nutrition discussion respones

1. I chose Mississippi for this analysis in comparing to the national average. The population of Mississippi is 2,976,149, where the overall national population is 328,239,523. The population of those that are 65 and older in Mississippi make up 16.4% of the population (488,088). For the U.S, those that are 65 and older make up 16.5%, (54,159,521). The population of Mississippi of those below the age of 18 make up 23.5% of the population, (699,395). For the U.S. those below the age of 18 make up 22.3% of the population, (73,197,413). Now for those in Mississippi that are between the ages of 19-64 make up 60.1% of the population, (1,788,665). For the U.S. those between the ages of 19-64 make up 61.2% of the population, (200,882,588). When comparing the percentages of each population, the national average and the state average were a percent or two off from one another.  And over the past year, there has only been a 0.2% population change for Mississippi, and a 6.1% population change for the nation. When comparing the population change between the U.S. and Mississippi there is a significant differnce. With that said, when looking at the percentages, the population in the highest demand would be those between the ages of 19-64 considering theu represent a greater portion of the population. Some heatlh resources that should be easily accessible and would be beneficial for this population would be mental health resources, resources that educate on nutrition and wellness, as well as preventitive resources that help with the prevention of certai health issues. Some examples of resources that would help with preventing health issues would be the gym, to help with the cardiovascular system, and respiratory, preventing cardiac issues, and respiratory issues. Another example would be making education programs that help with preventitive measures to help those with drug addictions, an overall addictive personality overcome obstacles. As well as programs that help with preventing health issues regarding an individual's weight, like obesity. And collectively, having mental health resources, preventitive educational programs, and other resources regarding nutrion, and wellness. 

2. For this assignment, I chose to look at the demographic data for Florida. Before looking at any numbers, my initial thought was that it may be interesting to analyze the age populations there considering it is such a popular state for retirement. Florida as of the 2019 census, has a total population of 21,477,737 residents which make sense when looking at the overall size of the state itself. Like expected the percentage of the population ages 65 and older makes up a significant portion of the state population at 20.9%. That’s over 3% more than the United States’ national average of 16.5% Only 19.7% of the population is under the age of 18 years old, almost 3% less than the national average of 22.3%. The significant difference of ages looks like it may be from the very low number of total births recorded in the state of Florida, as only 221,542 new births were accounted for when the national average of new births in the same year was 3,791,712. Based off of these numbers, the retirement age community is in the highest demand and certain health resources should be readily available for the individuals that fall in this population. Many of those that fall in the retirement age range will need a variety of medical resources such as primary care physicians, diabetes management, cardiologists, urologists, and it would be beneficial to have many prescription resources for those on Medicare to lower the costs of maintenance medication. There should also be active senior citizen centers to provide different work out and social classes, as well as offer volunteer opportunities to keep the community active.

3. After visiting the US Demographic Data website, I was able to find out a lot of valuable infomration about the demographics of the state of Florida in comparison to the national avergae in the United States. In the state of florida, 20.9% of the overall population is 65 years old or older while in the United States, 16.5% of the overall population is 65 years old or older. Additionaly, in the state of Florida 19.7% of the overall population is 18 years old or older, while in the United States, 22.3% of the overall population is 18 years old or older. Furthermore, in the state of Florida, 29.2% of the overall population who is 25 years old or older have obtained a bachelors degree while in the United States, 31.5% of the overall population that is 25 years old or older have obtained a Bachelors degree. Additionally, in the state of Florida, the median age for men to have their first marriage is at the age of 30.5, while in the United States overall population the median ios 29.7 years of age. In the state of Florida the median agefor a woman to have her first marriage is at the age of 28.7 years old while in the United States, the overall median for women to have their first marriage is 27.9 years old. Laslty, in the state of Florida, 13.3% of adults over 18 years old reside alone and in the United statesoverall population this percentage is exaclty the same one. The statistics in between Florida and the statistics of the United States overall population do not differ too much. The biggest difference was the population over 65 years of age, the state of Florida has a slighly higher percentage. This is because Florida is often a retirementt state. Taking this into consideration, the state of Florida should make sure that their senior citizens have the appropiate healthcrae that they require, consideing there are so many elderly residing there. Additionally, family planning services should be available to everyone,especiallyif they fall in the demographic of marriage because they may be looking to have a child. 

4. I chose to look at the state of California since there are various demographic groups located there that seem to be constantly evolving. In 2019, the total population in the United States was 328,239,523 and the total population of California during this time was 39,512,223 people. The national average of children under the age of 18 in California was 22.5% which was fairly similar to the national average which was 22.3%. However, there has been a decreasing trend in the percentage of the US population of children under the age of 18 since 2000 which has been occurring in California as well. This can be due to the fact that many people are not having children today or are having children later in life. The percent of people over the age of 65 in California was significantly less than the percent of people under the age of 18 in California. 14.8% of the population in California consists of those 65 and older which falls a little short of the national average which is 16.5%. Surprisingly, the percentage of individuals over the age of 65 has been increasing in California as well as the whole nation since 2000. This can be due to the fact that there are longer life expectancies due to better healthcare and treatments available. This significant difference between the two age groups in California can potentially be due to the lack of health care, medicare, social security, and caregiving needs in California. However, in California, the old-age support ratio is higher than the national average. There are approximately 4.2 working-age individuals per one adult aged over 65. Whereas, the national average is around 3.7 working individuals per one adult aged over 65. However, this ratio has been shown to be decreasing since 2000 not just in the state of California but the nation as a whole, and it is predicted to continue to decrease (“Datacenter: Us data”). There are many health resources that should be available for the population in high demand. Health insurance should be easily accessible by all due to the reason that health insurance is the largest barrier to healthcare. Without insurance, the costs of treatments and doctors can be too expensive, thus many go untreated for certain illnesses or diseases. There should also be an adequate number of physicians and or other healthcare workers available for all populations in each state of the nation. A small number of healthcare workers can make it significantly harder to get seen by a doctor and treated, especially in states with such high populations as California (“Access to health services”). If these health resources are available then it would be easier for individuals aged over 65 to live in California.

5. The state I decided to look into was Virginia. Virginia’s total population as of 2019 was 8,535,519 with 89,620 provisional deaths, 99,843 total births, and 69,359 total deaths. 15.9% of the population in Virginia if 65 and older, 21.8% is under the age of 18, and 62.3% of the population is between the ages of 19-64. According to Statista “the average age of the population of the United States as of 2019 was 38.4 years” (Statista, 2019). It was very interesting to see that the average age at first marriage for men is 29.5 and for females it is 27.5, the average age isn’t that far part from both the U.S. and Virginia. or the populations in highest demand I believe that facilities should be at a place easier to reach where veryone can have access to. The factors that people take into consideration on demand for healthcare services are the distance to the health care facility, fees, the quality of the service, and etc. Populations that have a lot of residents have high demands for health care resources and sometimes these resources cannot reach every individual. As more and more people are both born into the population and age the demand for health care rises specifically with elders because of hospital stays and the long-term care some might need. In order to help with the high demand in populations people need to get better access to facilities, have the facility make it easy to schedule an appointment, most facilities demand you schedule an appointment and do not have walk ins it would be great if that was changed, provide the best quality service, open up facilities to help those with no insurance or that have difficulty in paying medical bills.