Use of defining, profiling and locating older people for health promotion



Use of defining, profiling and locating older people for health promotion

Introduction

Health promotion prevention is a contemporary way for addressing the present needs of the people to improve their health conditions, specifically older people. Several methods and strategies have been adopted by individuals to establish health promotion in elderly people.

It has been said that heath promotion has served the purpose of attending the internal and external needs of the patients. This has reformed the behaviours of the individual about their health and its promotion measures. Externally this has promoted the measures to improve the surrounding conditions for well being of society, and the elderly people present.

It is essential to find and point out elderly people, and take necessary actions in order to protect them from further illnesses and diseases of any kind. It is also important to understand the problems and needs of the patients so that improvement plans for them could be made accordingly.

Discussion

Chronological age is simply the age of a person in years. Biological age on the other hand, is the age of a person at a cellular level. These two numbers are not necessarily the same. Lifestyle factors such as nutritional supplementation, food, exercise, antioxidant status, and stress impact biological age. Health promotion should begin before birth to the individual and has to continue throughout childhood and adolescence, adult life and old age. The health promotion is to provide people the means to improve their health and have more control over it. To reach to a proper mental, physical, and social state, it is important for an individual to identify and realize aspirations to satisfy needs, and to adapt according to the environment.

Health is not only perceived as a goal but as the source of wealth of everyday life. It is therefore an optimistic concept emphasizing personal and social resources as well as physical abilities. Thus, since the concept of health transcends the idea of healthy life, health promotion is not unique to the health sector (Bandura, 2004).

The maintenance of health and functional independence are the most important aspects of the health promotion in older adults. It is difficult to apply criteria on which we carry diseases, and establish an order of priority. The most common diseases in the population over 65 years are: hypertension, stroke, heart failure, ischemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus, depression and inflammatory rheumatism.

The conditions and requirements for health especially for the people who fall in such age bracket are peace, social justice, housing, income, education, a stable ecosystem, food and equity. Any health improvement must necessarily be based on these prerequisites. The health sector alone can not provide the preconditions or ensure favourable prospects for health. The promotion of health requires coordinated actions by all concerned and not only individuals. These include governments, health sectors and other social and economic sectors (Laverack and Labonte, 2000). The Joint action contributes to ensuring the existence of goods and services, healthy and ...