Introduction
Obesity is a complex chronic disease. There is a gradual increase in the prevalence of obesity in the United States. Obesity is costly, serious, and common. Obesity affects children and adults. Various factors contribute to weight gain, including physical activity levels, eating patterns, and sleep routines. Other factors are social health determinants like socioeconomic group, taking certain medications and genetics. As an epidemic, obesity strains American families, affecting public health, productivity, healthcare costs, and military readiness. Obesity can cause heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. There is a global projection of 35 % of the adults being overweight, over 15% of adults being affected by obesity, and severe obesity infection of 177 million adults by 2025 (Inoue et al., 2018). The paper will explore the healthcare technology impacts, care coordination in obesity treatment, ways to use community resources in obesity treatment, and policy analysis.
Healthcare Technology Impacts on Obesity Treatment
Technology has become an integral part of healthcare. Many healthcare departments, like the obesity department, utilize technology to improve patient care. This technology also enables healthcare professionals to expand and reach overweight patients living in remote areas with appropriate care providers. Using technology, physicians can reach hard-to-reach populations with geographic constraints. In addition, some technologies, like telephone applications, which promote patient involvement in self-care, are more inexpensive than traditional care. Furthermore, the technology provides convenience. The technology is more accurate, giving patients access to treatment anytime and saving time. However, like other types of technology, some concerns arise with health technology usage. Some main concerns include maintaining confidentiality, cost, and several ethical issues. Despite that, technology has the potential to aid in the improvement of obesity.
There are many forms of technology available to deal with obesity. Weight loss, eating habits, body mass index changes, physical activity level, and engagement are all associated with this technique. Exergames are types of exercise that aids players in maintaining their normal weight. Exergames uses a platform, like PlayStation or Wii Fit, to monitor the user’s movements. A key demonstration of exergames is to increase an individual’s physical activity level and make physical exercises more enjoyable. According to Forman et al. (2016), Pokémon Go, a game involving players’ virtual characters’ location through walking, stated that users walked 4.6 billion kilometres in just two months while playing the game. Obese patients who lack gaming platforms can play games by installing smartphone applications. The effectiveness of the exergames is only measurable through obese patient implementation. Notably, exergames are economical as the platform does not require an internet connection to enhance full utilization.
Despite electronic scales being in existence for many years and might not appear to be a vital technical improvement in weight maintenance, research has found that many homemade scales have more inaccuracy levels than doctor scales. Calibrated electronic scales tend to have an error of more than 1% while rotating scales are much less accurate. (Frija-Masson et al., 2021) For obese patients, it is essential to use a more accurate digital scale for accurate results. Currently, digital scales are being used widely and have shown to be successful in reporting patient weights.
Online peer support groups have lately gained popularity and effectively support obese people in managing their weight. Online support groups enable members to discuss their weight reduction goals, meal logs, and obstacles from the comfort of their own homes. According to Lee et al. (2018), online communities provide individuals more freedom to discuss delicate issues, offer more privacy, and foster less judgemental relationships. There are no geographical restrictions on participation in the online settings, as there may be in the case of face-to-face support groups. For obese patients, online peer group tends to remove the geographical barriers that may hinder the obese patient’s access to treatment services. Regrettably, online access is dependent on an internet connection. The obese patient that does not have access to the internet may thus be unable to join or utilize the online support groups.
Notably, online support groups are also associated with several drawbacks, such as the possibility of misinterpretation of communications, the loss of visual clues, the absence of facial expressions and speech tones, eye contact, and a lack of body language. Additionally, online support groups could potentially discuss incorrect medical information since healthcare experts do not facilitate them. Research on the impacts of the exergaming and online support groups on cardiovascular disease, quality of life, obesity and physical inactivity on patients outcome have been conducted by earlier scholars. All the previous research proved that exergaming is very effective, like physical therapy.
Care Coordination in Obesity Treatment
Obesity management can be challenging for primary care physicians. Allowing obese patients to develop bridge relationships with other providers and receive support from other community-based resources can help improve the quality of care and services. Care coordination has been shown to reduce hospital readmission rates and health care costs. Continuity of care has been shown to reduce hospital admission rates by 13% and medical expenses by 17% (World Health Organization, 2018). Care coordination enables easy coordination of obese patient care with primary care physicians, cardiologists, therapists, and social workers. By integrating the system, all healthcare providers have access to patient data and health outcomes, ensuring that obese patient receives the best possible care. If all parties are not informed, errors such as duplicating or conflicting medication administration, or performing unnecessary tests and procedures, can occur.
Community Resource Utilization to address obesity
Individuals who are obese can benefit from community resources. Safe sidewalks and easily accessible walking paths have increased physical activity. At the same time, limited access to parks or recreational centres can deter physical activity. Sugar Grove has a scarcity of sidewalks and lacks walking paths, parks, and recreation centres. Although Sugar Grove lacks a recreation centre, the next town has a YMCA that can benefit obese patients and others. The YMCA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting healthy living and assisting everyone in reaching their full potential.
The obese patient can use the YMCA facility to help them manage their body weight and build relationships in the community. Along with the YMCA, Warren has a newly developed bicycle path that obese patients can use during the warmer months to help them increase their physical activity outside. The 20-minute travel time to these resources is a barrier to their use.
Obese patients can also join a local obesity support group to aid in the discussion of their condition and get assistance with making healthy lifestyle changes. Peer support groups have been shown to assist patients in reducing food temptations and providing support to those who lack them. Other studies have discovered that support groups have drawbacks, such as a lack of confidentiality and personality clashes among members. Additionally, in-person support groups require a high level of functioning as they require attendance and participation.
Policy Analysis related to obesity
Numerous initiatives were established as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a patient-centred focus. The ACA’s objective is to enhance patients’ treatment transitions and care coordination. Notably, the ACA established Accountable Care Organizations or groups of medical facilities, physicians and several healthcare providers coordinating services. Additionally, the ACA established a Medicare Community-based Care Transition Team. The group studies methods for optimizing care transitions between hospitals and other healthcare settings. These community-based groups assist patients with education, follow-up visits, and patient support and have aided in reducing hospital rates of readmission. However, several ACA plans require people to enrol in Medicare, so obese patients may have to wait to meet the eligibility requirements to enjoy the program’s benefits (McIntyre & Song, 2019). Care coordination helps lower medical expenses, minimize hospital readmissions, and reduce the number of diagnostic procedures performed repetitively. Obese patient care coordination is critical in ensuring a greater quality of treatment, improved health outcomes, and an overall reduction in medical expenses.
Additionally, new policies are developed to assist in economic growth and current healthcare information technology use. The federal government has made significant financial investments in scientific research by establishing the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The agency’s objective is to provide evidence that will improve healthcare. It also assists in developing tools and strategies to assist health systems in providing better treatment. Additionally, the agency invests in research to determine the most effective methods for delivering high-quality, safe healthcare, mainly via technological progress.
Nursing ethics guides the usable technique to support obese patients in achieving their health objectives. Enabling obese patient to make choices about their treatment and the outcomes they desires reflects the maintenance of the principle of autonomy. The offering of quality services to the patient is inevitable. Treating the patient concerning his characteristics conforms to the principles of justice. Additionally, the healthcare provider must uphold the obese patient’s dignity by maintaining confidentiality. Finally, as a healthcare provider, there is a need to protect the rights of obese patients while providing quality care.
Problem Assessment
The person chosen for the practicum was Mr Johnson. Mr Johnson is an obese patient living in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, a small town known for its vast hills, farms and Amish settlements. There is only one doctor’s office, one gas station and one 24-hour convenience store. The next largest town is Warren, 20 minutes from Sugar Grove and a little further on, and has a local hospital. Johnson spends most of his time at home because he feels unsafe driving. He had difficulty leaving the house because of his weight and health. His cardiologist is an hour away. Due to the lack of public transit, Johnson depended on others to get to his appointments.
Living in the countryside placed some restrictions on his access to technology. Despite having dial-up Internet access, the internet is often slow, and the connection is often turned off. Johnson has a cell phone. He just switched to a smartphone from a flip mobile phone. Johnson should check his blood pressure regularly to monitor his present medical situation. However, he denied always adhering to the blood pressure monitoring. Johnson also has a home scale which is essential in weighing the body, although the patient denied using the home scale very often. He denied being associated with support groups or using any community resource that could help him in the improvement of his health status.
Notably, Johnson has no experience with exergames. However, he received training on improving his fragmented care and overcoming obstacles. As discussed, Johnson has realized the importance of self-management in his care. There was also an examination of Mr James’ readiness to learn. Since Mr James is willing to learn, his care plan will be implemented next.
Conclusion
Technological advancements may aid individuals in improving their health results. They may enable individuals to monitor their health conditions, maintain information flow, and get healthcare services more quickly. Treatment coordination and community resources have enhanced patients’ quality of life and care. With enough research and current regulations, improvements in all areas may be achieved, only serving to raise a patient’s wellbeing.
References
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Frija-Masson, J., Mullaert, J., Vidal-Petiot, E., Pons-Kerjean, N., Flamant, M., & d’Ortho, M. P. (2021). Accuracy of Smart Scales on Weight and Body Composition: Observational Study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 9(4), e22487. https://doi.org/10.2196/22487
Inoue, Y., Qin, B., Poti, J., Sokol, R., & Gordon-Larsen, P. (2018). Epidemiology of Obesity in Adults: Latest Trends. Current obesity reports, 7(4), 276–288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-018-0317-8
Lee, S., Schorr, E., Chi, C.-L., Treat-Jacobson, D., Mathiason, M. A., & Lindquist, R. (2018). Peer Group and Text Message-Based Weight-Loss and Management Intervention for African American Women. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 40(8), 1203–1219. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945917697225
McIntyre, A., & Song, Z. (2019). The US Affordable Care Act: Reflections and directions at the close of a decade. PLoS medicine, 16(2), e1002752. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002752
World Health Organization. (2018) Continuity and coordination of care. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/274628/9789241514033-eng.pdf?ua=1
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