RESPOND TO A STUDENT DUE IN 16 HOURS

KEVIN'S POST:

Communities play an important role in disease prevention. Individuals within a community exist in a complex environment that include exposures to many risk factors. The multicausation disease model represents the individual with the factors that cause and prevent disease. The two components of the model that communities can most effectively impact are water quality and behavioral choices. Community members should build relationships with local public health officials to ensure safe drinking water (Allgeier, et al., 2017). Protecting public health is a common goal of both public health agencies and water utility companies (Allgeirer, et al., 2017). The beliefs and behavioral choices of individuals can greatly impact the health of the community, such as participating in healthy diets, regular exercise, and vaccinations.

     All three levels of prevention are important for better community health outcomes. Primary prevention is the most important. Primary prevention could have prevented at least 15.1% (372,054) of all deaths in 2010 (El-Sayed, et al., 2017). An increase in physical activity and smoking cessation are two primary prevention techniques that play a major role in disease prevention and improved health (El-Sayed, et al., 2017). These findings suggest that more funding should be made available for primary prevention interventions.

     Individuals and communities play a significant role in preventing disease. However, individuals play the largest role. Preventive care services are obtained by only half of all Americans (Kensinger & Luquis, 2017). This statistic demonstrates the need for individual health promotion improvement. Without individual involvement in health, community health would decline rapidly. The ownership of good health, must begin with the individual. The health of the community will be directly related to the health of the individuals within a particular community.

                                                          References

Allgeier, S., Blake, R., & Yoder, J. (2017). Work with public health partners to protect water quality. American     Water Works Association, 14-16. http://dx.org/10.5991/OPF.2017.43.0063

El-Sayed, A., Galea, S., Hermosilla, S., Kujawski, S., Muennig, P., & Richards, C. (2017). An ounce of prevention: Deaths averted from primary prevention interventions. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 52 (6), 778-787. http://dx.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.01.002

Kensinger, W. & Luquis, R. (2017). Perceptions of health care and access to preventive services among young adults. Journal of Community Health, 42, 1204-1212. DOI 10.1007/s10900-017-0371-2