Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada

Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada Essay Assignment Paper

What makes other people healthy and others in the community unhealthy? It is all about the determinants of health. There are many factors that combine together to determine or affect the health of people in communities. Whether individuals are healthy or not, is determined by their environment and circumstances. To a large extent, factors or aspects such as where individuals live, the state of their environment, the relationships with friends and families, their education and income levels, among others, all have a significant considerable impact on their health (Patrick, 2017). Of importance to note is that other factors such as access and subsequent use of health care services often have a less impact.

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According to Pega et al (2017), the context of individual’s lives determines their health, and for this reason, blaming them for their poor health or crediting them for good health is actually inappropriate as individuals may not be in a position to directly control the determinants of health. In Canada, for instance, there are 12 health determinants according to the country’s public health agency, and each one of them determines impacts the development of dementia in some way (Patrick, 2017). The 12 determinants of health are culture, health services, healthy child development, biology and genetic endowment, gender, income and social status, physical environments, education and literacy, social support networks, and social environments. Others are personal health practices and coping skills and employment/working conditions (Lucyk and McLaren, 2017).

All of the aforementioned determinants of health can directly be linked to dementia. For instance, culture may impact on the experience of dementia in a number of ways. While dementia is present in all communities across Canada, it is understood and subsequently dealt in different ways across different communities in the country. Whites seem to have a fair, consistent understanding of dementia as medical condition brought about by other conditions such as Alzheimer’s while people from other cultures view it as a normal condition of aging (Lucyk and McLaren, 2017) Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay. Apart from culture, access to health services can impact dementia. Lack of access, or limited access to health services may greatly accelerate or increase a person’s case of dementia as such persons are less likely to take part in preventive care or delay their treatment (Patrick, 2017).

As noted earlier, healthy child development also has a long-term impact on dementia. Apart from being influenced by other multiple diseases, research has shown that healthy child development determines whether one will develop dementia or not later in life (Glouberman and Millar, 2003). Glouberman and Millar (2003) further argue that biology and genetics endowment also determines whether a person will develop dementia or not. Family history matters a lot, and individuals from families with dementia-prone cases are likely to inherit such genes Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay.

Surprisingly, gender is lately being linked to increased cases of dementia in Canada. Studies investigating incidences of dementia across gender have shown that there seems to be a relationship between dementia and gender. In Canada, for instance, studies have indicated that more than 50% of women aged 65 years are living with dementia with less than 40% of men being affected (Lucyk and McLaren, 2017). According to Pega et al (2017), this is likely to reflect the fact that women tend to live longer than men with age being the largest known risk factor for dementia.

Income and social status also make a difference when it comes to cases of dementia. If a well-off family has a patient suffering from dementia, the chances of them getting him or her best medical care to improve his or her condition is high. Poorer people are more likely to have their patient’s condition deteriorate as they cannot afford some of the best healthcare facilities around that can sufficiently take care of a family member living with dementia (Pega et al, 2017). According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), physical environments are also related to cases of dementia. The living environment can impact people’s lives, their feelings, behaviours, and how they relate with others. Of importance to note is that individuals living with dementia are no different. The physical space or the manner in which a certain room is laid out can bring hidden triggers for a person living with dementia (Lucyk and McLaren, 2017).

Education and literacy is another health determinant linked to dementia. A lot of research has been undertaken with the intention of determining the impact of literacy and years of education on subsequent diagnosis of dementia, and the result has shown that there seems to be a correlation between these two elements. Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay. Of importance, older adults with limited literacy were found to be at an increased risk of developing dementia (Pega et al, 2017). In fact, exposure to digital technology can help people fight the progression of this disease.

Social support networks and social environments are also linked to the progression and development of dementia. First, social support is one of the best strategies that individuals and societies can use in preventing dementia. By showing such people that they are loved and cared for, their perceived strain and level of depression (aspects that may contribute to dementia) may reduce, an aspect that will slow back the progress of dementia (Patrick, 2017). Additionally, social environments are health determinants that can directly be linked to dementia. Dementia is linked to a number of losses. Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay. However, it is the social environment, including relationships with these people that influence how these losses affect the quality of their lives. Taking care of their social needs may halt the progression dementia significantly (Lucyk and McLaren, 2017).

Last, health practices and coping skills and employment/working conditions are other determinants of health that can directly be linked to dementia. Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay Personal health practices and coping skills are those actions that an individual can take so as to avoid certain diseases while promoting self-care, and the ability to cope with challenges. Smoking, over drinking, and taking part in sports such as boxing are health choices that may lead to dementia, an aspect that may affect their coping skill to the extent of requiring help (Pega et al, 2017). On the other hand, employment/working conditions have a positive correlation with dementia. Studies have indicated that adverse conditions of the workplace may lead to depression, increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, and after some time, it may lead to cases of dementia (Patrick, 2017) Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay.

A Health Promotion Strategy on Health Services for the Aging People with Dementia in Canada

With the increased interest in the health of people across the country, health promotion seems to be the best way to assist people by enabling them to take control and actively improve their health. Health promotion focuses on addressing several determinants of health, and do not require elaborate technology or expensive drugs to achieve. Instead, it requires social interventions, which, the basic level, need some personal investment of energy and time (Clarke, 2007). Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay.

The aging community in Canada is increasing at an unprecedented pace. For the first time, seniors in the country have outnumbered children based on a report published by Statistics Canada’s latest data. For the first time, the country is witnessing an aging baby Boomer scenario, as well as other societal trends such as longer life expectancies and lower rates of fertility, and the combination of the combination of these factors seems to have rapidly led to the rapid increase in the number of 65-year olds in the country living with dementia (Clarke, 2007).

A study carried out in 2013-2014 indicated that there were more than 402,000 individuals in Canada aged 65 years and above living with dementia. Of this number, close to two-thirds were women (Foster, 2016). It is for this reason that this section of the paper seeks to address this disturbing trend

As noted earlier, health services are those services designed to promote health, restore health, and prevent diseases to contribute to population health. Getting access to healthcare services may play a huge role towards determining the health of individuals in a country or a certain location (Foster, 2016). Again, health care services is the chosen health determinant since it is common for people aged 65 years and above living with dementia to lack sufficient access to the required health services due to forgetfulness, inability to go alone to healthcare facilities, and the probability of their families to make sure that they get access to better healthcare facilities on the assumption that dementia is a disease of the old (Clarke et al, 2007).

In line with the above, there is an urgent need to come up with a health promotion strategy to ensure that the aging population in Canada living with dementia can adequately get access to health care services whenever they need them. Health promotion surpasses health care as it puts the health of people on the agenda of policy makers in all levels and in all sectors by directing them to become aware of the health consequences of decisions made and subsequently accept responsibility for their health (Axmon, Karlsson, and Ahlström, 2016).

For the aging community to have access to health care services, a health promotion strategy is required, and here Achieving Health for All is an exceptional framework that can be adopted in this case for better results. This framework calls for attention to key health promotion challenges that include reducing or minimizing inequities in health, increasing the prevention of disease, and enhancing the capacity to cope with disability and chronic disease (Clarke et al, 2007). Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay.

The first challenge is about reducing inequities in health of high and low income groups in Canada. Here, there is a huge chance that dementia patients with a low income may not get a chance to be taken care of by the best hospitals around. Within the low-income bracket, there will always be a huge number of individuals who will be locked out of efficient healthcare system as they cannot get access to the best hospitals in the country. In Canada, there are those people for whom “longer life, but worsening health conditions” is a stark reality (Clarke et al, 2007). A lot should be done to reduce such health inequities.

The second challenge in the health promotion strategy should be to boost or increase prevention efforts. One of the most effective ways of ensuring that a healthy generation of aging people is promoted is by undertaking prevention efforts aimed at ensuring that complications such as dementia do not begin early enough.Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay. According to Clarke et al (2007), even though dementia cannot be avoided, its occurrence can be greatly minimized or prevented to some extend by finding out the factors that are likely to cause the condition and then reducing or trying to fight them. Many preventive measures that people take for granted today were actually initiated decades ago. It is estimated that the adoption of preventive measures can lead to more than 50% increase in the early onset of dementia (Clarke et al, 2007).

Enhancing the capacity of people to cope is the last element of health promotion strategy. Today, chronic conditions seem to have replaced a lot of communicable diseases, and the third challenge should be to enhance the capacity of people to manage and cope with chronic conditions such as dementia. Canada is one of the countries across the globe that is experiencing an “age boom” and if efforts to enhance people’s coping capacities are not undertaken, then problems will be faced later (Tam-Tham et al, 2016). Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay.

The above cannot be achieved without having in place steps necessary for community organizing and building. To achieve a certain end, Holgate (2015) advocates for six important steps that people need to follow. The first is the listening process followed the first meeting to determine what needs to be done. This is then followed by regular meeting, research, action, and finally implementing an action Dementia Prevalence in the Aging Population in Canada essay.