Assignment: Health Promotion Strategy Assessment

Assignment: Health Promotion Strategy Assessment

You are evaluating a 16-year-old adolescent patient who comes in complaining of having difficulty concentrating in school. On exam, you also note that the patient is very thin and frail in appearance and is asking you for diet pills.

Initial areas for concern and screening tools for making a diagnosis

In the assessment of this patient, the initial areas of concern are difficulties in concentrating in school and the need for diet pills, even when the is already thin. Difficulties in concentrating in school is an indication of attention-deficit hypersensitivity reaction, while the need for diet pill even though the bodyweight of the patient indicates bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa or a body image disorder like body dysmorphic disorder (Joy, Kussman, & Nattiv, 2016). Previous research report that most patients with eating or body image disorder usually have a coexisting psychological disorder. As a result, the patient might be suffering from both anorexia and ADHD. The most appropriate screening tool for ADHD as recommended by most treatment guidelines is the Vanderbilt Assessment Scale (Sartorius, 2014). This tool can be used in the assessment of this patient’s mental condition by both her parents and teachers in addition to the analysis of other symptoms for an accurate diagnosis to be made. Evaluating an eating disorder can best be accomplished using the SCOFF questionnaire. It contains 5 simple questions for the assessment of the patient’s condition. The tool can be used during the patients visit the hospital so as to find out whether she is suffering from bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.

Health promotion strategy

The patient will be educated on the effects of diet on ADHD. It is important to acknowledge the patient on the importance of eating a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables (Pelsser, Frankena, Toorman, & Rodrigues, 2017). The patient should also reduce consumption of high fatty foods, caffeine and those with high sugar content. Previous studies proposed three main diet intervention that can help reduce the symptoms of ADHD, which are, a few-foods diet (FFD), poly-unsaturated fatty acid supplements and elimination of artificial food color. The proposed FFD is composed of a diet of chicken, lamb, rice, potatoes, apple, bananas among other highly nutritious food in addition to an individualized balanced diet plan.