Health Promotion & Lifestyle Modification

Health Promotion & Lifestyle Modification

24JUL2011

In this brief essay I will evaluate the 5 leading causes of death in the United States and compare them to the 5 leading causes of death for California. The reason that my interest lies in California is that first, I grew up in southern California and secondly and most intriguing is what exactly are the leading causes of death and if obesity or health issues are the concern, why?

As instructed I went on to the CDC website and researched the leading causes of death for all age groups in 10 year increments, which include both genders. For the purpose of the essay I will choose the leading cause of death for ages 25 to 34. The reason I am choosing this particular age group is because usually by 25 and adult has established themselves and by being established focuses on the possible causes of death as environmental rather person and accidental. In this age group in the United States the 5 leading causes of death are as follows starting with number one; unintentional injury, suicide, homicide and Malignant neoplasm's. This really surprised me, but before I continue I will have to compare them to my state of choice California.

I used the same parameters when selecting California as I did when researching the United States. To stick with the same age group of 25 to 34 years old, the search concluded as follows; unintentional injury, homicide, suicide, Malignant neoplasm's, and heart disease. After comparing the two they are almost identical except for homicide is the second cause of death as compared with the U.S at third and malignant neoplasms are fourth compared to the U.S at fifth. So now that I got the facts from the CDC and I have accomplished attaining my research necessary, I must move forward and use this information to create health plans and make them easily accessible, like the CDC's research site.

To go a little of my parameter the most intriguing fact was that unintentional injury was the leading cause of death from the ages 1 to 44 in California and the same with the facts for the U.S. So what are unintentional injuries? These are injuries such as auto accidents, drowning, poisonings, and falls and so on. This is interesting when trying to figure health education for such incidents. According to Robyn Norton from the University of Colorado The traditional epidemiological paradigm of host, vector and environmental factors that combined contributes to the incidence of disease had to be adapted and applied by determining the cause of unintentional injury. For example you have to attribute so many environmental factors to auto accidents. What exactly caused the accident was it fatigue, texting, alcohol and so on. You have to account for all these factors to gain a true sense of the incidence factor and how to use this data to create programs such as alcohol checkpoints, laws in the case of reckless driving and texting and rest stops for long route commuters. You must make this information readily available in order for people to understand, of course in does not always work, but the idea is to reduce