QUALITY OF LIFE

Quality of Life

Quality of Life

Conducting a needs assessment is the best way to gain guidance or direction of what the target population actually needs. Having the input of the target population during the planning process will help design the health education being shared with them. Currently in America Heart Disease is the largest cause of death among adults and someone dies every 37 seconds of Heart Disease.(1) Heart Disease has been found in remains that date back as far as 1530 B. C. (2) and is now effecting teenagers. New research has shown that more than one in five teenagers, 9th grade age, has at least one risk factor for Heart Disease, the research shows that the teenagers with high cholesterol almost double going from nine percent to 16 percent. (3) Another study that came out in 2008 states that they found obese children having as much plaque in their neck arteries as middle aged adults. (4) These facts seem alarming to me, they also indicated that I can find a great target population at housing complex I live in. The community is a mid-sized town home that has a mixed occupation in age. Going to home owners association meetings I will make an announcement of the development of a Heart Disease educational program was under way and I would be looking for participants to help with various duties in the planning and implementation of the program. Having people from the target population involved in the planning process will allow me to learn the real questions and concerns they have about Heart Disease, this will aid me in the design of information I am going to provide and creative ways to get3everyone involved and excited about learning. It could be difficult to make sure all the Board of director committee advisors support the program, it might be difficult to convince the rest of the association to take part in the health education program. It would also be an issue if the Home Owners Association has a rule against such a program being implemented on their grounds, so this is something that must be looked at before investing a lot of time and energy. During the planning process I will be collecting information from the target population that is assisting with the planning. This information will serve as an outline of how to progress to direction of the program. With the health education programs focus is going to be on Heart Disease and how to change your lifestyle this will increase the target populations overall health. Working with the target population more on how to change their lifestyle and still as if they are enjoying it will be a challenge but it can be shown over time how a small change can make a large improvement. Making basic diet and exercise changes and learning more information about better nutritional options will decrease the chance of developing heart disease and increasing their quality of life. Once a person's quality of life ...