This week’s discussion board was about a case study on an underweight twelve year old girl whose parents were also underweight and what health issues and risk should the provider look out for pertaining to this child. This assignment will also discuss and additional information that maybe needed to further assess this case and questions that should be asked to parents to gather information on the child’s development and sensitivity issues she may have. Lastly, the discussion board will mention two strategies to encourage the patient and family to get to a healthy weight and ensure her health is improving.
Health Issues
When individuals are underweight there are some health concern and issues that can impact their overall health and life span. This patient is underweight which causes concern for poor nutrition which will impact her growth and development, inability to fight off infections and illnesses as well as high risk for heart attacks and impaired thinking such as deceased concentration (Semba & Bloem, 2017). Another concern is that her parents are underweight as well which could suggest that their socioeconomic status is poor where they are not able to buy food or some form of genetic and diseases that affect the endocrine and digestive systems (Russo, 2017). Another factor that could contribute to her being underweight could be her mental health. She may have had a traumatic event take place to where she is ashamed of her body and controls her life through her weight, and eating disorder or she may be bullied at school and is depressed (Martin, et al., 2014).
Additional Information Needed
When realizing the health concerns and issues the information that is going to be needed is the nutritional factors for the family. What they eat, how often do they buy food and if they believe this is a healthy weight. The provider will need to gather the body mass index (BMI) for the patient as well as her family to gauge if they are healthy or underweight (Ball, et al., 2015). The formula for calculating BMI is to take the patients weight and divide it by her height. If the number is under 19.5 the patient is consider to have poor nutrition (Ball et al., 2015). Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools And Diagnostic Tests In Adults And Children.
Three Targeted Questions
Looking at the case study and the information that is going to be needed to further investigate into the patient’s health history certain question will need to be asked. The three targeted questions the provider should ask the patient and parents are:
Two Strategies to Encourage Proactivity
In order to promote an individual’s health, the first strategy is to educate the patient on their health and management. If the patient is not aware of the risk factors associated with their health history, family history and habits they will not succeed in positive outcomes regarding their health Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools And Diagnostic Tests In Adults And Children. In this scenario nutrition education is needed (Gibbs & Chapman-Novakofski, 2012). This can include a nutrition consult, information about my plate which tells you the amount of servings needed for fruit, veggies and meat as well as what can happen when the body is not meeting the nutritional requirements. In order to promote education, the provider needs to know the health literacy of the patient. Most people read at a third grade level so understanding how your patient learns is essential in preparing a treatment or plan of care that the patient will follow and understand (Gibbs & Chapman-Novakofski, 2012).
The second strategy to promote healthy eating is to advocate for the patient and supply her with resources that can help her acquire food if she is having a hard time meeting the need due to finances. Many government offices have WIC programs that can give the family vouchers to buy food that is needed to keep the body healthy and meet the plate guidelines for what percentage of carbs, protein and fats for healthy growth (Ball, et al., 2015) Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools And Diagnostic Tests In Adu
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