Health Assessment Report Assignment help

Introduction

A health assessment refers to the plan that recognises the particular health needs of a person as well as how those needs can be addressed through the healthcare system and change in health behaviour. It comprises results of the different tests, such as blood pressure and diabetes that have been conducted during the assessment. The factors of diet are an essential component of maintaining good health which is not generally understood by various people and even the medical practitioners across the globe. Due to this, people may not engage in adapting healthy behaviour to lead a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, there are some questions related to personal behaviours, health goals and life-changing events asked to patients that allows a healthcare professional to develop comprehensive healthcare plan. For example, healthy eating, alcohol use and emotional support are some of the areas of interest for this professional. This is because input from patients helps doctors set a healthcare agenda for patients and can enhance their satisfaction (Crouch and Meurie, 2011). In reference to this statement, the present report focuses on the overall health assessment of Bob who is a male truck driver from Birmingham. It also discusses the recommendations to him so that he can improve his overall health.

Case Study

An individual named Bob is been referred in the current case who is a 52 years male and works as a truck driver. He is 5’9” and his current weight is 95 kgs which highlights that he is overweight and thereby puts him at risk of other associated health issues in the future. He lives in Birmingham and has a daughter who lives in Huddersfield and has been divorced from his wife since last five years. Due to this, he is spending most of his times at job even on weekend and holiday thereby refraining him from engaging in physical exercises (Case Study). The lack of proper physical exercise is observed to be one of the prime reasons for obesity which is increasing the issues even further day by day. Further, he admitted to be consuming foods on go which implies that he is not paying attention to eating good food or maintaining intake of proper nutritious diet (ALNohair, 2014). The issue of improper eating is further enhanced by engagement in continuous and heavy smoking, drinking alcohol and coca cola. Although he believes that this aspect if helping him to get through his travelling journey; however, this lifestyle is adding on to his stress and tiredness during the travel time. He is facing issues in sleeping and getting bored easily making him to struggle on the road mainly due to the disturbances caused in his life due to eating and absence of sleeping and physical exercise. Along with these, absence of family life is also one important factor contributing to the issues faced by him as he accepted engagement in routine cooking and spending quality time with his family earlier. The lack of this aspect is driving him to keep him occupied in incorrect ways leading to adverse impacts on his health (Brown, Maslen and Savulescu, 2019).

Assessment Report

The assessment of the above-mentioned case study of Bob revealed the presence of physiological conditions based on its findings. With regards to this, it can be inferred that Bob is facing the issue of obesity which is observed to be a complicated disease in individuals having excessive body fat. Bob has developed this issue primarily due to his life schedule with no significant physical exercise routine and eating food available while driving his truck.  He is also witnessing some stress issue due to loneliness which is leading him to neglect his health including eating, drinking habits and his work routine. It has been seen that disordered eating is commonly prevalent among individuals having obesity wherein they do not realise mostly the main issue associated with their eating and lifestyle habits (Stephenson et al., 2018).

Bob has been observed to be suffering from increase in weight due to negative changes in his lifestyle and daily routine. In reference to this, he has obesity which is not only a cosmetic concern but a medical problem which leads to generation of risk for other diseases as well as other health problems like heart disease and high blood pressure. The obesity generally results in persons from physiological factors mixed with that of diet, physical activity along with exercise choices. With regards to Bob, he not only did not pay attention to his diet as he took a high amount of coca cola but also engaged in drinking alcohol and smoking which further deteriorated his health condition and led to obesity (Hruby et al., 2016).

Additionally, it is commonly found that the issue of obesity is linked with a huge psychological burden wherein various individuals having obesity struggle with some of the problems related to person’s mood, quality of life along with self-esteem. In case of Bob, he already had issues related to his mood and quality of wife as he was living alone and to kill his boredom, he kept himself immensely immersed in either his job or alcohol consumption to get sleep or pass time. This kind of emotional stress not only leads to obesity in persons but can also adversely impact attainment of successful treatment (Sarwer and Polonsky, 2016).  There are other co-morbidities which are associated with obesity like cardiovascular issues, diabetes along with sleep issues. These aspects also disturb the normal psychological functioning due to which they are not able to pay proper attention to maintaining healthy weight and body. As the issue of obesity has various adverse impacts on person’s health, it is also seen to be reducing survival and thereby leads to increase in chances of premature mortality. With regards to Bob, first of all he is facing obesity along with his indulgence in smoking, alcohol and intake of coca cola which can lead to damage of his health seriously. However, it is not a permanent condition; the individuals can take appropriate measures with the help of diet and exercise to lose weight which will automatically help them in managing other related issues as well (Baboota et al., 2013).

The persons may be obese due to their genetics as other people in their family might be obese due to some rare genetic conditions. In this case, the person may believe that they cannot lose weight due to their genetics and thereby they do not even try to lose weight or stay healthy. The genetics may cause weight gain in persons; however, it is not impossible to lose weight in case the person is overweight due to genetics (Loos and Yeo, 2022). With regards to Bob, he is not paying the required attention to his health as he is lonely wherein the reason be his genetics wherein, he does not even understand the importance of maintaining healthy weight and leading a healthy lifestyle. He is feeling lonely as he does not have family for which he will get motivated to engage in healthy living due to which he is indulging in bad eating including a lot of soda mixed with drinking and smoking which is not only leading to weight gain but can also lead to other fatal issues (Lenzi, Migliaccio and Donini, 2014).

Recommendation

Following are some of the recommendations to Bob to improve his health:

• Driving job is a sedentary and due to this, healthy food intake is important while driving. For this purpose, Bob should avoid fast food, junk food and drive-thru; rather, focus on ways of eating healthy food as much as possible. Most large supermarkets have sufficient parking for trucks and several petrol stations now have sufficient food selection because of collaboration with food shops. In these places, Bob can find different kinds of healthy foods; for example, pre-made salads are common in many supermarkets. Besides this, yoghurt, mixed nuts and fruits can also be bought by Bob that will help him to have a nutritious diet (Passey et al., 2014).
• It is highly important for Bob to take adequate rest as he struggles with sleep during driving. It has been noticed that many serious injuries on roads happen because drivers fall asleep during driving that further enhances the significance of proper rest. Hence, Bob should park his truck in a quiet and safe place every night to sleep for around 7-8 hours. In addition to this, he should get out of the truck in regular intervals to stretch legs or perform some simple exercises, which will improve blood flow circulation, leading to more alertness while driving (Lemke, Meissen and Apostolopoulos, 2016).
• Many truckers are obese because of whole day, they are just sitting and driving. In this regard, when Bob is not on the road, he should perform relevant exercises to reduce weight. While on the road, he can do different exercises, such as abdominal crunches and push-ups as these can be performed anywhere. He has to reduce consumption of coca cola as carbonated drinks are sugary, which increases the weight. Additionally, these drinks have zero nutritional value and high in calories, leading to weight gain. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the main cause of obesity is the imbalance of energy between calories consumed and calories burned. Similarly, Bob is consuming a lot of calories by having outside food and soft drinks (WHO, 2021). Besides this, he should also stay hydrated by drinking enough water that is the key to good health because bodies depend on water to survive (Yosef et al., 2020).
• Bob should also go for regular health check-ups periodically because his eating habits and lifestyle is not conducive to good health. Hence, he should avail NHS Health Check services that is available for adults in England whose age is between 40 to 74 years. It is designed to analyse early signs of kidney disease, stroke, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Bob is eligible for this service because he does not have pre-existing conditions, like heart disease and stroke (NHS, 2019). By health screening, early signs of some lifestyle diseases, including hypertension would be spotted and timely action can be taken, thereby improvement of his health.
• Bob should reduce his alcohol intake and smoking so that he can quit them completely slowly to develop healthy habits. Although it is not easy to do this; however, he can join a deaddiction group to stay motivated to leave this. With the help of this, Bob can overcome these unhealthy habits and continue towards walking on the road of healthy eating and living. In this way, he will not only lose the extra weight gained but also start his journey towards being healthy and fit (Slagter et al., 2014).