How can academic institutions take a more active role in disease prevention for women?
Academic institutions can take a more active role in disease prevention by making health courses a requirement in the curriculum. Although health courses such as Nutrition, and Physical Education already exist, I think these courses should be geared toward the diseases that occur when one does not care for their health. With the health topic of Understanding and Preventing Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer it now realized that these diseases are greatly influenced by negative lifestyle behaviors, such as cigarette smoking, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise. If I was to implement such a course in a health related curriculum, I would magnify the after affects of the disease. I would incorporate pictures that show examples of what a healthy body looks like and what a diseased cigarette lung cancered lung looks like to create that fear of getting a PREVENTABLE disease. If it is in ones power to prevent something they should!
3 comments:
I just posted pretty much the same thing on another person's blog. I also agree that exercise should be mandatory each semester. The "Freshman Five" is coined that term for a reason. Students go from being pretty active, to not so active and doing a lot of sitting. Classes should be mandatory. People would also be much more productive.
I agree that health ciriculum should be required. But I also believe campuses lacking health fairs such as Susan G. Komen are not providing full potential health advantages to lower their female students' risk of women's diseases like breast cancer. These activities provide unique, crucial interactive prevention services that a health class can't: free mammograms, interactive technology, health professionals specializing in diseases such as cancer, and an incentive to participate such as free food and other goodies.
Joyce,
A mandated health studies curriculum would be very informative to both female and male students. The required health courses would force women to begin to face health issues that they would not otherwise consider important until later in life. Early detection is vital in gaining the proper treatment...as future health educators we should encourage young women to keep their health a priority!
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