Ethnic Makeup of High School and Common Health Concerns
Diabetes (or diabetes mellitus) is a serious medical disorder that is characterized by changing and elevated blood sugar levels in people, especially after food intakes. There are several types of diabetes, which still possess similar symptoms and complications.
The type II diabetes is the type that is characterized by insulin resistance, i.e. inability of human body cells to respond properly whenever insulin is present or input in the body. This type of diabetes is more serious than the diabetes type I, because there is still natural insulin produced in humans, primarily in early years of disease. Still one should be aware that diabetes type II can still cause renal failure and coronary artery disease.
It appears that Mexican American children in our high school have the most overweight problems especially if they come from the low income families. For instance, children aged 14-17 years, 24% of Hispanic children are overweight, which is much higher than 20% of Black children or 12% of white children. Such figures are apparently different from the figures applicable to non-Spanish students and therefore raises red flags for school nurses.
The information about the overweight Mexican children is very useful, since obesity in the childhood often means obesity, heart problems, diabetes, hypertension and other problems in adulthood. One needs to understand the existing health conditions in school in order to get a better snapshot of the causes that influence the health of the Mexican American throughout their lives. It should be noted that the as a doctor or a nurse, one should be aware of the negative sides of obesity which is widely present in Mexican American children, since, it appears that a great majority of parents fail to realize that their children are overweight and thus are open to diabetes.
This information is vital for a health care practitioner/doctor/nurse to know when communication with children and families. The families should be advised to consume more fruits/vegetables/fiber supplements (no French fries) and less of junk food if children are to become healthy.
It appears that the majority of the overweight Mexican American Children wanted to lose weight by playing sports and eating healthy food. This information is also very useful for the healthcare practitioners when communicating with the Mexican American families and children. As one can understand the children already experience problems with excessive weight, which is mocked by the US mass media that stresses the importance of thinness. The families should be encouraged to support their children’s initiatives to play sports and buy healthy foods, rather than to follow the Mexican traditions that state being overweight is healthy.
Ultimately the role of a school nurse is to do the following two things:
1. Speak with the students. The nurse should advise students on a special diet that would supply organism with health nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fibers and keep Spanish students healthy. The students should be advised to engage in various sports and physical activity, which evidently reduces conditions applicable to diabetes.
2. Speak with the parents. The nurse should advise the parents to provide their children with healthy food at homes and control their consumption of junk food.
3. Speak with the school authorities. The nurse has the power to recommend the menu available in school food service. Thus, she/he should advise the school authorities to provide more healthy food in school cantinas and remove junk food offerings for the Spanish students eat healthy.
