Health literacy and toxicology information resources

Message for Target Population: Health Education and Diet
1
The message for my target population—adults at a behavioral health clinic—is the following statement: It is important to maintain a healthy diet, low in sugar—especially high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), as the latter has been linked with the onset of heart disease, liver disease, obesity and diabetes (Bocarsely, Powell, Avena & Hoebel, 2010; Malik et al., 2010; Stanhope et al., 2015). This means, primarily, adults should take efforts to eliminate soft drinks and soda pop from their diets—as these are among the primary beverages high in HFCS.
The four domains of health literacy are: (1) Fundamental literacy, (2) Scientific literacy, (3) Civic literacy, (4) Cultural literacy (Zarcadoolas, Pleasant & Greer, 2005). In order for the health education message described above to have an effect on the target population, the target population has to possess knowledge in the four domains of health literacy. In other words, the target population has to have: (a) basic literacy—the ability to read and comprehend what one has read, (b) a basic understanding of the body and how it works so that they can understand the impact of certain actions (like poor diet) on the body’s system, (c) a basic understanding of the role that all people play in society and the responsibilities they have as members of society—i.e., they actually have a duty to try to be healthy because illness is actually a drain on society, and (d) a basic understanding of society and the culture in which we live so that they can navigate it and avoid pitfalls that might lead to poor health (like a habitual fast food diet).
The message when reviewed for readability using Word’s readability measure had 0% passive sentences, a Flesch Reading Ease of 41.7% and a Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level of 12.0. For adults in a behavioral health center serving as the target population, I feel this is a satisfactory measure.
2
The obesity epidemic is a global health issue that demonstrates health disparities and an effect on many communities that have gotten away from traditional, organic diets. As the World Health Organization (2018) points out, global obesity has tripled since 1975. This issue became a global health issue because of the rise of the global economy in the post-war period and the spread of products using high fructose corn syrup through global corporations like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and many others. As countries around the world, both developed and developing, began opening their doors to these consumer food products, the population’s health began deteriorating resulting in obesity and other issues like diabetes, as happened in the Marshall Islands (Davis, 2008). Populations that abandoned their traditional, organic diet suffered health consequences—but when they returned to their organic diet, their health issues went away (Davis, 2008).
Levels of prevention that could be utilized are: improving the health of the population (the primary level), simply improving care (secondary), and improving treatment access and recovery possibilities (tertiary) (World Health Organization Europe, 2018). For helping populations prevent obesity, the primary prevention method would be to provide health literacy to the population so that it understands the risks of consuming too much sugar and how it can overcome this risk. The secondary prevention method would be to provide the population with suitable healthcare facilities and a suitable infrastructure; the tertiary method of prevention would be to provide suitable treatment—such as healthy diets and exercise interventions.
References
Bocarsly, M. E., Powell, E. S., Avena, N. M., & Hoebel, B. G. (2010). High-fructose
corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 97(1), 101-106.
Malik, V. S., Popkin, B. M., Bray, G. A., Després, J. P., Willett, W. C., & Hu, F. B.
(2010). Sugar sweetened beverages and risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Diabetes Care, https://doi.org/10.2337/dc10-1079
Stanhope, K. L., Medici, V., Bremer, A. A., Lee, V., Lam, H. D., Nunez, M. V., ... &
Havel, P. J. (2015). A dose-response study of consuming high-fructose corn syrup–sweetened beverages on lipid/lipoprotein risk factors for cardiovascular disease in young adults–. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 101(6), 1144-1154.
World Health Organization. (2018). Obesity and overweight: key facts. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight
World Health Organization, Europe. (2018). Disease prevention. Retrieved from
http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Health-systems/public-health-services/policy/the-10-essential-public-health-operations/epho5-disease-prevention,-including-early-detection-of-illness2
Zarcadoolas, C., Pleasant, A., & Greer, D. S. (2005). Understanding health literacy: an
expanded model. Health Promotion International, 20(2), 195-203.