Josiah 808 Trends

Josiah De Costa
Intro to Public Health
25 Match 2013

Trends in the 808

I had a opportunity to visit with my best friends mom from back home Shauna Tahouy she works for the American Heart Association in Hilo, Hawaii. We spoke a bit about what are some common afflictions to the heart health of our islands. 

1) Diet= In Hawaii we intake a lot of high sodium foods such as spam, portuguese sausage, and soy sauce. She said the majority of people she works with are kept in their poor health due to poor diet choices.

2) Obesity= in conjunction with a poor diet of high sodium he also eat a lot of white carbs especially white rice and noodles. Hawaii so expensive when it comes to buying food that many people are left to poorer food choices that contribute to obesity, 

3) Alcohol= A large number of the Hilo bay area can often be found through out the week on the beach drinking Steinlager and Heineken beer over the weekends. This is bad because it not only contributes to drunk driving but also the practice sets up for a sedentary lifestyle. 

4) Smoking= Hawaii has been very effective in implementing the clean air act. Even though the act is effective there are many which find many opportunities to smoke at the many parks and beaches. 

5) Active living= Active living in Hawaii is at pretty decent rates of high performance. Especially among the Japanese elderly as they are common to be seen swimming, fishing, and walking in the communities. Samoans had the lowest levels of active living it seems.

Aunty Shauna was sad to inform me that her practice has been closed down due to a lack of funding to keep her office running in downtown Hilo. As a American Heart Association worker she primarily dealt with advocacy and looking for funding for the program. She was constantly answering calls, going to meetings, and staying up to date on the benefactors of the association. I felt like watching her work was verbatim the typical life of a community public health worker as described in health promotion class. I see this as a constant challenge to workers that dont have jobs with "hard money" and this can be seen as either a challenge or a deterrence from entering the field.