This paper is about the concept of primary health care and its involvement and application towards the issue of obesity in Australia. With the introduction and adoption of primary health care in 1978 as an approach to evolve and advocate healthy choices towards the Australian population influenced the Australian health care systems response and treatment towards health issues such as the national health priority areas, which are
Stated in ("National health priority areas (AIHW)," n.d.). as “diseases and conditions that Australian governments have chosen for focused attention because they contribute significantly to the burden of illness and injury in the Australian community.”
Which Obesity plays a major contributor as it is growing in society
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states that “Individual clinicians (GPs, nurses, allied health, Aboriginal Health Workers etc)” “Medicare Locals can make an important contribution at the local level to preventing obesity” " Which is reinforced in (Bhi.nsw.gov.au,.), (2015) that states how the public having access to health specialists such as doctors who can conduct blood cholesterol testing as effective because “Proactive screening and diagnosis of adults with raised cholesterol levels, followed by ongoing management, has been shown to save lives and help avoid unnecessary hospitalisation.2” In addition the public having full access to government health websites such as health direct Australia which is reflected in (Healthdirect.gov.au,. (n.d.) Which provides information that can adeptly educate individuals to watch what they eat, measure there belly’s, conduct self assessment “methods commonly used to estimate whether you are a healthy weight or not” (healthdirect.gov.au,. (n.d). And calculate there BMI which can act as early warning signs and prevent obesity. Although one or more can argue the accessibility of health services is insufficient as (Ruralhealth.org.au, 2013)
Highlights that “rates of obesity are higher in rural and remote areas than in the cities” Which questions primary health care and its accessibility for all, as the population that live in rural and remote areas seem to be in more risk of being
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol. 78, No. 2, pp. 113-117 27. No.
“63% of Australian adults were overweight or obese in 2011–12, 70% of men and 56% of women. This has increased from 57% in 1995.
“Health is the state of complete physical, mental, social and intellectual well-beings not merely an absence of disease”(WHO,1998).Good health is essential in life as people’s career will be affected if they fall ill.. In the developed countries like Australia, People who are not involved in the healthy lifestyle are suffering from a range of health disorders like overweight, high blood pressure, obese, heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, kidney problems, liver disorders and so many. To overcome these health issues Australian government introduced health care system. This essay will firstly, discuss the Australian health care system and secondly, compare Australia with other countries around the world in relation to different consideration on health.
Both the risk factors and the effects of obesity are now more terrifying than any other preventable disease to both the population and the economy of Canada. In a survey of seventeen developed countries, Canada placed only tenth in life expectancy and wellbeing, while placing fourth in the highest spending on healthcare(Flood). A large factor in Canada’s state of poor well-being is obesity; obesity causes one in ten premature deaths of people aged twenty to sixty-four(Ogilvie) and is a leading cause of many life-threatening illnesses: “Obesity is recognized as a major and rapidly worsening public health problem that rivals smoking as a cause of illness and premature death. Obesity has been linked with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, gallbladder disease, some forms of cancer, osteoarthritis,
Tovar, A., Chui, K., Hyatt, R., Kuder, J., Kraak, V., Choumenkovitch, S., & ... Economos, C. (2012). Healthy-lifestyle behaviors associated with overweight and obesity in US rural children. BMC Pediatrics, 12102. doi:10.1186/1471-2431-12-102
This Neighbourhood Study aims to examine the demographics of Hillingdon Primary Care Trust (HPCT) such as age, gender, ethnicity, social groups in relation to the prevention of obesity. An insight into the prevalence of obesity as well as the causes and its effects shall be evaluated. Public health strategies regarding the prevention of obesity and its effects in comparison to Government strategies shall be addressed. The nurse’s role as an educator in relation to this public health issue, strategies formulated by HPCT to prevent obesity and how it focuses on other diseases associated with obesity shall be discussed. The following section gives a definition of obesity, health education and health prevention.
Throughout the video series “The Weight of the Nation” obesity is addressed several times, including how it as a disease has affected our economy for the worse. Although obesity has not drastically affected the states with higher income, those who live in states with lower income tend to be more negatively affected. In the first part of the video series, there was a study done by researchers in Tennessee proving that people with lower incomes are more negatively affected and prone to the disease of obesity. “If we don’t take on strategies that affect how the low income community is dealing with the obesity epidemic, we’re going to see this phenomenon across our society in a relatively short period of time.”
Overweight and obesity problem is becoming more and more serious in Australia. Not only Australians but also the world’s problem obesity is studied as one of the main causes of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers and sleep apnoea as well as other serious conditions, which put national economies and individual lives at risk. Obesity is also regarded as epidemic. Obesity is caused by a calorific imbalance between diet intake and consumed calories. Obesity has become the biggest threat to Public Health in Australia shown by Australia Bureau of Statistics (2013). Also, the prevalence of obesity is predicted as the ratio of obesity in adults and children will be doubled by 2025 (Backholer et al.2012). It is believed that this phenomenon is happening due to many social determinants of health, which have a strong negative impact on not only individuals but also society and economy. (Wilkinson and Marmot 2003) The social determinants of health are explained as conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age by WHO (Wilkinson & Marmot 2013). Different circumstances can be formed depending on their finance, power and global resources. These social determinants seem to be responsible for health inequities, which seem to be unfair and avoidable. Social determinants of health including social gradient, high calorie food intake, excessive amounts of stress and poor early life care are the relevant factors to contribute to be or being obesity. It is important to understand that the correlation of social determinants of health and obesity to manage the health problems and enhance public’s health.
Over 60 million people are obese in the world today. The socioeconomic statuses of the Americans play a major part in the obesity rates across the country. People with higher incomes are less likely to be obese than people with lower incomes. One in every seven preschool-aged children living in lower income areas are obese (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). A 2008 study showed that obesity is highest among American Indian and Alaska Native (21.2 percent) and Hispanic Americans (18.5 percent) children, and it is lowest among white (12.6 percent), Asian or Pacific Islander (12.3 percent), and black (11.8 percent) children (Get America Fit).
Since 1970, the obesity rates in America have more than doubled. Currently two-thirds of (roughly 150 million) adults in the United States are either overweight, or obese (Food Research and Action Center). According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 whereas obesity is defined as a BMI greater than 30.” There are numerous factors that contribute to obesity such as: biological, behavioral and cultural influences (Food Research and Action Center). While these factors all have a large role in obesity, there is no factor with as great of an influence as poverty.
Furthermore, Abdularhman El-Sayed (2010) also argues that the real reason for the obesity epidemic is down to poverty and cheap food. He describes a study conducted by one university of Glasgow which found that deprived neighbourhoods are twice as likely of becoming obese compare to residents in more affluent neighbourhoods, (El-Sayed 2010).
This public health issue does not only effect individuals but the national as a whole in regards to the health care system costs. Obesity in children "costs the health care system $14 billion per year, much which comes from public funds" (Glanz, 2008). Also, obesity is expected to cause 112,000 deaths per year in the United States(Gollust, 2014). In addition, many changes seen in the health care sy...
The government must have a say in our diets. Because the issues of obesity have already reached national scales, because the costs of obesity and related health issues have gone far beyond reasonable limits, and because fighting nutritional issues is impossible without fighting poverty and other social issues, the government should control the range and the amount of available foods. The cost of healthier foods should decrease. The access to harmful foods should be limited. In this way, the government will be able to initiate a major shift in nutritional behaviors and attitudes in society.
In Australia in the last ten years more then 137 known people have died and many more fallen very ill from contagious and infectious disease. Diseases such as diphtheria; tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps rubella and Haemophilus influenzae, This is a great tragedy considering all these diseases are easily preventable by immunisation.
prevalence’s among developed countries, with over 12 million, out of an approximate 23 million, Australians either overweight or obese (Colagiuri et al, 2010; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2013; Crockett, 2014). The number of obese Australians has risen significantly over the past 25 years and is continuing to grow (Walls et al, 2012; Hawley, Dunstan & Travis, 2008). The predominance of obesity within Australia can be attributed to lifestyle behaviours and environmental factors, including sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, geographic location and socioeconomic status (Hawley et al, 2008; Australian Bureau of Statistics a, (ABS a), 2011). Obesity is an important health issue in Australia creating a major burden on health-care, society and the government due to financial costs, both direct and indirect, and the incidence of chronic diseases associated with excess weight (Walls et al, 2012; Colagiuri et al, 2010; ABS a, 2013). The threats that the rising rate of obesity is posing on our nation are what is making obesity the principal health issue in Australia at this current point in time.