Inequity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in Cardiovascular Disease

Health and Society
Assessment 3
Extended ResponseTemplate
Using you health issue from assessment item 2:
Answer all of the three questions below based upon this one health issue.
(cardio vascular disease)
Each extended response should be approximately 500 words in length each.
The reference list for all three extended response should be provided under the
references heading of this template.

Question 1
Discuss two different reasons for inequity between Indigenous Australians and
non-Indigenous Australians in relation to your identified health issue. (cardio
vascular disease)
In Australia, the problem of cardiovascular disease is one of the major contributor
of the overall disease burden of the country and from the report, it is observed that,
almost 12% of total disease burden is contributed by this cardiovascular disease.
The main reason of higher prevalence rate of cardiovascular disease among
indigenous Australians than that of the non-indigenous Australians.
One of the primary reason of higher prevalence rate of cardiovascular disease
among the indigenous people is lack of healthy lifestyle among that population
group. According to the traditional aboriginal lifestyle, they gather their required
daily expenditure by hunting and it is quite evident that, as a result they have not
adequate nutrition from their foods. Moreover, it is also reported that, the smoking
behavior is also very common among the aboriginal people of Australia than that
of the non-indigenous people and it is quite evident that, smoking is one of the
primary risk factors of cardiovascular disease. In 2012-13, it is reported that 42%
of indigenous people in the age group of 15 years and more has daily smoking
behavior and it is 2.6 times greater than that of the non-indigenous people of
Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2015). Not only, this smoking
behavior, but the consumption of alcohol is also higher among the indigenous
Australians than that of their non-indigenous counterpart. Such kind of unhealthy
life style behavior among the indigenous people are also promoting the risk factors
of cardiovascular disease among the indigenous people. Aboriginal people
generally live in their traditional lands and lead their lifestyle in their own traditional
manner. According to the report of Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(2016), it is reported that, the tobacco smoking is one of the major risk developing
factors of cardiovascular disease among indigenous Australian. In 2012-13, it is
reported that, overall 44% of indigenous were current smokers and among them
2% were weekly and 42% were daily smokers (Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare 2016). Lack of proper healthy diet sue to the poor economic condition of
the indigenous people is another contributing factor of developing cardiovascular
problems among indigenous people of Australia. Moreover, in various studies, it is
observed that, maintenance of healthy diet can improve the cardiovascular
problems. In addition to this, another reason of health inequality among
indigenous people than that of the non-indigenous is that the indigenous people
are generally living in a very remote location and as a result they have not access
adequate health care services in their location. In addition to this problem of
remoteness, it is also reported that due to their remote location, the unemployment
rate was also very high among the indigenous people and this factor also
contribute in restriction of taking healthy diet as a part of their healthy living
behavior (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2015).
Hence it can be concluded that, these two are the major contributor of inequality in
between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.