PDHPE HSC Summaries – Core 1 Health
Priorities in Australia
CQ1: How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified?
● Measuring health Status
Role of Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the process of data and information collection. It is the study of disease and illness in
groups/populations. It considers the pattern of disease in terms of:
- Prevalence: number of existing cases of disease in a population
- Incidence: number of new cases of disease in a population
Epidemiology focuses on gathering + interpreting epidemiological statistics e.g. ‘Australia’s Health 2006’.
These reports show info on mortality/infant mortality rates, morbidity rates, life expectancy, health
resources, costs associated with ill-health, private health insurance info, medication etc.
Its role is to help researchers and health authorities to:
- describe and compare patterns of health in groups communities and populations
- identify health needs and allocate health care resources accordingly
- evaluate health behaviors and strategies to help control and prevent disease
- identify and promote behavior’s that can improve the health status of the overall population
Epidemiology does have its limitations. It doesn’t:
- always show significant variations in health status among populations + sub-groups like ATSI
- accurately indicate quality of life
- account for social, economic and cultural factors that also affect the health of individuals.
Measures of Epidemiology
The major measurements used epidemiology are:
1. Mortality: death rates within a population
2. Infant mortality: the number of deaths occurring in an infant's first year of life in a population
3. Life Expectancy: the number of years a person has to live
4. Morbidity: the sickness rates within a population
Current trends in life expectancy
Increased life expectancy for Australians over decades had increased significantly due to:
- reduced infant mortality rates from improved medical diagnosis + treatment of illness
- declining mortality rates for CVD, some cancers and some motor vehicle accidents
- the improved medical interventions e.g. advanced screening techniques
The life expectancy for Australian
males is roughly 79 and for Australian
females it's about 81. Australians live
longer than people in any other nation
in the world except Japan (81.4).
,Current trends for the major causes of morbidity and mortality for the general population,
comparing males to females
Most common causes of death are:
1. Diseases of heart and blood vessels e.g. CVD, stroke
2. Cancer
3. Diseases of the respiratory system
4. External causes e.g. car accidents
5. Mental and Behavioral Disorders
6. Diseases of the Nervous system
- Death rates are lower than Australian born population
- Main causes of death are CVD (like heart disease and strokes), some cancers and respiratory diseases.
- Diseases that are largely preventable life-style diseases have been increasing, such as CVD, obesity,
Alzheimer’s, dementia and cancer.
- Heart disease, lung cancer and stroke have all remained relatively stable
- Significant decrease in the death rates from circulatory and respiratory diseases in males
- Stable death rates for respiratory system and genitourinary diseases have remained stable for women
- Some of the leading causes of death like heart disease, stroke, and some cancers, the death rates are
decreasing.
- This reduction of these diseases is mainly due to:
● Improving medical technology methods + medicines
● Improved levels of education about leading a healthy life-style + consequences of inactivity, a
poor diet and unhealthy behaviors like smoking.
- Infant mortality rate is a good indicator of general health + well-being of a population
- Morbidity levels increase as distance away from major cities increases.
- The falling rates of diseases that were once fatal but are now likely to be overcome are continuing to
fall e.g. heart attacks and strokes
- Diseases tending to rise are largely self-inflicted life-style diseases, such as STD’s, mental/behavioral
problems, diabetes and obesity. Most of these are increasing because of Australia’s unhealthy life-style
behaviors like poor diet, physical inactivity, unsafe sex practices and smoking.
- Improvement in coronary heart disease treatment is good but still contributes to most of the mortality
rates of any single condition
- Large increases in obesity leads to most of the rapidly rising diabetes incidence
Infant Mortality Mortality
, Morbidity
● Identifying priority health issues
There are 5 factors that identify that something is a priority health issue:
1. Social Justice Principles
2. Priority population groups
3. Prevalence of the condition
4. Potential for change (preventions and early intervention)
5. Costs to the individual and community
Social Justice Principles
Social justice refers to the notion of eliminating inequity in health, promoting diversity and establishing
supportive environments for all Australians. The Social Justice Principle aims to make the health system
fair and equal to everyone in the population, not leaving anyone out.
Thus in identifying priority areas we must look for areas of inequality in:
- Mortality + morbidity rates
- Social, cultural and environmental factors
- Access to resources, information and education
Priorities in Australia
CQ1: How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified?
● Measuring health Status
Role of Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the process of data and information collection. It is the study of disease and illness in
groups/populations. It considers the pattern of disease in terms of:
- Prevalence: number of existing cases of disease in a population
- Incidence: number of new cases of disease in a population
Epidemiology focuses on gathering + interpreting epidemiological statistics e.g. ‘Australia’s Health 2006’.
These reports show info on mortality/infant mortality rates, morbidity rates, life expectancy, health
resources, costs associated with ill-health, private health insurance info, medication etc.
Its role is to help researchers and health authorities to:
- describe and compare patterns of health in groups communities and populations
- identify health needs and allocate health care resources accordingly
- evaluate health behaviors and strategies to help control and prevent disease
- identify and promote behavior’s that can improve the health status of the overall population
Epidemiology does have its limitations. It doesn’t:
- always show significant variations in health status among populations + sub-groups like ATSI
- accurately indicate quality of life
- account for social, economic and cultural factors that also affect the health of individuals.
Measures of Epidemiology
The major measurements used epidemiology are:
1. Mortality: death rates within a population
2. Infant mortality: the number of deaths occurring in an infant's first year of life in a population
3. Life Expectancy: the number of years a person has to live
4. Morbidity: the sickness rates within a population
Current trends in life expectancy
Increased life expectancy for Australians over decades had increased significantly due to:
- reduced infant mortality rates from improved medical diagnosis + treatment of illness
- declining mortality rates for CVD, some cancers and some motor vehicle accidents
- the improved medical interventions e.g. advanced screening techniques
The life expectancy for Australian
males is roughly 79 and for Australian
females it's about 81. Australians live
longer than people in any other nation
in the world except Japan (81.4).
,Current trends for the major causes of morbidity and mortality for the general population,
comparing males to females
Most common causes of death are:
1. Diseases of heart and blood vessels e.g. CVD, stroke
2. Cancer
3. Diseases of the respiratory system
4. External causes e.g. car accidents
5. Mental and Behavioral Disorders
6. Diseases of the Nervous system
- Death rates are lower than Australian born population
- Main causes of death are CVD (like heart disease and strokes), some cancers and respiratory diseases.
- Diseases that are largely preventable life-style diseases have been increasing, such as CVD, obesity,
Alzheimer’s, dementia and cancer.
- Heart disease, lung cancer and stroke have all remained relatively stable
- Significant decrease in the death rates from circulatory and respiratory diseases in males
- Stable death rates for respiratory system and genitourinary diseases have remained stable for women
- Some of the leading causes of death like heart disease, stroke, and some cancers, the death rates are
decreasing.
- This reduction of these diseases is mainly due to:
● Improving medical technology methods + medicines
● Improved levels of education about leading a healthy life-style + consequences of inactivity, a
poor diet and unhealthy behaviors like smoking.
- Infant mortality rate is a good indicator of general health + well-being of a population
- Morbidity levels increase as distance away from major cities increases.
- The falling rates of diseases that were once fatal but are now likely to be overcome are continuing to
fall e.g. heart attacks and strokes
- Diseases tending to rise are largely self-inflicted life-style diseases, such as STD’s, mental/behavioral
problems, diabetes and obesity. Most of these are increasing because of Australia’s unhealthy life-style
behaviors like poor diet, physical inactivity, unsafe sex practices and smoking.
- Improvement in coronary heart disease treatment is good but still contributes to most of the mortality
rates of any single condition
- Large increases in obesity leads to most of the rapidly rising diabetes incidence
Infant Mortality Mortality
, Morbidity
● Identifying priority health issues
There are 5 factors that identify that something is a priority health issue:
1. Social Justice Principles
2. Priority population groups
3. Prevalence of the condition
4. Potential for change (preventions and early intervention)
5. Costs to the individual and community
Social Justice Principles
Social justice refers to the notion of eliminating inequity in health, promoting diversity and establishing
supportive environments for all Australians. The Social Justice Principle aims to make the health system
fair and equal to everyone in the population, not leaving anyone out.
Thus in identifying priority areas we must look for areas of inequality in:
- Mortality + morbidity rates
- Social, cultural and environmental factors
- Access to resources, information and education
