Target Objective from HP 2020, Food Safety
The target objective seeks to improve the food safety standards and practices of society. Food safety is very important towards promoting the performance of public health. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2015), all citizens are expected to follow the various standards and practices to promote positive impacts to the overall health of the community. Moreover, food safety plays a crucial role in supporting other health programs developed to enhance the quality of health care among the various populations (Bernstein & Munoz, 2012). It is also appropriate to enhance food safety towards helping the people living in HIV.
Target Population Size
The target population is the people living with HIV in Khayelitsha town in South Africa. Khayelitsha town has more than 500,000 people. Apart from all, the town has the largest number of people living with HIV with close to 100,000 people being infected. One of the common features of the town is street food vending which places the risks of food safety in the population (Sharma & Romas, 2011). Thus, the research focuses on in depth analysis of the population of people living with HIV to make their live healthier.
Target Population Demographics
Within the target population of close to 500,000 people, the town only residences 5 per cent of the people born in the town with close to 75 per cent of the population living in the town coming from the Eastern Cape. The people come to the town to look for jobs as well as improving their quality of life. Close to 30 per cent of the target population in the town are children below the age of 14 years, while 46 per cent of the target populations are aged between 15 to 34 years. This indicates that the larger percentage of the target population is young people less than 35 years. More than 70 percent of the target population only lives in informal housing while the rest lives in brick houses.
Considering the high levels of poverty in the population, food safety practices and programs are not well protected due to the high rates of street food vending. A huge percentage of the people consume street foods, which are sold in people’s residences, business terminals, and street events such as football events. The street vendors do not have adequate information to protect the safety of foods (Sharma & Romas, 2011). Twenty percent of the target populations of the people living in the town are HIV positive. A healthy diet is useful for the people living with HIV.
Local Incidence and Prevalence Rates of Health Outcomes
The high dependence on the street vended foods places the town a high risk of facing major health risks due to the lack of safety. The informal poverty regions in the town have led to worsening economic development. The health objective of improving food safety faces limitations from the inability of the citizens to afford quality food products and services. Since, the town relies on the street food vendors who cannot guarantee high quality food products and services. Some of the commonly sold street foods include samosas, fruits, fries, and salads. Such foods expose the people to an adverse health environments. The worse health conditions within the target population include the prevalence to food borne bacteria and various viruses.
The high susceptibility of diseases and illnesses includes the estimated 50,000 cases of food-borne illness with reduced health care costs. The main food-borne illnesses include campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis. It is necessary to prevent through effective food safety education and controls in food manufacture. In spite of all, the food consumption patterns are influenced by various factors including social, cultural, and economic factors including the cost and availability of food in the community. The health department will have to seek funding from international organizations to improve the provision of food services and products in the community. The regular accessibility of quality foods is an effective health promotion intervention, which ensures that the community has improved health safety.
Health Promotion Program/Intervention Sample
To improve food safety, risk assessment will be an appropriate health promotion intervention among the citizens in the target population. In this study, a sample of 500 people will be used in the conduction of risk assessment associated with the presence of street food vendors in the town. The risks assessment will be conducted through surveys and interviews to the 500 people including children and older people aged 35 years and above.
The intervention program will take a period of 2 months to be completed at the last week of the second month. This will assist in obtaining actual risks associated with the food borne risk situation. The intervention program will rely on the convenience sampling to identify the participants in the program. It seeks to select and recruit individuals who are affected by the poor food products and services (Bernstein & Munoz, 2012). The risk assessment program will be implemented within the community level. The participants will be engaged groups to assess the risk associated with the lack of quality food products and services. Surveys will include collecting and compiling information on the microorganisms in food and their association with foodborne diseases.
The conduction of risk assessment will be based on the national health standards and food regulations. The development of disciplined food risk assessment in the community will offer a tool for future prevention of food hazards. The sample of the 500 participants will also include people living with HIV. Other issues to be handled in the assessment include the impacts of poor food quality on the safety of the people living with HIV. 100 people will form part of the 500 sample to act as a representative of the entire HIV infected population of 100,000 people in the community. Therefore, the conduction of effective risk assessment will be useful advocating for improve public food safety as well as reducing the hazard and health risks in food products and the related diseases.
Proposed BYOHP Program
To meet the HP 2020/2010 objective of improving food safety, the health promotion program plan including food consumption and nutrition plans. Firstly, the plan will involve improving the overall diet at the community, which will be effective in the reducing the high risk of preventable and food borne illnesses. For instance, it will sensitize the community on the importance of consuming clean vegetables and fruits. Such efforts will improve the good nutrition required to enhance the immunity of the people infected with HIV in the town. According to the prevalence rates, the HIV infected persons requires quality foods and better diets to improve their health.
Other health promotion plan strategies includes health education and skill development, planning and evaluation training of health professionals as well as social marketing campaigns to promote overall food safety in the community. The training of health professionals provides them with the knowledge and ability to create relationships with people to enhance the availability of healthy food options (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). The health professionals would also try to push the government on creating supportive environments and settings to enhance safety. For instance, the banning of the street food vendors who raises the risk of illnesses and food borne diseases in the community would be useful.
The health promotion plans relied on the various sources of research including books and health journals to promote food safety. The book by Sharma and Romas(2011) is one of the main source of research, which supports the health promotion program plan to enhance the health objective including food safety. This book offers the health behavior, which promotes the positive attributes including promoting food safety and physical activity. The book also provides detailed information on the areas of health People 2020 to promote social responsibility as well as health promotion.
Bernstein and Munoz (2012) article provides detailed information on promoting nutrition and dietetics, which are aimed to promote health and wellness. For instance, it details the local and state strategies to enhance the access to coordinate food and nutrition services. This is effective in enhancing the health and ability of the people to enhance the food safety. Harris et al. (2015) journal article indicates the establishing of national action strategies to enhance prevention of adverse food services and products. The research article details advanced medication information and safety towards offering strong information on the action plan. The research articles and book were relevant source of research and information to establish detailed information on the food safety among the people infected with HIV.
References
Bernstein, M., & Munoz, N. (2012). Position of the academy of nutrition and dietetics: food and nutrition for older adults: promoting health and wellness. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 112(8), 1255-1277.
Sharma, M., & Romas, J. A. (2011). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Harris, Y., Hu, D. J., Lee, C., Mistry, M., York, A., & Johnson, T. K. (2015). Advancing medication safety: establishing a national action plan for adverse drug event prevention. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 41(8), 351-360.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2015). Food safety healthy people 2020: Healthy people 2020.