2016 Australia’s Health Tracker Report on Obesity in Adults

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
PUBLIC HEALTH
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Name of the University:
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1PUBLIC HEALTH
Introduction:
The purpose of the assignment is to provide a brief review on the 2016 Australia’s Health
Tracker report presented by the Australian Health Policy Collaboration. In this regards the report
will outline one of the risk factors, prevalence of the risk factor, burden of disease for the
particular health area in Australia and health policies of Australian government for the particular
risk factor. The chosen risk factor for this assignment is adults who are overweight or obese.
Risk factor:
According to the health statistics of WHO, it has been found that Australia has ranked
third in the prevalence of obesity in adults. It has been found that obesity has the highest impact
on people aged between 60-75 years old (who.int, 2018). The Australian government has
targeted to reduce the prevalence to 61.1% within 2025. The report has shown that the trend is in
the wrong direction and progress is poor against the target (Vu.edu.au, 2018). Risk of severe
disease such as cardiovascular attack, diabetes, respiratory disorders and cancer is high for the
obese people (Müller-Riemenschneider et al., 2013). Thus, it is important to provide adequate
focus to the matter to address the risk factor of obesity in Australia to improve the health status.
Prevalence:
The prevalence of obesity is higher in case of Indigenous people as compare to non-
indigenous people. The statistics provided by the 2016 Australia’s Health Tracker report has
shown that the prevalence of obesity in adults is 63.4% for non-indigenous people whereas the
prevalence is higher that is 71.4% for indigenous people (Vu.edu.au, 2018). Research has
indicated lack of adequate information regarding the proper diet, nutrition and health risk as the
main cause of such disparity in the status of health of indigenous and non-indigenous people