Double Burden Of Malnutrition In The Uk
This assessment provides an opportunity for the learner to explore some of the principles and practices that inform public health and how they relate to the complexity of health. The sample below is quite long. If you are running out of time and in need of quick homework assistance, our essay for nutrition page may be ideal for you. When writing a nutrition report essay like the one we have, you should think carefully about the parameters of your discussion so you can ensure a balance between breadth of knowledge and depth of analysis about the arguments you want to present.
Malnutrition among the UK Population
Background
Malnutrition is a metabolic condition in which the body’s nutritional status is below or above the physiological requirement. This implies that malnutrition can either be undernutrition or overnutrition. Both conditions are common in various contexts. Undernutrition, for example, is prevalent in the hospitalised population, homeless people, and the poor. Overnutrition leads to the accumulation of nutrients in the body to the point of obesity. Both undernutrition and overnutrition have significant public health implications. For instance, poor nutrition lowers the immunity of the body and makes it prone to diseases. At the same time, poor nutrition denies the body essential nutrients that are necessary for the performance of vital organ systems. Albumin, a protein usually synthesised in the liver, helps to regulate water metabolism by the kidney. Low albumin in the body leads to the accumulation of water in the tissues and compromises the excretion of excess water from the body (Golden, 2015, 90).
On the other hand, overnutrition predisposes a person to myriad non-communicable diseases. When a person takes in more food than the body requires, the excess nutrients are converted into fat by the liver (Schwarz, Clearfield, and Mulligan, 2017, 591). The fat formed from this anabolic process accumulates in the abdomen and around vital organs like the heart. Some of it remains in the blood vessels and narrows the vascular lumen. A lower lumen means that the blood flowing in the arteries exerts high pressure on the wall and contributes to the development of high blood pressure. The fat deposits also precipitate anomalies in glucose metabolism leading to diabetes. A high intake of other nutrients like proteins increases the levels of amino acid metabolites in the bloodstream and causes a derangement in the body’s physiology. Since water is an essential nutrient required for the normal physiology of the body, a low intake of water is associated with a wide range of illnesses like renal injury (Mix et al., 2018, 257).
In the United Kingdom, both undernutrition and overnutrition are observable in the population. Like in other parts of the world, the UK population faces challenges that may precipitate any of the above. Chronic diseases like cancer reduce the ability of a person to consume the necessary amount of food. Most cancer patients have characteristics that are diagnostic of undernutrition. Lower than normal basal metabolic rate, for example, is an indication of undernutrition. Anthropometric measures that are lower than the normal limit are also a sign of undernutrition among cancer patients. Various social and economic factors contribute to overweight and obesity among both children and adults. The UK is one of the developed countries where the problem of obesity is widespread in the community. Uncontrolled nutrition, lack of parental control of diet, and the presence of fast food joints are some of the causes of obesity in the UK population.
Determinants of Malnutrition in the United Kingdom
Malnutrition is a health condition that attracts medical care. In other words, people with observable malnutrition are correctly classified as diseased. According to the World Health Organization, disease is any alteration in the normal health status of the body. Moreover, the WHO notes that health is a function of social factors, popularly referred to as the social determinants of health. These factors are housing, education, work environment, food, employment status, and access to services including healthcare (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, 2021). Housing, for example, affects people’s tendency to prepare meals at home. Expectedly, meals prepared at home are more nutritious and balanced. People living in small houses rarely allocate space for the kitchen, meaning that they consume food prepared from outside. Homelessness and lack of permanent dwelling places predispose people to undernutrition since meals do not become a priority to such people.
Education is an important determinant of health. Principally, education informs people about good living patterns and shapes their health-seeking behaviour. Information about a healthy diet and the dangers of malnutrition is important in people’s eating behaviour. Moreover, education is one of the avenues to getting employed. In turn, employment raises the socioeconomic status of people and allows them to have better houses, afford healthy meals, and seek appropriate medical services. The work environment also determines a person’s diet habits. People who work in restaurants and food kitchens, for example, may become obese due to constant exposure to food. Working tight schedules and having a sedentary work environment are some of the occupational conditions that may expose a person to malnutrition.
In the United Kingdom, the above factors are evident among various population profiles. There is inequality in education, income, employment, and housing. People live on the extreme sides of the socioeconomic spectrum, where some are wealthy while others cannot afford basic needs. The presence of fast food joints shapes people’s eating habits since they are convenient, especially for employees working tight schedules in offices. Inequality in the access to education on healthy diets leads to some people eating unbalanced food, a factor that contributes to obesity or undernutrition. Other social determinants of health like access to healthcare and housing influence the dietary habits of people, meaning that the double burden of malnutrition is prevalent in the country.
Evidence of Double Burden of Malnutrition in the United Kingdom
Undernutrition is prevalent in both developed and developing countries. Countries like the USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom report considerable levels of undernutrition in the population (Aurangzeb et al, 2012, 38). Data shows that about 3 million people in Britain are undernourished. While the majority of these people live in the community, a significant proportion of the undernourished Britons are in the hospital and long-term care homes (Kennedy and Woodall, 2018, 15). The people who are vulnerable to malnutrition include “the elderly, young children, women in the third trimester of pregnancy (when energy and protein requirements increase), families on low income and lower socioeconomic groups” (Kennedy and Woodall, 2018, 15). According to the Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey (LIDN) conducted in the United Kingdom, the dietary habits of poor households are inconsistent with the recommended standards. This study revealed that poor people take diets that lack essential components like folate, vegetables and vitamin D (Kennedy and Woodall, 2018, 15).
Food insecurity is evident in the United Kingdom. The LIDN survey revealed that 209% of the households surveyed reported facing food insecurity in the previous year. Lack of enough food, skipping meals, and the unaffordability of a balanced diet were remarkable observations among the UK population. Food insecurity is a leading cause of malnutrition. The three observations above point to a possibility of families living in abject poverty characterized by poor nutrition for both children and adults. Tussell Trust, one of the major food charities in the United Kingdom, reported that parents skipped meals so that their children can have enough to take them throughout the day (Kennedy and Woodall, 2018, 17). It follows, therefore, that food insecurity, homelessness, and poverty are indicators of undernutrition in the UK population.
Food insecurity among the aging UK community is on the rise. According to Pardam, Esmail, and Garratt (2019), the presence of mental and physical health challenges among old people contribute to reduced food intake and undernutrition. Issues like medication side effects, lack of appetite, unaffordability of food, absence of social care, and difficulty in food preparation result in low or no food intake in old people. The nutrition of older people is also affected by dental and oral hygiene, gastrointestinal problems, and low body mass (Pardam, Esmail, and Garratt, 2019, 6). Pregnant women, hospitalised children, and patients with multiple health problems represent the UK population with a high burden of undernutrition (Nguyen, 2019, 7; Aurangzeb et al, 2012, 37; Benkovic et al., 2014, 689).
The other facet of malnutrition in the UK is evident in overweight and obese people. While childhood undernutrition is a public health concern in the United Kingdom (Wright and Garcia, 2011, 577), worrying data is showing the rise of childhood obesity in the country (El-Sayed, Scarborough, and Galea, 2012, 671). The rate of childhood obesity in England increased by 5 percent from 1995 to 2007 (El-Sayed, Scarborough, and Galea, 2012, 672). This trend is a result of low physical activity among children as well as the marketing of fast food among this population (El-Sayed, Scarborough, and Galea, 2012, 672). Observably, obesity among children in the United Kingdom is more prevalent in poor families than in wealthier households (El-Sayed, Scarborough, and Galea, 2012, 672). This finding is contrary to the global data where obesity is associated with high income.
Obesity among adults is equally high in the United Kingdom. Almost a quarter of UK adults are obese, “and a further third or more are overweight” (Johnson, Li, Leah, and Hardy, 2015, 1). Defined as a BMI of above 30kg/m2 and above normal abdominal waist circumference, obesity is a significant cause of type II diabetes especially among non-Caucasian people in the UK. Data shows that it is even higher among South Asians and people of African Origin in the UK (Tilin et al., 2014, 226). This means that the rate of type II diabetes in the country is high among this population.
Local Plans to Improve Nutritional Status
The United Kingdom has made plans to reduce obesity and address malnutrition in the country. For instance, notable progress has been made in the prevention of salt intake. Salt contains a high amount of sodium ions responsible for the development of hypertension (Wyness, Butriss, and Stanner, 2011, 254). Through the Food Standards Agency, the UK government embarked on a program to discourage the excessive intake of salt. Since sodium ion is a nutrient, this program falls under the malnutrition control projects in the UK. Other remarkable nutritional uptake programs include COVID-19 nutritional rehabilitation programs and FoodShare (Pardam, Esmail, and Garratt, 2019, 22; Cawood et al., 2020).
One of the policies to prevent the onset of diseases related to malnutrition is Vitamin D supplementation among children aged 1 to 5 years. This is a vertical approach that seeks the goodwill of the political class in funding and implementation. Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets due to deranged calcium metabolism (Sahay and Sahay, 2012, 164). The policy will include funding for the program. The funds allocated for this program will go to the purchase of the supplements, remuneration of the healthcare community workers, and data management. The government through its local agencies will announce to the public about the rollout of this program among children in areas identified as hot spots for malnutrition. The targeted children will come from poor communities, areas occupied by refugees, and homeless people.
The other intervention will be a health screening campaign to identify children at risk of developing non-communicable diseases due to obesity. Five primary schools will be randomly selected in the initial phase in specified localities. All children will be screened for BMI and Z scores to identify obese subjects (Wright and Garcia, 2012, 548). The children found to be obese will then be taken through planned physical activity sessions that will be coordinated from school with the help of teachers and parents. Physical activity is potentially useful in reducing adiposity and preventing the onset of diseases associated with obesity (Hills, Andersen, and Byrne, 2011, 867). This horizontal approach is comprehensive since it begins with case finding before implementing the intervention. The case finding phase will determine the actions to take in the next step. For instance, when the initial phase reveals a high number of obese children among the population of interest, more resources will be invested to ensure that the intervention is satisfactory for the problem identified.
After the implementation of the two approaches, the effectiveness will be evaluated through a comparison of pre-intervention and post-intervention epidemiological data. For the first approach, the prevalence of rickets will be analysed retrospectively to determine the rate of rickets disease before Vitamin D supplementation and after this approach among the selected population. Since data on rickets among various population segments is available from the public health offices, it will be possible to make a comparison between the two phases and determine the rate of success for this intervention. For the second programme, BMI and Z-score data for the selected subjects will be compared before the uptake of the physical exercise and 6 months after the implementation of this strategy. If the difference in data for the two periods is significant, it will be concluded that the interventions were successful. The findings of this studies will be published widely as a move to educate people on the workable ways to control the malnutrition problem in community.
We Made It!
Did you enjoy reading the health nutrition essay? I bet you did. Don’t stop with the love and support. Feel free to share or reach out in case of any questions or concerns. And don’t forget to enrich your essay with verifiable and up-to-date resources. Your professor would love to see a reference list. Among other things, I am an essay professor for nutrition class here at Theprofessorshelp. Please feel free to hire me to write essay for nutrition among other college assignments that may be causing you sleepless nights. Tutor Pharaoh Jr delivers.
