SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example

SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example

Family health assessment is instrumental in determining families’ health status and well-being, identifying potential health threats/concerns, and devising appropriate interventions. The family health assessment tools treat families as units of care and offer insights into how medical histories, environmental factors, and lifestyles influence health and well-being. As such, Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), such as conditions in which people are born, grow, live, and work, influence the health and wellness of individuals, families, and communities. This paper will discuss the SDOH and its impacts on the Jones family, recommend age-appropriate screenings for each family member, create a plan of action using an appropriate health model, and highlight the steps for family-centered health promotion.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and Impact of Family’s Health Status

Social Determinants of Health affect people’s health, level of functioning, and quality of life. The distribution of resources and power is pivotal in molding these conditions at global, national, state, and local levels. Literacy levels, income, employment status, housing, access to healthy food and clean water, crime, and violence are excellent examples of SDOH that affect individuals of families’ health access, health choices, and care perspectives (Koh et al., 2020).(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

Different SDOHs were identified upon interviewing the Jones family, including education status, where the parents have a high education status. Mr. Jones is a professor at New York College, while Madeline is a teacher at Boys and Girls School in Brooklyn, New York. (SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)Their son Michael attends Charter School and is in Grade 5. High education status is associated with increased health literacy. Therefore, the family can make good health choices through eating healthy diets, physical activity, and frequent health screening and examination to identify potential health threats and maintain their health and well-being. The family takes on physical activity to manage their weight through outdoor activities such as biking and walking three times a week.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

Employment status is another SDOH evident in the family. Mr. and Mrs. Jones are employed, implying they earn income to cater to the family’s needs. Through stable employment, the family can afford healthy foods and clean water, quality health services, and suitable housing that are instrumental towards health and wellness. Stress and coping skills evident among the family members is likely to influence their health and wellness. Mr. Jones drinks alcohol, which could contribute to overweight problems, while Mrs. Jones isolates herself when stressed, which could lead to detrimental mental health problems. The family’s Jamaican culture predisposes them to consume cuisine that mainly comprises unhealthy sugary, or salty foods, while their religion (attending Baptist church) may affect their health-seeking behavior.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

Age-appropriate Screenings for each Family Member

Health screening is essential in improving and maintaining the family’s health and well-being. Regular check-ups and clinical examinations prevent illnesses, identify current and future medical concerns, devise appropriate interventions, and encourage healthy lifestyles. Healthcare professionals should use age-appropriate screening to improve health outcomes. In the interviewed family, (SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)Mr. Jones and his son are overweight. Thus, the Body Mass Index (BMI) screening tool is instrumental in assessing their weight. As an adult, Mr. Jones’s kilogram weight will be divided by his height in square meters. A BMI of 18.5-24.9 is within the healthy weight range; one below 18.5 is underweight, while 25.0-29.9 is overweight. A BMI of 30.0 and above falls within the obese range. For Michael, a BMI-for- age and Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) will be used to assess his weight (Mercan et al., 2022). The BMI measurement will help inform the type of food consumed, physical activity, sleep pattern, and stress reduction or self-care towards improving health and wellness.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

Secondly, Mr. Jones and his son Michael have eye-sight problems and require glasses for reading. The ‘BIG E’ chart will be used for eye examinations, where they will be instructed to read letters on the chart with one eye covered to find a prescription that provides the highest level of visual performance. The chart can also be used with a light source to determine the eyes’ reaction to light and muscular coordination. Michael has a learning-related cognitive problem that can be assessed by evaluating his developmental milestones. As such, visual motor integration tests such as the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test and the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration will determine if Michael’s brain is connected to visual cues and motor coordination to address difficulty completing tasks and learning sight-seeing words (Nesbitt et al., 2019). Lastly, a mental health assessment will determine the potential causes of Mrs. Jones’ lack of sleep and isolation when stressed.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

Health Belief Model

The Family Health Model by Sharon Denham is pivotal in creating a plan of action for the Jones family. The model provides insights into the complex interactions between families and their health. Denham asserts that family health is influenced by interconnected factors and contextual elements linked to individual family members affecting the family as a unit (Weiss-Laxer et al., 2020).(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)In this case, family health relates to people residing in the specific household and entails how relationships and the environment affect health. The model is most appropriate for the Jones family as it allows healthcare professionals to assess family and individual functions such as celebrations, caregiving, change, coordination, connectedness, and communication in facing health problems and action plans to cater to the needs and lifestyles of individual members as a family as a whole.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

Family-Centered Health Promotion

Family-centered health promotion assesses, plans, and delivers healthcare directed to form therapeutic relationships that benefit healthcare professionals and families. The family health model employs various health promotion steps to improve families’ health and well-being (Barnes et al., 2020). The first step entails devising health promotion and care plans based on the family’s needs. Addressing the health concerns of individual family members eventually leads to improved health outcomes for the entire family. Secondly, creating optimism about the model’s ability to improve family health outcomes promotes health promotion. Open communication promotes positive relationships that encourage collaboration in setting care plans and interventions. The healthcare promotion for the Jones family may include the promotion of healthy eating, physical activity, healthy coping skills, and frequent health screening to identify health threats while improving the family’s health outcomes and well-being.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

Conclusion

Family health assessments determine families’ health status and well-being, identify potential health threats/concerns, and devise appropriate interventions. The assessments identify potential SDOH that affect people’s health, level of functioning, and quality of life. For instance, SDOH, such as education, employment, nutrition, coping skills, and religious and cultural practice, have affected the Jones family’s health access, health choices, and care perspectives. Nonetheless, age-related health screening can help identify the individual needs of each family member and devise suitable interventions. The Family Health Model by Sharon Denham will be pivotal in creating a plan of action for the Jones family by providing insights into the complex interactions between families and their health. In conclusion, family-centered health promotion will be vital to form therapeutic relationships that benefit healthcare professionals and families.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)

References

Barnes, M. D., Hanson, C. L., Novilla, L. B., Magnusson, B. M., Crandall, A. C., & Bradford, G. (2020). Family-centered health promotion: Perspectives for engaging families and achieving better health outcomes. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 57, 0046958020923537. (SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0046958020923537

Koh, H. K., Bantham, A., Geller, A. C., Rukavina, M. A., Emmons, K. M., Yatsko, P., & Restuccia, R. (2020). Anchor institutions: best practices to address social needs and social determinants of health. American Journal of Public Health, 110(3), 309-316. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7002960/

Mercan, Y., Kafadar, G. C., Arikan, S. H., & Pancar, N. (2022). An investigation of anthropometric measurements of early adolescents and determination of BMI-for-age-based neck circumference and BMI-for-age-based mid-upper-arm circumference cut-off points. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 48, 414-420. (SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405457722000110

Nesbitt, K. T., Fuhs, M. W., & Farran, D. C. (2019). Stability and instability in the co-development of mathematics, executive function skills, and visual-motor integration from prekindergarten to first grade. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 46, 262-274.(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0885200617302223

Weiss-Laxer, N. S., Crandall, A., Okano, L., & Riley, A. W. (2020). Building a foundation for family health measurement in national surveys: a modified Delphi expert process. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 24, 259-266(SDOH and Its impacts on Family Health Comprehensive Nursing Paper Example). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-019-02870-w