The improvement of public health in regards to obesity and diabetes in England

Public health is the domain to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of people. It also prevents the ill health and prolongs the lifespan by the help of organised efforts of the society. The rates of type 2diabetes and obesity has become the major concern for the UK. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a report in 1988 on ‘The Future of Public Health’. It has changed the planning of public health in the UK (Larson et al. 2011). It developed a long-term vision for the improvement of public health in regards to obesity and diabetes in England. In this regard, the present paper has selected the topic ‘Diabetes and Obesity: Concern for UK public health’. The study would undertake the epidemiological approach for health needs assessment for the improvement of diabetes and obesity as the public health concern of the UK. As the quantitative data regarding obese and diabetic people has been mainly considered to estimate the composition and size of the population, hence the epidemiological approach for HNA is best suited. The major strength of HNA is that it improves the communication with different public health agencies regarding the need for awareness regarding the public health. On the other hand, the major weakness of the epidemiological approach for HNA is the limited resource availability for the health care. The major anticipated problems in conducting HNA are working beyond the professional boundaries and the jargon used in different cultural areas. Moreover, the design of the health assessment would involve the criteria like the impact, changeability, acceptability and resource feasibility. The impact would identify the determinant factors in terms of size and severity for obese and diabetic people. Changeability requires the need of other factors to be involved to effect the health change. In addition, acceptability defines the most acceptable change in the highest impact from the adequate resources.