Core 1. Health Priorities In Australia
CQ1. How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified?
Using Epidemiology to Measure Health Status
● Health status (overall wellness of a population)
● Epidemiology
○ study of patterns of disease within a population
○ provides insight into the health issues affecting a country
○ utilised by the government and other health organisations to answer the
inquiries:
■ What issues affect the population the most?
■ Are there health inequalities between groups?
■ Where should resources be directed? (e.g CVD is quite common, however
affect more ATSI individuals, hence resources should be targeted at them)
■ limitations like its inability to answer why these specific disease affects a
population, doesn't take into account the determinants of health or
quality of life as well as the other dimensions of health
● Prevalence and Incidence
○ types of data that can be collected for epidemiology
○ prevalence- number of existing cases of a disease within a population at a specific
time
○ incidence- amount of new cases of a disease occurring within a certain time frame
● Measures
○ morbidity
■ number of cases of a particular disease within a population
■ e.g the number of obesity in Australia is increasing
■ conditions with a high morbidity affect a large portion of the community,
hence the government and health organisations will prioritise them
○ mortality
■ number of deaths within a population over a period of time
■ e.g lung cancer mortality rates are decreasing for males but increasing for
females
■ conditions with a high or rapidly increasing mortality rates takes the lives
of a large sum of the population, hence they become a priority
○ infant mortality
■ number of deaths among children under the age of 1 (per 1000 live births
per year) within a population over a period of time
■ e.g infant mortality in Australia is decreasing and already quite low which
suggests improvement of medical diagnosis of illnesses and public
sanitation and better health education and support services for parents
○ life expectancy
■ average number of years an individual is expected to live
CQ1. How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified?
Using Epidemiology to Measure Health Status
● Health status (overall wellness of a population)
● Epidemiology
○ study of patterns of disease within a population
○ provides insight into the health issues affecting a country
○ utilised by the government and other health organisations to answer the
inquiries:
■ What issues affect the population the most?
■ Are there health inequalities between groups?
■ Where should resources be directed? (e.g CVD is quite common, however
affect more ATSI individuals, hence resources should be targeted at them)
■ limitations like its inability to answer why these specific disease affects a
population, doesn't take into account the determinants of health or
quality of life as well as the other dimensions of health
● Prevalence and Incidence
○ types of data that can be collected for epidemiology
○ prevalence- number of existing cases of a disease within a population at a specific
time
○ incidence- amount of new cases of a disease occurring within a certain time frame
● Measures
○ morbidity
■ number of cases of a particular disease within a population
■ e.g the number of obesity in Australia is increasing
■ conditions with a high morbidity affect a large portion of the community,
hence the government and health organisations will prioritise them
○ mortality
■ number of deaths within a population over a period of time
■ e.g lung cancer mortality rates are decreasing for males but increasing for
females
■ conditions with a high or rapidly increasing mortality rates takes the lives
of a large sum of the population, hence they become a priority
○ infant mortality
■ number of deaths among children under the age of 1 (per 1000 live births
per year) within a population over a period of time
■ e.g infant mortality in Australia is decreasing and already quite low which
suggests improvement of medical diagnosis of illnesses and public
sanitation and better health education and support services for parents
○ life expectancy
■ average number of years an individual is expected to live
