Psychology Assignment: Intervention For Cardiovascular Disease In Australia
Question
Task:
Background
The nature of illness has changed over time, so that the main burden of disease now lies with chronic disease, generally, conditions with a duration of one year or more, requiring ongoing attention, restricting activity or both. Chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and mental health conditions, now present the leading burden of disease in Australia.
The World Health Organisation (2018) has referred to chronic diseases as a global epidemic, one that will have the highest impact on deaths and disability across the world in coming years. A clear association between health behaviours and chronic diseases has been established. While there may a genetic or biological link to chronic illness, a significant proportion of the population develop chronic disease due to unhealthy behaviours such as smoking, excess consumption of alcohol (World Health Organisation, 2018). Therefore, health behaviour change interventions are an essential component to the treatment of chronic medical conditions. This can involve establishing new healthy behaviours, increasing existing healthy behaviours or decreasing unhealthy behaviours.
The Psychology Assignment
This assignment therefore requires you to develop a health behaviour change intervention for one of the following chronic health conditions:
- cardiovascular disease.
- breast cancer.
- type 2 diabetes.
- asthma.
- HIV/Aids.
For your chosen health condition, you are required to discuss potential intervention strategies to address an element of behaviour change through the application of one of the health behaviour models addressed in the unit (Theory of Planned Behaviour, Transtheoretical Model, Health Belief Model or Protection Motivation Theory).
There are three elements to this assignment. Firstly, the assignment needs to define the health behaviour within the context of the selected health condition as a rationale for intervention. Secondly, the assignment should provide a critical review of factors that may contribute to predicting health behaviour change in the context of a health behaviour model, as well as clearly outlining potential barriers. Finally, the assignment needs to provide an evidencebased implementation plan to effect behaviour change.
Answer
Introduction
The psychology assignment will share the concern for chronic disease cardiovascular disease in the Australian population considering real threat on the population in the terms of fatality or disability. In psychology assignment discussion, it will evaluate behavioral changes with the help of a health behavior model to confirm the connection between the factor and the behavior which accelerates the chances of cardiovascular disease in the Australian population. The paper further will identify potential barriers in the entire scenario to offer intervention strategies with an implementation plan to affect the behavior change. As per the potential barriers, recommendations will be provided to confirm the success of the intervention strategy.
Background
The nature of illness change through time and the most important consideration is treating the chronic diseases with long term intervention plan (Wang, Wang, Wang, Li, & Zhao, 2018). Further, it requires ongoing attention for restricting activity that can be impactful for chronic diseases like a cardiovascular disease which becomes the leading burden for Australia. The forecast has confirmed that the aging population will be doubled by 2050 which is the 3% of the total population and they will be suffered from more threats from cardiovascular disease leading to fatality or disability. Considering the factor, it becomes very important for Australia to understand the behavioral factors to confirm successful intervention. The World Health Organization has already conveyed chronic diseases as a global epidemic that would be followed by disability and threat internationally in coming years (Verma, & Chandra, 2018). World Health Organization has clearly notified about the association between chronic diseases and health behaviors, thereby, it becomes important to understand the biological link with chronic disease to confirm potential intervention plans for unhealthy behaviors to reduce the threat of chronic diseases in recent years. By understanding the behavioral factors, the intervention can be planned in two ways by decreasing unhealthy behaviors or by increasing healthy behaviors or making a perfect collaboration between the two which will be best as per the situation.
Health behavior and factors
As per researchers, 5 habits or behaviors, which are the main reason for cardiovascular disease and heart disease, are smoking, drinking, alcohol heavily, eating quality, being overweight, and being inactive. Together and alone the referred behavioral factors confirm the stage of damaging atherosclerosis and continue to damage until fatality or disability. The five behaviors confirm such type of association through the ranging metabolism as well as confirm changes in the working procedure of tissues and cells. As per the report of WHO and other researchers, it is clear that the changes in behavior are the main reason for the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (Tan, Ooi, & Goh, 2017). Now it is important to consider what and how cardiovascular disease is being accelerated as a chronic disease among the Australian population. The modern lifestyle confirms that the modern generation specifically the young generation who are the future of the country or the population is completely into the five referred negative habits or behaviors to confirm their lifestyle. The modern generation is involved with the aspects of a show of which eventually confirms the 5 referred harmful behaviors for them. As per the referred behavior drinking alcohol heavily is the main reason for cardiovascular disease. Smoking is another important consideration in this regard. For high and upper-medium class people, drinking alcohol and smoking often become a status symbol as well as a stress reliever (Sussman, & Gifford, 2019). They consider it as a way of relaxation as well as show off. For lower-class people eventually, do not have that many resources to have a healthy diet. On the other hand, for both high class and lower class people eating is become a major behavioral factor to be followed by cardiovascular disease as for low-class people, they are not having diet food to confirm all nutrients for the body whereas for higher class people they are into a fast food which fails to offer nutrition (Yuriev, Dahmen, Paillé, Boiral, & Guillaumie, 2020). The high-class people, on the other hand, most are engaged with mental work and thus they become continuously inactive where the body does not get a chance to reduce calories whereas fast food is continuously offering calorie damaging the cells and tissues which are the result of modernization.
Apart from the behavioral factors, another consideration in this regard is factors that initiate the referred behavior. It can even be said that the behaviors confirm those factors which are directly connected with the chronic health problem of cardiovascular disease (Olenski, Zimerman, Coussens, & Jena, 2020). The referred five behaviors disturb the markers of health like blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc in the present era. There is an adequate number of evidence that confirms that the population is mostly suffering from blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure by the behavioral factors and with time, it is being followed by the chronic disease of cardiovascular disease. The end result of all 5 behavioral factors is heart failure, aneurysm problem, peripheral artery disease, stroke, heart attack - the main symptoms of cardiovascular disease. Research has confirmed that health and longevity are closely associated as it has been confirmed that nonsmoking women carrying healthy weight with proper diet and exercise regularly without alcohol consumption share 83% less risk of heart attack or any cardiovascular disease compared to others who do not follow such behavioral factors. The result is the same for men as well where the result of the claim of the results have been secured by the studies of more than 40 years period (Karnad, Pannelay, Boshnakova, Lovell, & Cook, 2018). Hence it is quite clear that behavioral factors like smoking, drinking, poor diet, excess weight, and inactivity gets followed by cardiovascular disease and these all five behavior are very common for modern Australian population or young population hence the population is being threatened by accelerated cardiovascular disease as a chronic disease
Potential intervention strategies
In order to remove the threat from the future and to offer a safe healthy population to the society in Australia, it is very important to justify some intervention strategies. The intervention strategies need to plan very carefully to confirm that the strategies directly address all factors which accelerated the risk of cardiovascular disease. In the referred concern, the implication of any health model can be much beneficial. The theory of planned behavior is a psychological theory which links beliefs with behavior. It has three core components - perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and attitude. Hence the intervention needs to address the referred 3 core areas.
Perceived behavioral control - the most important strategies can be drinking alcohol in moderation, taking care of health concerns, and factors like blood pressure, cholesterol, etc (Maddox et al. 2021). Having a proper diet to confirm nutritional requirements of the body instead of fat, a calorie from fast food. For proper weight as more weight can be the reason for more issues being active to confirm physical balance is important.
Subjective norms - in the referred section, the strategy can be a proper acknowledgment of maintaining those behavioral aspects which can only be done by the strategies like awareness among population as good habits of the parents will surely influence the next generation confirming betterment in the aspect of chronic disease of cardiovascular disease (Evstifeeva et al. 2017). The parent needs to have belief in good health and good behavioral factors to avoid threatening.
Attitude - the population needs to be developed the attitude of sharing a good healthy relationship with the health care sector where specifically for a vulnerable group like aging people, children, or diseased people, regular check-up needs to be implemented in the attitude. It would be helpful to give any warning for any surprising factors of the body like increased cholesterol, obesity, blood pressure, sugar, etc.
Potential barriers
As per the framework of the theory of planned behavior, it is important to confirm effective collaboration between the strategies of perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and attitude, implementation of those strategies would not be much easier in the present context as the first concern would be a change in attitude. The modern lifestyle is so overpowering over the health of the population, change in attitude or behavior would not be a consideration. The modern generation neither has that much time to intake healthy food or homemade food nor has that much awareness regarding the referred factors (Egan, 2019). Transforming the attitude or belief of a population can be the most crucial yet significant barrier for implementing the strategies. Another potential barrier in the strategic implementation can be a collaboration between the stakeholders. In order to offer safety to the population, it is very important to have perfect collaboration which would be difficult as most of the stakeholders would not offer interest towards the collaboration and government while being involved with the covid-19 situation, and parameters to take care of covid-19 might not be effective in performing activities to collaborate successfully. The same consideration can be given to the healthcare sector as well.
Implementation plan to effect behavior change
Considering the potential barriers in strategic intervention, the implementation plan needs to be such which can remove or reduce the barriers. In implementing the strategies properly, the theory of planned behavior can be much helpful (Cohn, & Mahmoud, 2018). Theory of planned behavior would help all the stakeholders to assume that behavior can be determined by intention and would be predicted by subjective norm and attitude which eventually helps in perceived behavioral control. Considering the factor, the theory of planned behavior can be effective to remove the potential barrier of changing attitude with the campaign of awareness regarding good behavior and better health as well as consequences of leading undisciplined life with all negative behavioral as per leading to fatality or disability. If by the proper collaboration the government as well as healthcare stakeholders specifically doctors and nurses can initiate the awareness among the population then all strategies of removing the risk of cardiovascular disease eventually would be effective and the intervention plan would not be helpful to good habits like physical activity, proper diet rather would reduce the negative behaviors like smoking, overweight, alcohol consumption. The collaboration of increasing good habits and reducing negative behavioral factors eventually would help the population to remove the potential threat of chronic disease cardiovascular disease (Ajzen, 2020). In order to confirm better collaboration between all stakeholders specifically the association between health care providers and government, the use of behavioral model ethical and legal concepts can be effective. According to the ethical and legal concept, human right and dignity is a most important consideration for the healthcare provider. In government and healthcare providers take the concern seriously and would try to objectify the human right of having the best care properly, then they can confirm consultation campaigning, free medical check-ups to implement strategies successfully removing the barrier of disruption in collaboration.
Recommendation
Considering the entire scenario is much significant for the Australian population, it is important to have the best positive outcome through the intervention plan with the help of strategic direction. Certain important considerations can be much helpful in this regard.
Awareness from initial stages- a child is a blank page and anything and everything can be implemented to a child. Hence, in the school the awareness campaign can take place then the parents and the children at once can be aware of good and bad behavioral factors and connection of those behavioral factors with health. Such type of intervention can have a long-lasting impact, as it would not have influence over the present, rather on the future by making the children habit with the good behavioral factors like proper diet maintaining, weight, physical activity, etc.
Proper planning- in order to confirm success from the intervention and strategies, it is very important to make proper planning where exercising the behavioral model like the theory of planned behavior can be much influential and easy.
Conclusion
The paper has shared its concern for chronic disease cardiovascular disease for the Australian population as a potential threat for the future population. By the discussion, it has identified five behavioral factors which directly influence the health aspects like blood pressure, cholesterol, sugar to initiate cardiovascular diseases followed by fatality or disability. The discussion even confirms that the entire scenario depends on some negative behavioral aspects thereby removing those behavioral concerns can be enough to change the scenario. As per the theory of planned behavior, strategic interventions have been the plan and implementation of the strategies even has been discussed with the insight of potential barriers. The recommendation further makes the entire discussion evidence-based to confirm its practicality.
References
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