The health and wellbeing of children are critical milestones in the growth and development of children. The Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) have reported that one in six or 17% of children aged between three and seventeen years had a developmental disability in the 2009-2017 period (Zablotsky et al., 2019). According to Zablotsky et al. (2019), the number of affected children increased from 16.2% in 2009–2011 to 17.8% in 2015–2017. On the other hand, Ford et al. (2017) have found that developmental and behavioral disorders are now among the top-five chronic conditions in the pediatric population. The main concern is that minority children and those living in rural areas carry a disproportionate burden of developmental disabilities. A combination of these issues highlights the critical role that Nurse Practitioners (NPs) play in screening and care management of children. As such, the purpose of this assignment is to explore a case involving a severely underweight 12-year-old Hispanic girl with underweight parents who has been bullied in school just recentlyNURS 6512 Assignment 1: Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children.
Health Issues and Risks
The patient presented in the case is underweight, which is one of the four broad sub-categories of undernutrition. Nutrition plays a critical role in the adolescence stage of growth and development. According to Burns et al. (2017), adolescence is a unique and crucial stage of development characterized by intense cognitive, physical, and psychosocial development. Burns et al. (2017) has identified malnutrition as a key miscellaneous causes of delayed growth and puberty. Undernutrition particularly causes a short stature with a delayed pattern of growth. The patient has an increased risk of delayed puberty considering that the stage begins early in girls compared to boys. Research findings have shown that severe states of undernutrition impair the normal activity of the reproductive process (Zablotsky et al., 2019). Zablotsky et al. (2019) have found that undernutrition that occurs in late childhood can delay the onset of puberty. Nutrition is vital for the patient since the growth spurt triggered by puberty increases the demand for nutritional needs, including micro and macronutrients NURS 6512 Assignment 1: Case Study Assignment: Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Tests in Adults and Children.
Moreover, macro and micronutrients are also crucial for normal health and wellbeing. Therefore, being underweight has significantly increased the risk of the 12-year-old girl to multiple health issues. Specifically, the girl’s underweight status means that she is not getting enough nutrients to achieve developmental milestones. As such, she has a higher risk of nutritional deficiencies, impaired immunity, and hormonal imbalances. The three expose the patient to a myriad of health problems and complications. For example, lack of calcium and vitamin D increase the risk of fragile bones and osteoporosis while iron, vitamin B12, and foliate deficiencies cause anemia (Ball et al., 2019). On the other hand, underweight increases the risk of infection because of decreased or compromised immune function. A notable example is where underweight individuals often take long to heal wounds compared to the general population. Furthermore, underweight persons have poor general health, including problems related to skin, hair and teeth; general body weakness; and frequent infections (Burns et al., 2017).
The current information show that the patient is underweight. However, it is crucial to gather additional information about the underlying causes of the patient’s underweight. First, the patient’s parents are also underweight, which highlights the need of assessing any underlying genetic factors. A person’s genetic background has been shown to influence the risk of underweight, overweight, and obesity (Ball et al., 2019). Thus, it is critical to assess the plausibility of this theory through a focused patient history. The second issue to consider is whether the patient has an underlying disease condition. Co-existing diseases, including thyroid disease, digestive problems, and cancer contribute to cases of underweight (Burns et al., 2017). Therefore, examining the patient’s medical history is useful to confirm or rule out co-occurring medical concerns. Third, a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s socioeconomic status could provide valuable clues about the cause of underweight in the family. The assessment will focus on social determinants of health and how they influence the family’s nutritional status. Poverty is a powerful social determinant of health associated with the growing burden of undernutrition in the US (Ball et al., 2019).
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