Running head: RISK REDUCTION IN HEALTH PROMOTION

Risk Reduction in Health Promotion

Erin G. Mosher
Ferris State University

RISK REDUCTION IN HEALTH PROMOTION

Risk Reduction in Health Promotion

Many factors influence ones health on a daily and long term basis. Some of these factors
include diet, exercise, amount of water intake and things such as these, and other factors that
influence health include emotional and psychological factors. There are also factors such as
family situation, healthy vs unhealthy relationships, financial situation and any other stressors
that can affect ones daily living and well-being. Especially in a society that values speed and
wants to do everything as fast as possible, it is easy to get wrapped up in the idea of fast food or
skipping a workout to save time. It is hard to balance time and energy and make sure to make
time to prepare healthy meals and take the time to exercise adequately with all the other demands
of daily life.
The Real Age Test is a method that can be used to determine ones level of overall
health, by asking questions not only about nutrition and exercise habits but also about social
habits and relationships that influence ones emotional and social health. It gives detailed
feedback at the end of the survey about what health habits one should continue and which habits
should be modified and taken out completely. It also not only provides this feedback but gives
suggestions of how to reach these goals, such as offering up healthy vegetable meal options to
someone who says that they do not each the daily recommended amount of vegetables.

Positive Health Practices

April, a 22 year old female, recently took the Real Age Test and was told that her real
age is 31 years old, over an eight year difference. There were many aspects of the test that

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reflected positive health practices that April adheres to. One of the most important positive
health practices in Aprils life is that she regularly gets an adequate amount of sleep and sticks to
a pretty consistent sleep schedule. April is a current nursing student and much research has been
done to show that learning and retaining new information can be based a lot off of getting the
right amount of sleep and doing so on a regular basis. According to the Division of Sleep
Medicine at Harvard Medical School animal and human studies suggest that the quality and
quantity of sleep have a profound impact on learning and memory (Harvard Medical School
2007). This article goes on to explain how various stages of sleep can affect different levels of
the learning and memory process and that is it very difficult to actually retain and remember new
information if you are not getting enough sleep and getting this sleep on schedule that is
regulated. For April, is it very good that she is following a set pattern when it comes to sleep and
that she seems to be getting adequate sleep each night.
Another positive health practice that April follows is avoiding sunburns and excessive sun
exposure. According to the Skin Cancer Association, one blistering sunburn in childhood or
adolescence more than doubles a persons chances of developing melanoma later in life (The
Skin Cancer Foundation, 2015). It is important and healthy that April acknowledges the risk of
excessive sun exposure and repeated sunburns and follows safe practice and guidelines when
spending time in the sun.

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Health Issues
Along with the positive health practices that were brought to light on Aprils Real Age
Test, there were also some issues with her health that came up and suggestions to make these
issues go away in the future or to at least modify them and therefore be able to keep them from
becoming more detrimental. One of Aprils health issues is her allergies and her lack of being
able to keep them under control. Untreated allergies pose the risk for recurring health side
effects that can include ongoing skin, ear, and nasal infections... (Demand Media, 2015). The
Real Age Test suggested that April take measures to get her allergies tested to see if she is a
candidate for consistent treatment of her allergies or if it is something that can be managed
without treatment. April can make a positive move for her overall health by simply consulting an
allergist or a doctor and discussing the possibility of needing further measures to prevent these
allergies from causing her more serious problems in the future.
Another health issue that came up on Aprils Real Age Test is her stress level. She showed
a high level of worry and some anxiety and the test suggested that she develop more of a this
too shall pass mentality, instead of worrying about things on a daily basis and getting
overwhelmed when it is not necessary and can be detrimental to her long term, overall health.
According to Mayo Clinic, the long term activation of the stress-response system- and the
subsequent over exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones, can disrupt almost all your
bodys health processes (Mayo Clinic). April needs to understand the severity of what
prolonged and unneeded stress and worrying can do to ones body over time and make sure that
she takes necessary precautions to prevent her stress levels from getting out of control, whether
she uses methods such as diet and exercise, talking to a counselor, spending more time with

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friends and family etc. Luckily April is at a young enough age that she can get the worrying and
stress under control and most likely avoid any long term effects in the future.

Reducing Stress- Intervention

April needs to take initiative in controlling her stress and worrisome habits to make sure
that she does not experience long term effects of prolonged stress on her body and mind in the
future. Mayo Clinic lists some of the problems associates with long term stress as being chronic
anxiety, heart problems, sleep problems, excessive weight loss or weight gain, severe depression,
digestive problems and learning and memory problems (Mayo Clinic).
Obviously these are all issues that April wants to avoid having to deal with, especially
going into a medical career which will be demanding on her time and energy without dealing
with other problems related to excessive amounts of stress. Many studies show that maintaining
a regular healthy diet and participating in some level of daily exercise can greatly decrease ones
level and severity of stress. By tracking what she eats and drinks and her level of exercise on a
daily basis, April will be able to determine if changing any of her nutrition or exercising habits
would have an effect on decreasing her stress levels.
Another factor that plays into reducing ones level of stress is just facing the stressors
head on and being able to know that they are not as scary or worry causing as they are in ones
head. By keeping a daily journal of the things that cause April to worry and feel stressed and
overwhelmed, she can not only determine what triggers her to feel this way and modify those
triggers, but she can also read back and realize that the things she was nervous and stressed about
did not turn out to be as bad as she anticipated when in that stressful mindset.

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Wellness Diagnosis
Using the assessment data from the Real Age Test, two wellness diagnoses were able to
be created for April. The first diagnosis is readiness for advanced knowledge related to stress
factors as evidenced by the Real Age Test.
The second diagnosis is readiness for enhanced allergen management as evidenced by the
results of the Real Age Test and Aprils stating that she wants to get her allergies under control
to avoid facing detrimental health consequences in the future.

Goals
After assessment of this information and Aprils wellness diagnoses, two goals have been
set in order to keep her stress level and allergies under a healthy limit to promote her continued
overall health.
The first goal is that April will document in a journal her daily nutrition and exercise
habits along with any factors that contribute to her increased stress levels and how she feels at
the time the stressor is induced, she will keep this journal for at least one week.
The second goal is based on Aprils concerns about her allergies and the Real Age Tests
suggestion to seek further medical evaluation of her allergy levels. It states that April will seek
further evaluation of her allergies by an allergen within the next week and proceed from there
based on the allergists treatment suggestions.

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Transtheoretical Model
The Transtheoretical Model is used to determine a persons intentions of changing a
specific behavior. According to this model, April would be considered to be in the contemplation
stage of the model, meaning she has intentions of bettering her health behaviors but sometimes
has struggles with actually initiating these intentions. April knows and recognizes that her high
level of worrying and stress is not good for her overall health and wants to take measures to keep
her stress level under control, but finds it hard to take the time to actually put any solutions into
motion because of being extremely busy with work, school, friends, family etc. It is crucial that
April understands the importance of following through with the goals put in place based on the
findings from the Real Age Test and that she moves out of the contemplation phase and begins to
take real action to better her health and reduce her stress level.

Evaluation
After a full week, April appears to be making positive steps in her efforts to reduce her
level of stress and determine the stressors that put her in an unhealthy state of worrying. Based
on the examples of her journal entries in Appendix A, April has found that going for a daily jog
before she begins her day has made her feel less stressed and healthier overall. She has also
determined that a lot of the things that caused her stress are really things that she can control with
organization and making sure that she does not fall behind on projects and school work.
As for the second goal, it has not been efficiently met yet, as April has not seen an
allergist or done anything to promote effective management of her allergies. April needs to
understand the importance of getting her allergies under control, even when they do not seem to

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always bother her on a daily basis. April should give herself another week and plan to
implement the initial goal of seeing an allergist and taking their advice when it comes to
treatment of or controlling of her allergies before this problems persists and causes her more
serious health and comfort issues in the future.

Appendix A

Monday 5:00 pm
Today was a very good day. I ate breakfast this morning (oatmeal with raspberries and coffee to
drink) and went on about a thirty minute jog before showering and getting ready for class and
work. The only time that I felt very stressed was in trying to look through my planner at
everything that is due in the next couple of weeks. Its a lot and makes me feel overwhelmed but I
know it is doable and I need to take it one assignment at a time.

Tuesday 7:00 pm
I went for a run again this morning before getting ready for my day, and found that I felt
refreshed and much less stressed throughout the day, even when thinking about all of the
assignments I have to turn in during the next couple weeks. I have not changed my eating habits
much except to make sure I eat an adequate breakfast before I go for the run in the morning.
Nothing really stressed me out today, I feel pretty good.

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Wednesday 8:00 pm
Today was a little bit stressful because my co worker called into work and I had to stay late for
her even though I had a lot of homework to do and need to be up early in the morning for a
presentation. I just breathed deeply and calmed myself down and felt less stressed after a couple
of minutes. I also continued my pattern of going for a short run this morning and I really do
think this is making a difference in my attitude and level of stress.

Thursday 5:30 pm
I realized today that if I write myself a weekly to do list and base it by day and list do able things
for each day and then cross them off as I go, it makes everything seem less overwhelming and I
do not feel nearly as stressed out. I am also definitely going to continue this morning run routine
because even after 4 days it seems to be making a huge difference in how I feel overall. I have
also been drinking a lot more water and can tell that I feel much more awake on a daily basis
and possibly this could be making me feel a little less stressed out as well?

Friday 7:45 pm
I crossed a few things off my weekly to do list today because I had a couple of spare hours
between class and work. I am realizing more that the more organized I keep myself and make
sure to accomplish even a couple of things on my list each day, my stress level is much lower.
Procrastination is definitely not the best choice for me. Keeping up with my running routine and
drinking lots of water and feeling great so far!

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Appendix B
Dear April,
You seem to be doing very well when it comes to managing your stress levels and
identifying the factors that initiate the overwhelming and worrisome feelings. I see much
positivity in your journal entries and feel confident that you will continue taking the appropriate
actions to keep your stress under control and make sure you do not see any of the negative
effects of prolonged stress in your future. As for the second goal, you need to make sure that you
truly understand the importance of looking further into your allergy problems and getting them
under control before they cause you negative health problems and added stress to your life.
Possibly doing some research on your own time of the effects of prolonged untreated allergies
could educate you further on the importance of following through with an appointment with an
allergist and following his or her regimen of treatment when it comes to your allergies. This way
you can continue to promote your own health and well being and get rid of some of the potential
problems that appeared on you Real Age Test.

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References

Demand Media. (2015). The Effects of Prolonged Allergy Exposure. In LIVESTRONG.

Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/265913-the-effectsof-

prolonged-allergy-exposure/

Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. (2007, December 18). Sleep, Learning
and Memory. In Healthy Sleep. Retrieved April 17, 2015, from http://
healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/learning-memory

Mayo Clinic. (2015). Stress Management. In Mayo Clinic. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/
art-20046037?reDate=19042015

The Skin Cancer Foundation. (2015). Sunburn. In Skin Cancer Foundation. Retrieved April 17,
2015, from http://www.skincancer.org/prevention/sunburn

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