Running head: OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE PEOPLE IN SEMINOLE COUNTY

Word Count: 2,453

Marissa Peery
Overweight and Obese People in Seminole County
Community NUR 4636

OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE PEOPLE

Overweight and Obese People in Seminole County

Seminole County is a very popular and family oriented county in the state of Florida.
Seminole County is a very nice area to live and raise a family. However, with every positive
comes a negative, and this statement is true for Seminole County statistics.
This county is very urban compared to other counties in Florida. According to the
Demographic Profile of Seminole County, there are 1,384 people per square mile (2012). Major
employers in the area are Publix, Walmart, and Target. There are quite a few healthcare systems
in Seminole County. One of the most popular hospitals is Winter Park Memorial Hospital and
Florida Hospital Altamonte and Florida Hospital Orlando. Walk-in clinics are also found on
streets of Seminole County. The poverty level in Seminole County in 2012 was at 11.5%
compared to the state level of 17% (Demographic Profile of Seminole County, 2012). The
education level of persons over twenty-five with a high school diploma is 91.1% and compared
to the state percentage of 85.5% (Demographic Profile of Seminole County, 2012). Spanish is
becoming more popular in the state of Florida every day. 18.3% of people older than 5 speak
Spanish in their homes and in the state of Florida that is at 27% (Demographic Profile of
Seminole County, 2012). But there is more to Seminole County than these statistics. Because
there is a high percentage of no physical activity in Seminole county, this is causing more people
to become overweight and obese.
A strength that Seminole County has is that the number of Hepatitis A cases is very low.
There were two cases found of Hepatitis A in Seminole County in the year 2013 (The U.S.
Census Bureau, 2015). The number for this disease is most likely low because of the
immunizations that are offered in this county. Another strength this county has is the number of
healthcare services that are offered. Florida Charts records show that there are 757 licensed

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physicians in Seminole County (The U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Since the number of physicians
in this county is high, a lot of people in this county are able to get the healthcare that they need.
Seminole County is known to be a middle-class area. Because of this, most people who live in
this town have the means to have health insurance coverage. The U.S. Census Bureau shows that
79.2% of people in Seminole County have health insurance compared to the state average of
77% people having insurance coverage (2015).
With strengths in communities, come negatives as well. There are many more people in
this county becoming overweight and obese. The U.S. Census Bureau records show that 65% of
people that live in Seminole County are overweight or obese compared to the 57% state average
(2015). When it comes to being overweight, having physical activity can decrease ones weight
significantly. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 34.2% of adults in Seminole County have
moderate physical activity in their life compared to the 34.6% state average (2015). People who
are overweight and obese have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular issues down the
road. 10.2% of people in Seminole County have angina, coronary artery disease, or have had a
heart attack and the state average is 9.3% (The U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). This shows that these
cardiac problems are on the rise, but can be prevented with certain measures.
Since the number of overweight and obese people was so high in Seminole County, this
will be a priority health issue. This topic was picked because this health issue has drastically
changed and the number of overweight people in this county has increased. This is an important
topic to focus on because most of the time, being overweight can be fixed and modified and
prevent much worse complications from surfacing. According to the Center for Disease Control,
behavior and environment are the top leading factors that cause people to become overweight or

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obese (2012). This shows that there are many things that people can do to prevent becoming
overweight and causing more severe health problems.
The determinant of health model is a tool that nurses use to gather information about
individual patients, families, or communities (Truglio-Londrigan, M. & Lewenson, S., 2013).
There are different factors that are involved in the model, which include biology/genetics, social,
health services, and behavior. The biology factor of the model can help nurses determine health
histories of patients as well as information about their families past. The Social factor can help
determine how the patient interacts with people and the connections that the patient has with
others (Truglio-Londrigan, M. & Lewenson, S., 2013). Health services are programs that are
offered to patients and the community. These health services programs have a big effect on
determining the access that the people and community have to the health services (TruglioLondrigan, M. & Lewenson, S., 2013). The behavior factor can tell the nurse how people are
acting and the behavior that the people are presenting. The determinants of health model can be
very beneficial for nurses in the community health field. The model can help the nurse think of
questions such as why or how something is occurring.
With every health issue, there are factors that contribute to the problem. With high
numbers of overweight and obese people in Seminole County, there are two factors that pop out,
which include lifestyle and environment. Many people that are overweight and obese have the
ability to fix the weight issue by lifestyle changes, such as, diet and physical activity. According
to the Journal of American Medical Association, patients that were severely obese were able to
lose a substantial amount of weight and decrease cardiovascular issues with diet and physical
activity interventions (DeLany, J., Goodpaster, B., & Otto, A, 2010). It may be difficult to get
started at first, but with the right intake of food and activity, the overweight and obese population

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can be decreased. The environment is another factor that has a big impact on the amount of
overweight and obese people in a population. Many times, there are more fast food restaurants
rather than food shopping centers in an area. This is when the people in the community will go
grab junk food rather than making the drive to the grocery store to get healthier food. According
to the International Journal of Health Geographics, people who are limited to grocery stores are
more prone to an increase in obesity due to an insignificant source of healthy foods (Michimi, A.,
& Wimberly, M., 2010). Every population or area can have a diagnosis that relates to positive or
negative problems in the area. For Seminole County, a primary diagnosis could be, people in
Seminole County are at risk of becoming overweight and obese related to lack of gyms in the
area, as evidence by decreased physical activity levels, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart
disease.
A primary prevention for people that are overweight and obese would be to educate,
educate, and educate. If a patient is able to get the right education, it can prevent having
overweight problems in the future. An individual will be the one getting the education for this
level of prevention. Risk factor modification would be the biggest point to hit while educating
patients about preventing from becoming overweight. Some of these risk factors that can be
modified are healthy eating, physical activity, decrease alcohol consumption, and smoking
cessation. According to the British Journal of General Practice, recommending dietary changes
and handing out diet information is one of the most prevalent ways to educate patients on ways
to prevent becoming overweight (Cade, J., & OConnell, S.,1991). However, doctors thought
that this was less effective than media or family helping patients with weight loss (Cade, J., &
OConnell, S., 1991). Nurses have a very important job, and that is helping the patient become
aware and educate. This level of prevention is geared towards nurses, since they are educating

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their patients in the hospitals and clinics. The community health nurse will be able to be involved
in teaching the patient about modifiable risk factors before the patient becomes overweight and
to develop a plan of action that the nurse can teach and discuss with the patient.
A secondary level of prevention for people that are overweight and obese is to use
screening as a way to catch a disease or early stages of obesity. If the physicians or nurses are
able to detect weight problems early, there would still be time for the patient to make lifestyle
changes to help slow down the problem. This level of prevention could be addressed to
individuals and the community. Screening patients in the community would be very beneficial to
detect any weight or significant cardiovascular issues. According to the Journal of American
Medical Association, if a patient is at risk for obesity or is overweight, it is essential for the
physician to screen and monitor the patients physical activity levels, blood glucose, cholesterol,
blood pressure, and if the patient is a smoker (Barlow, C., Gibbons, L., & Kampert, J., 1999).
This kind of screening and monitoring will also be a tool for diagnosing any disease related to
overweight and obese patients, such as diabetes and cardiovascular problems. This intervention
will be mainly geared towards health providers and nurses, since they are involved in the
screening process, but it will also include funding sources since it might cost extra money to do
more detailed screening and educating for these patients. The community health nurse in this
situation would work with the physician by monitoring the patients test results. The community
health nurse can also do the follow ups and education on the patients to determine how they are
doing.
A tertiary intervention for people that are overweight and obese would be to join an
exercise program for overweight or obese people. Most people would snarl at the idea, but if it
can help a persons health and prevent any further complications down the road, it can be very

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beneficial. This kind of program would reach out to individuals dealing with weight issues.
According to the American Heart Association, people that are trying to promote their health
should incorporate physical activity programs into their schedule (Blair, S. & Fletcher, G., 1996).
These kinds of programs can help the patients when it comes to monitoring their compliance
with exercise and preventing more negative effects on their health. This kind of intervention
would be geared towards health care providers and nurses, since they can recommend an
exercise program for the patient to be active in. It also can be geared towards public officials and
funding sources since it could be costly to keep programs like this up and running. The
community health nurse could have a very important role in these kinds of programs. The nurse
would be able to monitor how the patients progress is and be active in the patients treatment
plan.
Health policies can be very beneficial for some. It may impact parts of healthcare more
negatively, such as increasing costs. For example, adding more tests to run on a patient can
increase the price. However, health policies also have positive results as well. A new health
policy that could be put into action in Seminole County would be to give people access to a free
recreation center. The focus of this health policy includes primary and secondary interventions.
There are a few gyms in each little town, and most of them, such as LA Fitness and similar gyms,
can be very costly for a membership. Few people have the financial means to access these kinds
of gyms. This is when overweight people struggle to workout, since it is too expensive to attend.
This health policy of a free recreation center would give overweight and obese people the chance
to increase their activity levels and decrease the health issues caused by their weight problems.
This health policy can also help people heading in the direction of weight problems to have a
chance to fix it before it actually occurs. The goal for this health policy would be to help the

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people of Seminole County get their physical activity levels up and their weight and health issues
down.
Stakeholders that would be affected by this policy would be community members, public
officials, legislatures, and funding sources. People that would support this health policy would be
community members and possibly public officials. The members of the community would be
thrilled to have a free place to get their workouts in. This means that their health could improve
significantly, but without having to pay an expensive fee every month. Public officials could
possibly support it because they do not want to see the county suffer from weight problems and
have low levels of activity. The officials want these numbers of obese people in the county to go
down and not the other way around. People that would be against it are funding sources and
maybe public officials. To be able to run a recreation center is very expensive, and the funding
sources might not want to pay that much to keep a gym running for the community for free.
Public officials might have the same opinion as well. The officials might not want to spend that
much money on something and not get anything in return.
The game plan to get the policy started would be to go to the very top officials in the
county. The proposal and presentation would be ready and the next step would be to make an
appointment with the county officials. Next, would be to ask people to sponsor the policy for
funding to get the building started and go from there. The proposal would impact Seminole
County in a few ways. By opening a free recreation center, the numbers of overweight people
would decrease and the percentage of people that have moderate physical activity in their life
would increase. If the population was underserved, the free recreation center would give this
population a chance to get their health in shape without having to spend a fortune on going to the

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gym. The proposal would enhance the general health of the population by making people
healthier all around.
Unfortunately, being overweight and obese is becoming more common. Some people
think there is no way to solve weight issues, but they are wrong. That is when the role of the
community health nurse comes in and is so important. Nurses can do so much when it comes to
educating patients about health and weight. With the right mind set, lifestyle changes, and
environment changes, giving back a persons health to them is possible and very rewarding.

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10
References

Barlow, C., Gibbons, L., & Kampert, J. (1999). Relationship between low
cardiorespiratory
fitness and mortality in normal-weight, overweight, and obese men.
The Journal of
American Medical Association, 282(16). 1547-1553.
Blair, S. & Fletcher, G. (1996). Statement on exercise: benefits and
recommendations for
physical activity programs for all americans. American Heart
Association, 94, 857-862.
Cade, J. & OConnell, S. (1991). Management of weight problems and obesity: knowledge, attitudes
and current practice of general practitioners. British Journal of General Practice, 41(345). 147150.
Demographic profile of seminole county. (2012). Retrieved June 27, 2015, from Seminole
County: Florida's Natural Choice
website:http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/core/fileparse.php/3227/urlt/demographicpro
fileofseminolecounty.pdf
DeLany, J., Goodpaster, B., & Otto, A. (2010). Effects of diet and physical
activity

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11

interventions on weight loss and cardiometabolic risk factors in

severely obese
adults. Journal of American Medical Association, 304(16). 17951802.
Michimi, A. & Wimberly, M. (2010). Associations of supermarket accessibility with obesity and fruit
and vegetable consumption in the conterminous United States. International Journal of Health
Geographics, 9(49).
Truglio-Londrigan, M. & Lewenson, S. (2013). Public health nursing: practicing populationbased care (2nd Ed.) (pp. 58-62). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
US Census Bureau 2015 State and County quick facts. Retrieved on: June 20, 2015. Retrieved
from: http://www.floridacharts.com/Charts/SpecReport.aspx?RepID=7200&tn=25
What causes overweight and obesity? (2012). Retrieved June 27, 2015, from Center for Disease
Control and Prevention website: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes/index.html