Family Health Assessment Part 2
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the environmental conditions that determine people’s livelihoods. These conditions significantly affect the health, functioning, and quality of life of these individuals. These conditions can be classified into five main categories: economic stability, education access, and quality, health care access and quality, neighbourhood and build environment, and the social and community context (Singu et al., 2020). Based on the details obtained from the interview, the main SDOH for my interviewee and his members is economic stability (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2020). The interviewee’s inability to afford a balanced diet in one sitting, transportation challenges where the people have to walk for long distances to seek medical attention, and failure to sponsor themselves to obtain the necessary healthcare are all pointers to a poor society.
Impact of the Economic Stability on the Family
Economic stability is a significant impediment towards access to proper Medicare. Individuals living in poverty cannot afford healthy foods, adequate housing, and medical attention. The inability to afford such primary factors exposes these people to more health risks and longer recovery times once affected. The high poverty rates among these families are occasioned by an increase in the prices of the essential commodities they need for survival. The unprecedented rise in house prices means people have to dig deeper in their pockets to pay their rent. As fuel prices occasionally increase, their fares also increase, making it difficult to travel and seek medical care. Therefore, the economic instability these people experience is occasioned by the rising cost of living in the country.
Age Appropriate Screenings
Health screening is an essential procedure for all people, especially those living in poverty. The process helps identify early diseases for early interventions. People living in poverty are exposed to higher risk factors and should be subjected to age-related screenings as soon as possible. The overall age-specific tests that the interviewee’s family members and others living under the same conditions should be subjected to include the height and weight tests, blood pressure, and flu tests (Nurse Practitioner Group, 2020). At 18-39, the members should be subjected to cholesterol checks and whole-body skin checks for suspicious lesions. Women should be subjected to breast screening, pelvic exam, and Pap smear. Men should be subjected to the testicular exam. Members aged 40-64 should be subjected to full-body scans for any suspicious skin lesions. They should also undergo colonoscopy at age 40-50 years to determine colon cancer or other related problems. Men in this age group should undergo prostate screenings, whereas women should be subjected to mammograms, which should begin at 40. Those above 65 years should experience bone density study every two to five years, be assessed for pneumococcal and shingles vaccina...