Blog 1

As a young adult and a woman, the health issues I am most concerned about are sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and obesity. The annual reports of STDs in the United States in overwhelming, affected about 20 million people a year. More than half of these cases are among adolescents and young adults. The implications of STDs can cause lifelong health issues in women that can be irreversible if not treated early. Obesity is also a major health issue in the world especially in the United States. Lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating habits has contributed greatly to the increase in obesity. I believe these two health issues are not giving much attention in our societies and need to be addressed to improve the quality of life of people.

I got the opportunity to Interview Miss Joan Smith, a 25 year old African American and a student at Texas Tech University. Miss Smith states that stress, cancer, stroke and obesity are the health issues that of most concern to her. She talks about how many things such as school, family, and friends makes her stressed out and causes her sometimes to become sick. Miss Smith express her fear for cancer because it is the number one killer in women. She says even the healthiest people are getting cancer and even though health professionals can tell you what to do but there’s still the chance she can get it. Miss Smith is concerned about stroke because her grandmother (maternal grandmother) died from stroke. She believes it’s genetic and there’s a possibility she might get it and that family traits can keep going on. She is concerned about obesity because it can bring diabetes, heart attack and can lead to osteoporosis. She stress that the junk foods are accessible to us making us fat.

I also interviewed Ms. Susana Rodriguez, a 30 year old Hispanic woman with 2 children. Ms. Rodriguez is concerned about high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. She states that high blood pressure runs through her family and there’s a possibility she will get it. She also mentions that the type of foods available to us such as fast foods are not healthy for our health.

After interviewing Ms. Rodriguez and Miss Smith, I realized that we have similar health concerns in regards to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. These 3 diseases are interrelated and having one of them can lead to the other. I personally believe that taking primary prevention methods can prevent many health issues that arises in the future.

My Bio

Hello and welcome to Addai's Blog. My name is Benedicta Owusu-Addai. I am currently a senior at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas. I will be getting my Bachelor of Science degree in Health Studies with emphasis on Pre-Occupation Therapy. I will also be getting my minor in biology upon graduation. I choose health studies as a major because it's been my desire to educate people about the essence of living a healthy lifestyle and as a health educator I will be able to make an impact in my community by helping people achieve the maximum quality of life. I have a great interest in Public Health and I plan on also getting my master's in that area to broaden my knowledge about public health.

I was born in Ghana, West Africa and relocated to the United States when I was fifteen. I lived in Houston, Texas for 10 years before relocating to Arlington, Texas last year. I am the fifth child out of six siblings. During my leisure time I like to cook, read, watch movies, online shop and I love spending time with my family and friends. I am taking  this class because I want to learn more about women's health and the many disease that affect our health but are not given much attention. My expectations in this class is to be able to acquire more knowledge about the factors that affect women's ability to access proper health care worldwide. One thing that I believe makes me unique from others is my nurturing personality and my passion to serve others.