Lifestyle related disease in rural communities in Australia Case Study 2022

Lifestyle related
disease in rural
communities in
Australia

Population group
The study will address the
rural population of Australia.
Australians living in the
rural areas have poor health
than compared to those
living in the metropolitan
cities (Sarich, Ding, Sitas
and Weber 2015).

Description of issue
Poorer health in the rural areas are
consequences of the way of living.
Aboriginal and Torres Islander people
suffer more from chronic diseases (Bell et
al. 2016).
Face challenged when they require
accessing health care services (Quinn,
Massey and Speare 2015).
Risky behavior- smoking, drinking alcohol
Occupational risk- mining work or
accidents that are related to transport.

Social determinants
People from poor social or economic
circumstances suffer from health issues.
Determinants are:
1. Education- Only half population in the inner
regions, outer regions or the remotest area
have completed standard 12.
2. Employment- Lower percentage of people are
employed as no or least access to proper
workplace or work environment (Mactaggart
2016).
3. Income- Lower income but due to the
remoteness of the region have to pay more for
services (Hoare et al. 2019).

Barriers to behavior
change
Education- Less educated thus
have a reluctant attitude towards
change.
Lack of awareness- Are not
aware of the government
measures (Perry, Gallagher and
Duffield 2015).
Environment- Are culture centric
and not in favor of changes.

Interventions
Interventions in the rural areas are:
1. Healthcare staffs visiting remote
areas to promote physical exercise
(Barclay, Phillips and Lyle 2018).
2. Checking on weight gain in
females.
3. Example- Albany Physical Activity
and Nutrition intervention to
encourage people to improve diets
(Macniven et al. 2016).

Critique of interventions
Poorly developed
intervention results in just
wastage of money and
time.
If health services not
provided properly no
advantage to interventions.

References
Sarich, P.E.A., Ding, D., Sitas, F. and Weber, M.F., 2015. Co-occurrence of chronic disease
lifestyle risk factors in middle-aged and older immigrants: A cross-sectional analysis of
264,102 Australians. Preventive medicine, 81, pp.209-215.
Bell, L., Ullah, S., Olds, T., Magarey, A., Leslie, E., Jones, M., Miller, M. and Cobiac, L., 2016.
Prevalence and socio-economic distribution of eating, physical activity and sedentary
behaviour among South Australian children in urban and rural communities: baseline findings
from the OPAL evaluation. Public health, 140, pp.196-205.
Quinn, E.K., Massey, P.D. and Speare, R., 2015. Communicable diseases in rural and remote
Australia: the need for improved understanding and action. Rural and remote health, 15, pp.1-
19.
Mactaggart, F., McDermott, L., Tynan, A. and Gericke, C., 2016. Examining health and well‐
being outcomes associated with mining activity in rural communities of high‐income
countries: A systematic review. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 24(4), pp.230-237.
Hoare, E., Crooks, N., Hayward, J., Allender, S. and Strugnell, C., 2019. Associations between
combined overweight and obesity, lifestyle behavioural risk and quality of life among
Australian regional school children: baseline findings of the Goulburn Valley health behaviours
monitoring study. Health and quality of life outcomes, 17(1), p.16.
Perry, L., Gallagher, R. and Duffield, C., 2015. The health and health behaviours of Australian
metropolitan nurses: an exploratory study. BMC nursing, 14(1), p.45.
Macniven, R., Richards, J., Gubhaju, L., Joshy, G., Bauman, A., Banks, E. and Eades, S., 2016.
Physical activity, healthy lifestyle behaviors, neighborhood environment characteristics and
social support among Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults. Preventive medicine
reports, 3, pp.203-210.
Barclay, L., Phillips, A. and Lyle, D., 2018. Rural and remote health research: does the
investment match the need?. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 26(2), pp.74-79.