This essay discusses the three primary health issues in Australia: cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mental disorders. It highlights their significance, impact, cultural, economic and social influencing factors, and major interventions and action plans.
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Running head: MAJOR HEALTH ISSUES IN AUSTRALIA Major Health Issues in Australia Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
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1MAJOR HEALTH ISSUES IN AUSTRALIA In Australia, there are a number of chronic disease that are becoming more popular in Australian population due to the increasing age of the population and as a result, the total number of population is also increasing.The most common chronic diseases in Australia are cancer, mentaldisorders,cardiovasculardiseases,respiratorydiseases,mentalhealthissues, musculoskeletal disorders, and other health issues.Among them, Cancer is the most common health issues causing 19% of total health issue burden ("Cancer in Australia statistics | Cancer Australia", 2018). After Cancer, cardiovascular disease, mainly stroke and heart disease, in the second position. Along with this, mental health issues are in the third position in overall disease burden in Australia. In this essay, the three primary health issues that is cancer, cardiovascular disease and mental disorders, are discussed. In addition to this, the significance, impact, cultural, economic and social influencing factors of the diseases are highlighted. Moreover, major interventions and action plans are described in Brief manner. Cancer is a major concern for Australian population. According to the report of 2014, 127,887 cancer patient was detected and among them 69,945 were male and 57,942 were female. In 2018, it is estimated that, 138231 cases of cancer will be diagnosed and among them 74644 will be male and 63676 will be female. The death cases due to cancer in 2016 were 45782 and the male mortality rate is higher than that of the female mortality rate. In , 2018 the figure will touch the 48,586 deaths (approx.). The age-standardized mortality rate in 2016 was 159/100,000 persons (198 males and 128 females) which was lower than that of the 2014 ( 484 cases/100,000) ("Cancer in Australia statistics | Cancer Australia", 2018). From the data, it is seen that, the male population are mainly affected by the cancer and death rate is also higher in the male population. It is seen that, lower socioeconomic population, who are living in rural and remote location, have lower survival rate in cancer (Tervonen et al., 2017). In Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres
2MAJOR HEALTH ISSUES IN AUSTRALIA Strait Islander peoples have higher suffering mortality rate in cancer than the non-indigenous Australian and it is associated with bad social practice. For example, practice of tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption is directly associated with lung cancer (Aranda, 2018). Health department of Australia give funds for prevention and detection of cancer by enhancing screening programs, supports are given to the cancer patients and also to the health care persons who are involved in cancer treatment. In order to reduce the cancer cases, more awareness programme should be conducted in rural areas to educate the people about the disease. Cancer Australia, Australian institute of Health and Welfare, National Health and Medical Research Council are mainly associated with the cancer treatment and various awareness programs ("Department of Health | Cancer control", 2018). In Australia, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is second common major health issues and it includes various diseases related to heart and blood vessels for example heart failure, stroke, cardiomyopathy. According to a report of Department of Health, in Australia , almost 4.2 million of people had complained about the CVD in 2014-15 and among them almost 1.2 million have heart disease and stroke.In addition to this, 2.6 million ( approx.) had the problem of hypertension. In 2015, 29% Australian had died due to CVD (Health.gov.au, 2018). The impact ofCVDishigheronthemale,elderlypopulations,indigenouspopulations.Indigenous Australian have the double mortality rate than that of the non-indigenous populations. It is estimated that almost 69000 Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal were affected with CVD in 2014-15. The lower socioeconomic group of people have 43% more death rate than that of the higher socioeconomic population(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). Government of Australia provides subsidies medicine of CVD, launches Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme for the CVD patients. To detect the CVD in early stages, health assessment items are also available
3MAJOR HEALTH ISSUES IN AUSTRALIA for the people of various age group who can mostly be affected by CVD. Indigenous population also get the same facilities like non-indigenous Australian. Moreover, funds are provided to various foundation for more research about the disease. Awareness programme can be launched to educate people about this disease (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). Mental illness is quite common health issues in world and Australia is not completely different from the world. In Australia mental illness is seen among all type of population for example children are also affected along with adult population. Almost 7.3 million people in Australia are suffering from mental illness and they are in the age group of 16-85. In case of children ( age group 4 years to 17 years) the number is almost 560,000 in 2012-13 time period. According to the report ofMental Health Services in Australia, 1 out of 5 was suffering from commonmentaldisorderandtheestimationisbasedontheamountof2016 population( estimated)("Mental Health - 2018", 2018). Among them, the most common mental disorder is anxiety disorder ( 14.4%). It is seen that, adolescent and child male have higher suffering rate ( 16.3%) than that of the females (11.5%) ("Mental health services in Australia, Prevalence and policies - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare", 2018). Mental illness is stimulated by the lower socioeconomic condition. It is seen that, a specific population group are mostly affected by the illness due to their lower socio economic status. In a study by Nasir et al. ( 2018) indigenous population have higher rate of mental illness than that of the non- indigenous Australian population. Indigenous people who are living in traditional lands have lower suffering rateduetotheirculturalpracticesthanthosewhoarelivinginurbanarea.Australian Governmentreleased funds for addressing this issue and National Mental Health Plan was also framed to reduce the impact of the disease. ("Mental health services in Australia, Prevalence and policies - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare", 2018).
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4MAJOR HEALTH ISSUES IN AUSTRALIA Lastly, it can be concluded that Australia is in front of serious threat due the major health issues in the population. It is quite evident that, the indigenous population are at higher risk zone than that of the non-indigenous Australian due to their socioeconomic condition. However, non- indigenous population are not in complete safe zone at all.However, Government has taken severalmeasures to reduce the prevalence of those diseases. Moreover, people should be more aware of those diseases to combat against adverse conditions.
5MAJOR HEALTH ISSUES IN AUSTRALIA References Aranda,S.(2018).[online]Cancer.org.au.Availableat: https://www.cancer.org.au/content/pdf/CancerControlPolicy/Submissions/ Social_and_Cultural_Determinants_of_Indigenou_%20Health.pdf[Accessed23Oct. 2018]. CancerinAustraliastatistics|CancerAustralia.(2018).Retrievedfrom https://canceraustralia.gov.au/affected-cancer/what-cancer/cancer-australia-statistics DepartmentofHealth|Cancercontrol.(2018).Retrievedfrom http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/cancer-control Health.gov.au. (2018).Department of Health | Cardiovascular disease. [online] Available at: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/chronic-cardio[Accessed 24 Oct. 2018]. Health.gov.au. (2018).Department of Health | Cardiovascular disease. [online] Available at: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/chronic-cardio[Accessed 24 Oct. 2018]. MentalHealth-2018.(2018).AustralianMedicalAssociation.Retrievedfrom https://ama.com.au/position-statement/mental-health-2018 Mental health services in Australia, Prevalence and policies - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.(2018).Retrievedfromhttps://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mental-health- services/mental-health-services-in-australia/report-contents/summary/prevalence-and- policies
6MAJOR HEALTH ISSUES IN AUSTRALIA Nasir, B. F., Toombs, M. R., Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan, S., Kisely, S., Gill, N. S., Black, E., ... & Nicholson, G. C. (2018). Common mental disorders among Indigenous people living in regional, remote and metropolitan Australia: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open,8(6), e020196. Tervonen, H. E., Aranda, S., Roder, D., You, H., Walton, R., Morrell, S., ... & Currow, D. C. (2017). Cancer survival disparities worsening by socio-economic disadvantage over the last 3 decades in new South Wales, Australia.BMC public health,17(1), 691.