San Francisco bound!

Due to my trip to San Francisco coming up very shortly, I wanted to post my write-up that I'll be presenting on at the American Public Health Association Conference on Monday, October 29th.  I appreciate all those who've supported me and continue to do so.  I hope all of you enjoy reading this as much as I have doing it.  Thank you!

Measuring Health through Awareness

By Jason D. Gillette

We can come to understand how   health is defined across cultures, populations and gender by altering how we measure awareness. This study is based on research which suggests that effective wellness programs can reduce absenteeism, sick time and improve productivity.  Wellness programs also make respective companies more attractive to future employees while reducing attrition for current staff.  Some of the most pressing issues in our society are disease and obesity.  We find the affects of these negative health outcomes far reaching and threatening across cultures, subgroups and socioeconomic stratifications.  

This research is designed to design wellness programs based on simple measurements  and to improve health awareness and implications in any community setting.  This program is low cost and yields modest improvements in overall health and health perceptions.

The objective of this study is to focus on accountability and education as the primary factors in stimulating positive health implication change.  We are held accountable in almost every aspect of our lives, whether it’s occupational, family, colleagues and/or friends.  Being held to some level of accountability is a natural occurrence and is healthy for those types of relationships.  This may help an individual excel, have higher standards or even help define what type of relationships they choose to manage.  

  

“The factor that interestingly moved their perception the most was the presence of high and consistent exercise minutes monthly.”

Two important characteristics which are not heavily used or considered with regards to improvement of a persons health, are accountability and perception.  These two aspects are vital in moving our society into a more health conscious state.  Accountability is key to finding success. By holding a participant answerable to the health information provided, we can see if they understand and/or applied the information.  

Perception is very important. It  gives the facilitator a window into the participant’s own interpretation of their health and well-being.  Their own interpretation can be compared to their anthropometrics and analyzed to see what factors drive their perception.  We’ve created a Nutritional Block Score (NBS Score) to assess a participants perception. This (3) block diagram measured their view of 1) nutrition, 2) body composition and 3) their level of fitness.  Participants were asked to choose a number between one and ten (one being poor and ten being excellent) for each category.  Once we’ve totaled these numbers, we divided them by the total number of blocks used, which gives us their NBS score.  

What we found was by gathering their anthropometrics and their own perception, we noticed correlations between high BMI and low (or poor) perceptions.  When a participants perception of their health is lower than (5) this is considered a low overall perception.  A low perception is defined as a negative perspective of a participants overall health.  The presence of high nutritional scores did not yield to high perceptions as we imagined it would initially.  The factor that interestingly moved their perception the most was the presence of high and consistent exercise minutes monthly.  We saw this consistently over all participants, even if their BMI was higher than normal weight.

Physical activity (PA) has been known to releases endorphins that alter our moods and energy levels.  This may be a key factor as to why we see positive perception change in participants with high exercise minutes.  We can see this being important, as it can help create better environments at work, school, communities and in our personal lives.  Another interesting occurrence was most female participants had significantly lower perceptions of themselves in comparison to their male counterparts, though their anthropometrics were respectably higher.  Reasons or possible causations for this occurrence were not researched further during this analysis.   

 In our time with Chicanos Por La Causa Senior Management and Executive Board Members, we discovered health was defined by facets that had little to do with biometrics and anthropometric results.  

Health included more dimensions than waist circumference and BMI.  How one perceived their energy levels, body composition and their family life seemed to affect their perception of their own health more.  One of the most important stats which seemed to be concomitant with their NBS score was the presence of exercise in each participant.  Exercise minutes most acutely had an impact on participants NBS score.  If one had low exercise minutes, their overall perception of their health was low. If the individual had respectably high exercise minutes, their NBS score reflected more positively.  

During this research program, exercise was not measured by level of intensity. This would suggest that any level of exercise would suffice in changing ones perception of their health.  This becomes all-important as varying ages and abilities can benefit from such a program.  This will aid individuals to create a more positive sense of wellness and self-worth.  Creating change in a participants lifestyle is important for weight-loss, and can reduce the likelihood of chronic disease.  Information was very influential in aiding the management team to start making changes to their overall health.  Once they were informed of how to make changes, and why, we could see improvement in dietary scores and NBS scores overall.  

My recommendation would be that the healthcare provider partnering with Chicanos Por La Causa implement a wellness program focused on creating sustainable exercise activities which promote employee or group interaction.  Holding all participants accountable by quarterly weigh-ins and monthly presentations will guarantee success, improve employee satisfaction and productivity.

In our findings, though the data is still being compiled; there is a close correlation between employees exercise minutes and increased health perceptions according to their NBS Score.  The data suggests that as little as 200 minutes per month improves our health perception 0.8 points on our NBS Score.  This is significant for the fact that our perception plays such a large role in how we manage our health and how we implement healthy living into our lives.  

Increasing our physical activity (PA) 200 minutes per month is as easy at walking for 20 minutes ten days a month, or exercising for 30 minutes more than six times a month. 

Our current objective will be to partner with Chicano Por La Causa’s healthcare provider to implement physical activity programs that will help us reach this goal and monitor the increase through further research.  The level of accountability played a large role in seeing increase in how participants reacted to the information provided.  This helped all active participants to maintain or experience moderate weight loss.  Through accountability, participants also increased exercise minutes, thus showing increases in their NBS Score over the year.  

How to think of what we think...

When someone asks us, how we're doing? What comes to mind? Some may associate this question with either social, physical or mental health.  May we measure the current level of pain we are experiencing? Do we look at our personal circumstances, or the circumstances that are to come? Or do we think of our recent doctors visit, or the last time we went to the gym or an exercise class to answer that question? Whatever the case, we all have to base our answer to that question on something that directly affects us. Well, when we look at ALL the factors that could cross our mind when answering such a simple question, one thing is for sure, whatever the facet that forms our answer is important and an indicator to how we perceive our health. 

When we look at the presence of biomedicine in our society we tend to have a very linear way of thinking about it. Get sick, take meds, rest; if the problem persists go to the doctor. This has been the case for some time. When looking at traditional medicine we find that remedies differ from circumstance, culture and area. These aspects of medicine shape our idea of health and illness. Our perception can be easily swayed. If something works then it becomes a remedy and we find a way to frame it into our health concept. 

I say all this to frame the idea that our perception is just as important as the treatment or measures taken to bring us back to wellness. As a matter of fact, our perception shapes how we look at the treatment or how we address our health. For instance, having stress due to problems on the job may cause us to think negatively about our health, even if there are not physical or biometric signs of fatigue or stress. To take it a step further, we see instances when participants rate their health poorly based on the health of their family overall. This I find fascinating, community health affecting an individuals own perception of their health. Surprisingly, this is very common. How we define our health often affects how we manage our health. Having a varying perception of our health or an external impact effect, can modify how we feel internally. Thus, making choices on how to remedy the event, administer care or when to seek care could differ. 

The image you see here is an NBS Score or (Nutritional Block Score) this tool helps me get a small view into a persons own perception of their health. This when compared to their biometrics (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, etc) and anthropometrics (BMI, weight, waist circumference, body fat, etc) we see distinct differences between the three. Often times the NBS Score is noticeably lower in comparison than the two. Our perception is often affected by facets outside of the biometrics and anthropometrics. Understanding what that may be is where I came in. 

When trying to understand health perception and develop a wellness program that was effective, I found many obstacles. I developed a way to measure how exercise, education and accountability improved the overall health of the participants. Creating the NBS Score, helped me to see what factors improved their perceptions the most. What was more fascinating than the components that positively changed their perception, was what altered their thinking or awareness in the first place. 

Our view of what defines health is important, it can aid us in making good or bad choices regarding our overall wellness. Being mindful of how we think of ourselves and understanding that health without accurate awareness can be destructive. We as a whole can be better informed and manage our health in a much more effective way. Defining health in a way that we as individuals can identify with and apply, is the next ystep in building a more health conscious society.