Editorial - Journal of Public Health Policy and Planning (2017) Volume 1, Issue 2
Compliance with health lifestyle or why the soda tax did not work.
Kathy Sexton-Radek*Suburban Pulmonary and Sleep Associates/Elmhurst College, USA
- Corresponding Author:
- Kathy Sexton-Radek
Suburban Pulmonary and Sleep Associates/Elmhurst College, USA
Tel: 630-789-9785
E-mail: ksrsleep@aol.com
Received date: October 29, 2017; Accepted date: October 30, 2017; Published date: October 31, 2017
Citation: Sexton-Radek K. Compliance with health lifestyle or why the soda tax did not work. J Public Health Policy Plann. 2017; 1:43.
Copyright: © 2017 Sexton-Radek K. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Editorial
After two months’ time, the Chicago soda tax was repealed. Advocates of the bill emphasized the health advancement of the populace when less high sugar content beverages were consumed. Also, the means of fighting obesity with decreased sugar content beverages was claimed. Both claims seem to be accurate, progressive health promotion statements as well. However, the mandate and increased revenue costs to the consumer offset any sensible consideration of the action it seems. Protests abounded when the bill went into law and media spots for both sides of the argument increased. The process of making a health promotion into a law, having the price of popular beverages increased was too intense and unpopular it seemed. There are many other views both in support and against the repeal of the soda tax as well as understanding the political and social climate of voters. However, the lesson learned is valuable. The health promotion action needs to be more carefully presented and the options reasonable to obtain. These political phenomena amplified an older scenario in Public health—how to meet the challenges of patient adherence.
Patient adherence, their success or failure to follow the recommendations of their physician/health care provider impacts their overall health. This failure to follow the recommendations of the physician is a significant barrier also leads to larger medical costs. While many models and principles exist with varying degrees of empirical support, patient adherence models share common health contingent themes: the patient understands of what is asked of them, the patient’s ability to follow what is asked of them and identified, reasonably achieved alternative behaviors. The variations in patients’ likelihood to follow what is asked of them by their physician/health care provider are affected by patient factors.
The situation of patient adherence is multifaceted;-one single intervention strategy does not fit all the variations of patients’ cognitive and motivational levels to change a behavior to a more pro-healthy behaviour [1-4].
Public health theories have forecasted the outcome of interventions about diseases with a high mortality. Successful interventions for cardiac, diabetes and pregnancy contain elements of simple educative instruction, social support and accessibility. Treatment outcomes are more successful when the focus is on how the patient will respond and follow through with new behaviors. The dissemination of public health treatment outcome studies, or at minimum, the implementation strategies may better inform municipal efforts to provide a means of promoting healthy lifestyles [5].
References
- Ashish A, Bellam N, Levy SR. Strategies to enhance patient adherence: Making it simple. MedGenMed. 2005;7:4.
- Klitman P, Armstrong B, Janicke DM. Distance as a predictor of treatment attendance in a family based pediatric weight management program in rural areas. J Rural Health. 2014;31:19-26.
- Martin LR, Williams SL, Haskard KB, et al. The challenge of patient adherence. Ther Clin Risk Manag. 2005;1:189-99.
- Magrin ME, D’Addario M, Greco A, et al. Social support and adherence to treatment in hypertensive patients: A meta analysis. Ann Behav Med. 2015;49:307-18.
- Tawalbeh LI, Ahmad MM. The effect of cardiac education on knowledge and adherence to healthy lifestyle. Clin Nurs Res. 2014;23:245-58.