Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children. Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children Option 2: A Severely Underweight 12 Year-Old Hispanic Girl with Underweight Parents

            Diagnostic physical examination is a skill that every clinician is expected to develop for successful clinical practice. It includes inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation as the four basic methods of achieving diagnosis (Ball et al., 2019; Bickley, 2017). . In children, weight is one of the indicators of health and well-being. Every developmental milestone or age is associated with a particular weight range for boys and girls. Being underweight is associated with having underlying health problems and may be due to chronic malnutrition or a pathological process. Likewise, being overweight or obese in a child is also associated with malnutrition or an underlying condition. This paper is about the diagnostic assessment of a 12 year-old girl who is severely underweight.Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children.ORDER  HERE A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

Relevant Health Issues and Risks

The 12 year-old girl in this case is Hispanic and is severely underweight, suffering from failure to thrive. She also has underweight parents, a fact that may indicate that she suffers from a familial problem. It appears that her underweight status is so severe that she is getting bullied by other children for it. There are several health issues and risks that may underlie the Hispanic girl’s severe underweight problem. These include (Cleveland Clinics, 2020; Hammer & McPhee, 2018):Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children.

• A lack of enough calorific intake. It may be that this girl comes from such a poor background that the family cannot afford enough meals with enough calories to enable the girl to grow normally. This is a real possibility given that even the parents are underweight.
• Underlying neurological problems such as a cleft palate or cerebral palsy. These will make it difficult for the girl to swallow and hence predispose her to becoming underweight because of insufficient nutrients.
• A deficiency of pancreatic digestive enzymes. This will interfere with digestion by preventing the child’s body from digesting and absorbing nutrients.
• Gastrointestinal tract (GIT) disorders such as Crohn’s disease. These are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) that are in most part hereditary. This could explain why this girl’s parents are also underweight. The conditions are life-long and cause chronic inflammation of the bowel with inability to both properly digest foods and absorb nutrients.Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children.
• An overactive thyroid gland (an endocrine disorder) or a heart condition. The former makes the girl overuse calories in disproportionate quantities to what is taken in. The latter makes the girl unable to eat well because of struggling to breathe all the time.
• Renal insufficiency or a genetic disorder. These can also affect the physiology of the child’s body in profound ways. Hereditary genetic mutations in particular may mean that the girl lacks some important enzymes for bodily processes just like her parents.Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children.

Additional Information Needed to Further Assess the Hispanic Girl’s Weight-Related Health

In performing the 12 year-old Hispanic girl’s assessment, additional information can be derived from the historian presenting the girl. This additional information would relate to:

1. The immunization history of the girl from birth to the current age. This will help in ruling out some of the conditions that could be underlying the girl’s low weight.
2. The past medical history. Getting to know whether the girl has been admitted to the hospital in the past and for what reasons is extremely important in establishing the cause(s) of her low weight. It could be that she already has a known chronic disease that is causing her not to thrive.Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children.

• Family and social history. This history or information will reveal details of the girl’s social background. It will also help determine whether there are other persons in the family who are also underweight apart from the parents. This determination will help in deciding whether the familial factor can be explored further.Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children.

Risks, Further Information, Specific Questions, and St