Determinants Of Health

Running Head: Determinants Of Health
DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

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Determinants Of Health
Executive summary
In this report, different environmental hazard that is impacting on the health of Melbourne
house dwellers is analyzed. Hazards like infections and fire are evaluated that are common in
the overcrowded apartments of this city of Australia. Impact of these hazards on health of
humans is analyzed and mechanism of impact is described in a detailed way. Moreover,
overall assessment of the level of health risk is done in this report by the help of different
frameworks. Risk management plan is done by providing some recommendations to public,
government and other stakeholders like construction companies. In addition, communication
plan of these recommendations is also discussed in this report.

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Determinants Of Health
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Findings and analysis.................................................................................................................4
1. Identification and description of two health hazards related to inner-city apartments that
are poorly-constructed and overcrowded...............................................................................4
2. Impact of identified hazards on health...............................................................................6
3. Identification of the overall level of risk............................................................................8
4. Recommendations and communication plan....................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................16
Appendices...............................................................................................................................20

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Determinants Of Health
Introduction
Health determinants refer to factors that affect the health of a population or individuals. Poor
living conditions of Melbourne inner city apartments have poor living conditions that cause
different health hazards. Recent fire incident in Lacrosse tower is the biggest evidence of this
problem. In this report, discussion about health hazards and identification of overall risk has
been done. Recommendations are given that can help to eliminate these risks in future.
Findings and analysis
1. Identification and description of two health hazards related to inner-city apartments
that are poorly-constructed and overcrowded
People, who lived in poorly constructed and overcrowded housing apartment, often face
health hazards and these hazards impact on their health. Infection and fire risks are two
common health hazards that arise in poor living conditions. In Melbourne, illegal rooming
practice is increasing day by day and this condition is leading to emergence of these kinds of
health hazards. According to World Health Organization (WHO), interaction between health
determinants influences distribution of public health issues (Who.int, 2019). These
determinants of health include social environment, physical environment, economic
environment and characteristics as well as behavior of individuals. Workers and Asian
students are reaching Melbourne and living in unhealthy over-crowded apartments
(Health.wa.gov.au, 2006). This situation is giving birth to health hazards such as infection
and fire risks.
Infection hazards arise from living in poorly constructed and overcrowded housing
complexes (Whiley et al. 2018). In Melbourne, this kind of housing apartments is being
developed for allowing a large number of people to live. However, these people are facing

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infection risks due to poor physical environment. As opined by Dow (2015), different persons
are using a single bed at different time of the day. More than 15 students are living in 2BHK
apartments for living at cheaper expense in Melbourne. This kind of practice is leading to
rising of infection risks and this risk has a high impact on the health of human beings. Living
in this physical environment allow spreading of communicable disease and infections. Due to
poor economic conditions, Asian students and workers are choosing this kind of living
practice without understanding impact of infection risk on their wellbeing. On the other hand,
Cunningham & Fox Koob (2019) have mentioned that approximately 10 beds are being
placed in two-room flats and this overcrowded environment may influence rising of infection
risks. Apparently, infections are spreading in the entire population of Melbourne due to this
unhealthy living practice. In addition, family members of these students and workers can be
infected when they return to their home.
Overcrowding and poor construction of housing apartments give rise to fire risk and this risk
has a high impact on health of people. Real estate companies are building unhealthy
apartments for gaining maximum financial advantages. They are trying to fit maximum
people within small area for their own benefits. Most of the real estate companies are using
flammable housing claddings to ensure attractive outlook of their buildings. As mentioned by
Clay (2015), leading architects have agreed that poor construction of housing apartment is
taking place in Melbourne and this aspect is harmful to both individuals and society. Many
cases of fire accidents have taken place and most of the cases have taken place in poorly
constructed as well as overcrowded houses. Fire incident of lacrosse apartment tower has
been in the limelight in 2015 (Vedelago & Houston, 2015). After this incident, proper
investigation has been done and it has been found that a large number of people were living
awfully in that apartment and poor construction of this overcrowded apartment have
influenced the occurrence of fire incident. It has been found that reason behind fire was

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discarding cigarette at balcony, where combustible materials were stored. This incident has
shed light on interaction between two health determinants such as education and physical
environment. As contradicted by Giles-Corti, Ryan & Foster (2012), people living in this
kind of unhealthy conditions are unable to maintain healthy physical environment despite
being educated enough.
2. Impact of identified hazards on health
Infection hazard has significant impact on health, which spreads due to overcrowding.
Infections in overcrowded locations like inner city of Melbourne spread through the
mechanism of direct or indirect contact. As stated by Cunningham & Fox Koob (2019), 10
beds are adjusted in a two bedroom apartment. This assessment process can be done by a
framework that contains three elements, which includes screening, scoping and assessment.
Screening of infectious hazard can help to find the probable impacts it has on the health of
humans. Communicable disease and infection spread through sneezing, coughing and through
contact with blood. In an overcrowded area, waste disposal and water supply are inadequate.
This acts as a mechanism in spreading viral fevers. In the high rises of Melbourne, beds are
used in shifts by different overseas students and migrant workers (Dow, 2015). This is
increasing the risk of different infectious hazards. Different agents like mosquitoes spread
this infectious virus among humans that impact on the health (Krieger & Higgins, 2002).
Scoping is another element of the selected framework that can help to identify the boundary
of this hazard. People with poor economic background like workers and migrants generally
live on those overcrowded regions and gets affected by infectious diseases. Assessment is
another essential part of the selected framework. Different health determinants like poor
social support, nutrition and health services act as a mechanism to spread virus infections that
causes impact on health of poor or backward people. Different infectious diseases like