Consider the following factors that affect chronic illness when responding to your selected topic — pain, stigma, social isolation, altered mobility, or fatigue.

Topic 1

• Based on the research, which of the factors above have the greatest impact on a patient? Why?
• Contrast at least two ways the factors would affect a twelve-year-old with the way they would affect a seventy-five-year-old.

Peer 1

Diabetes is a chronic disease that can affect a twelve-year-old and a seventy-five-year-old in which the trajectory of the illness will differ for each age group. While the treatment of diabetes is relatively the same for all ages regarding the need for insulin, diet management, and blood sugar control a big difference here is the part in which the twelve year old may need more assistance with care while the seventy five year old has more than likely been dealing with this disease their whole life and has their management covered. I have previously worked with children and those affected with diabetes tend to struggle more with body image if they have to wear an insulin pump, feelings of not fitting in, and being at an age in which they are not able to care for themselves independently and require assistance from others. The trajectory for the seventy five year old may look different considering they may experience more of the long term side effects that come with diabetes such as neuropathy, wounds due to altered mobility, visual impairments, high blood pressure and cholesterol in which would have to be treated as well. Diabetes is a disease than can drastically affect the whole body if not managed properly, but with compliance, education, and encouragement both a twelve year old and seventy five year old can live well.

American Diabetes Association (2010). Diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus.Diabetes care,33 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), S62–S69. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc10-S062

Peer 2

Numerous factors will affect chronic illness, with each factor having a different impact on the patients. Based on scholarly research, the factors that will have the greatest impact on the patients thus include pain, social isolation, and altered mobility. Pain is highlighted as one of the factors that cause a lot of discomfort on patients. Uncontrolled pain causes a lot of discomfort on the patients and may even contribute greatly to adverse outcomes. In most healthcare environments, healthcare practitioners have to take up a lot of mitigation measures to try and control the pain, which gives patients experience (Maresova, Javanmardi, Barakovic, et al., 2019). Social isolation will also have a huge impact on patients and will also affect their ability to recover. Isolation may thus cause mental health issues on patients, which may interfere with their ability to recover. Healthcare facilities take up numerous measures to avoid helping the patients not to be isolated, such as allowing family members to visit the patients. Finally, altered mobility has a great impact on patients and their recovery. Patients whose mobility is affected are thus not able to perform their activities of daily living, which can result in being stressed. Such patients can also experience outcomes, such as developing pressure ulcers (Maresova, Javanmardi, Barakovic, et al., 2019).

For both twelve years old and 75-year-old patients, the issues of pain would affect them the same way with each of the patients requiring adequate measures to alleviate pain. On the other hand, altered mobility would seem to affect the 12-year-old patient more than a 75-year-old patient. This is because a 12-year-old patient is naturally more active and would feel more restricted than a 75-year-old patient who is less active.

References

Maresova, P., Javanmardi, E., Barakovic, S. et al. (2019). Consequences of chronic diseases and other limitations associated with old age – a scoping review. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1431. https://doi-org.su.idm.oclc.org/10.1186/s12889-019-77625