymour, and Fielding (2016), these determinates also include education, race, sex, place of residence, and others. There is no doubt that each of these elements and combinations thereof influence individuals’ health significantly, and it is necessary to determine their impact on the given population.
As for the family under consideration, many determinates affect the health status of its members, either positively or negatively. On the one hand, it refers to physical activities, including swimming and ball games.
No one can doubt that regular physical exercises result in some benefits for people’s health. Furthermore, the family is considered wealthy, which allows its members to live in decent conditions that do not harm them. On the other hand, some SDOHs have adverse consequences for the family. Firstly, it relates to eating unhealthy foods and spending much time in front of TVs. Secondly, the weather conditions also have the potential of being a barrier for decent healthy statuses because polluted air or changing atmospheric pressure, for example, can result in appropriate diseases among the family members.
Age-Appropriate Screening Recommendations
Since the information above demonstrates that the family can have some health issues, its members should be involved in regular screenings. Health check-ups are necessary for all children to see whether they develop without problems. As for adults, screening recommendations depend on the specific age of patients and the peculiarities of their environment. As for the family members under consideration, those of 18-39 years old should check their organs of vision and hearing.
Then, blood pressure and clinical blood analysis to determine general well-being are useful. The family members in their 40s should draw attention to cholesterol screening and blood glucose tests because consuming junk food can result in relevant health issues. The bad habits and poor environmental conditions should make older people check the state of their internal organs, including the heart, lungs, liver, and others. The recommendations above are of crucial significance, and Bell et al. (2017) stipulate that health screening is “one of the most important health care strategies to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment” (p. 521).
Choosing a Health Model
Based on the details mentioned above, it is evident that a specific plan should be created to improve family health behavior. The health belief model (HBM) seems to be helpful in developing this plan. This model manifests itself in targeting “perceived barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, and threat” (Jones et al., 2015, p. 566). In other words, the given model explains that people address or do not address their health issues depending on whether they acknowledge these issues. Thus, it is necessary to make people believe that they have some problems, which will be the first step towards solving them. This model is the best choice for the family under consideration because its members do not have severe health problems, and the health belief model can help avoid them in the future.
Family-Centered Health Promotion
The given model can be used to create a family-centered health promotion that will consist of three steps. Firstly, the HBM general principles state that people should comprehend the necessity to address their health behavior. That is why the model draws specific attention to communication. Thus, medical professionals should use appropriate strategies to make the family understand the existing health problems. One should note that rough persuasion is not the best strategy since it can cause an adverse reaction.
It is more reasonable to base such acts of communication on definite evidence. Secondly, it is necessary to offer specific interventions that will address the damaging effects of some SDOHs, which refers to consuming junk food and suffering from climate conditions. Thus, once the family members understand the harmful impact of these phenomena, they will want to minimize their effect. The recommendations are to eat healthier food and travel at least once a year to change climate conditions. The final step is to organize the screenings mentioned above to see whether the interventions have some benefits for the family health status.
Conclusion
The family under analysis has both positive and negative social determinates of health. Even though the negative ones do not seem to be of crucial significance, they can lead to severe health issues. That is why it is necessary to develop a three-step plan that will address the adverse health behaviors. The given strategy will be better implemented due to the health belief model that will make the family members want to improve the state of their health.
References
Adler, N. E., Glymour, M. M., & Fielding, J. (2016). Addressing social determinates of health and health inequalities. JAMA, 316(16), 1641-1642.
Bell, N. R., Grad, R., Dickinson, J. A., Singh, H., Moore, A. E., Kasperavicius, D., & Kretschmer, K. L. (2017). Better decision making in preventive health screening: Balancing benefits and harms. Canadian Family Physician, 63(7), 521-524.
Jones, C. L., Jensen, J. D., Scherr, C. L., Brown, N. R., Christy, K., & Weaver, J. (2015). The health belief model as an explanatory framework in communication research: Exploring parallel, serial, and moderated mediation. Health Communication, 30(6), 566-576.