Health Systems and Economics Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Health Systems and Economics. Answer: Public health issue Obesity: Obesity is a challenging issue, which is denoted by the excessive body fat. The obese people suffer from behavioural, genetic and environmental factors which cannot be addressed by general methods such as exercise and dieting. It is a world epidemic and has affected over 30 million Indians. There are several stages of overweight and BMI over 29.9 or from 30 is considered as a characteristic of obesity. It is a social concern as the people with obesity are at a high risk of developing health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and different types of cancer (Obesity Foundation India, 2018). According to the statistics, India has the second highest number of obese children, and about 14.4 million children are suffering from excessive weight (The Hindu, 2017). Overweight and obesity is one of the major public health issue and leading cause of ill health in India. Obesity is a prominent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and few of the musculoskeletal di seases. It is evident that occurrence of obesity in the Indian population is mainly due to consumption of fast food, sedentary lifestyle and reduced labour workforce. Role of stakeholders: In addressing obesity in Indian population, diverse stakeholders from different sectors and disciplines should be involved because multiple factors are responsible for the occurrence of obesity and multiple interventions need to be implemented to control obesity in Indian population. Indian Government plays role in implementation of national programme for control of obesity. Government sponsors the programme, communicate the information to the people, fund the research and invest in infrastructure. Government communicate with the regional organisations for educating people about obesity and implementing control measures. Obesity has been recently identified as a major social issue; therefore, the government has designed a few programs to research the issue. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Indian Diabetes (INDIAB) 2011, has collected the data from various states for the prevalence of diabetes and overweight obesity in the country. In May, 2008, the country has accepted the action plan for the Global Strategy for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. It has six objectives, which includes promoting interventions, which can reduce the prevalence of obesity in the developing countries. The government has identified several issues and proposed guidelines with along with other non-government organizations to curb the issue. Sporting clubs, schools, unions and special interest groups can reach large population of India and can augment awareness about the obesity. Strategic communication can educate, create interest and enforce to change to healthy lifestyle. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) is also trying to regulate the advertising of the junk food. It has established several guidelines such as the nutrition and health benefit gains of the food must be scientifically substantiated so that it does not mislead to the customers. Secondly, the advertisers should advertise in such a ma nner so that children can easily understand the message (Freedman, 2008). Academia and industry research and development centres should work in collaboration to prioritise research activities, implement strategy and develop practically implementable programmes (Rippe Angelopoulos, 2012). Employers need to focus on the healthy diet and mess for employees to increase productivity. Health insurance companies should provide attractive policies to make obesity treatment and management feasible for all the people. Civil society should work for protection and promotion of heath for all and create wellbeing and guard human rights. The government has also issues food labelling and packaging guidelines so that accurate information can be published on the food packages and labels. Moreover, the government is also trying to prevent the publishing of misleading information on the labelling of the food content (Khandelwal Reddy, 2013). Along with national organisations, international organisations like WHO, UN and World Bank should address epidemic of obesity in India. Obstacles: Obesity is a stubborn long-term problem and it is not a one-off event. Addressing all these factors with single solution is the biggest obstacle for implementing systems thinking approach for addressing obesity. As multiple factors can influence each other in obesity, alteration in one factor can influence another factor. Hence, balancing all the factors is difficult task for the prevention of obesity. As obesity is a chronic condition and it is dynamic in nature, application of single approach over the time period is not possible. Moreover, same protocol cannot be implemented each time. There is possibility that different results can be obtained at different points, hence analysis of the results to understand progress of the systems thinking approach is a difficult task (Wolin Petrelli, 2009). The biggest challenge for the implementation of obesity-control programs is the perception of the public and the government that India is a developing and malnutrition-prevalent country. As a result, most of the government policies are focussed at promoting nutrition to the people. Due to complex nature of the disease, outcomes of the systems thinking would be highly unpredictable and uncertain. Hence, prior assurance of the success of the systems thinking approach would be difficult. As systems thinking approach itself is complex; hence, direct transfer of rules from one case to another is difficult. Systems thinking approach is not useful in understanding problem of individual factor of obesity because in this approach all the factors are interconnected. Wide range of resources is required for implementation of systems thinking approach; however, it not feasible to make available all of these resources at a single time. Suggestions Many interconnected factors like behaviour, background, environment and healthy choices of the people should be considered for addressing obesity. As obesity is a complex issue, different aspects of the system like social, economic and environmental factors need to be considered through systems approach for tackling this issue. All aspects of obesity and their interconnections need to be considered. Tools and methods should be implemented for exploring different aspects of obesity. Dynamic nature of obesity and its relationship need to be considered. Behaviour of the people needs to be changed through incorporation of collaboration of government, organisations and individuals through dynamic and flexible ways. Implementing different systems thinking and systems approach can be helpful in creating environment which will support people in making better decisions for better health to prevent obesity. An effective way to control obesity is to introduce yoga at school level. It is a uniqu e Indian exercise, which can foster healthy living. There are several scientific benefits of Yoga, which can encourage physical activity and prevent stress. It should be encourages at schools and colleges as it is a low-cost strategy to control obesity and eventually diabetes and obesity. Another approach to control obesity is performing meditation. It is a secular method, which can reduce stress; therefore, it is good for health. Yoga can result in sedentary lifestyle (Unnikrishnan, KAlra Garg, 2012). References Freedman, J. (2008). The Mental and Physical Effects of Obesity. The Rosen Publishing Group. Khandelwal, S., Reddy, K.S. (2013). Eliciting a policy response for the rising epidemic of overweight?obesity in India. Special Issue: Program and Policy Options for Preventing Obesity in the Low, Middle, and Transitional Income Countries, 14(S2),pp. 114-125. Rippe, J.M., Angelopoulos, T.J. (2012). Obesity: Prevention and Treatment. CRC Press. The Hindu. (2017). India has 14.4 mn children with obesity. Retrieved 23 March 2018 from https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/india-has-144-mn-children-with-obesity/article19030849.ece Unnikrishnan, A., KAlra, S., Garg, M.K. (2012). Preventing obesity in India: Weighing the options. Indian Journal Endocrinol Metab, 16(1), 4-6. Wolin, K.Y., Petrelli, JU.M. (2009). Obesity: Biographies of disease. ABC-CLIO.