Health Issues and Social Determinants of Health in International Teenage Students in Australia

This report discusses the demographic information, health issues, mental health issues, and social determinants of health in international teenage students in Australia. The report highlights the high number of international teenage students in Australia, the health issues they face, including mental health issues, and the social determinants of health that impact their well-being.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Demographic information......................................................................................................................2
Health issues in Teenage International students....................................................................................6
Mental ealt i eh h ssu s..........................................................................................................................7
Social determinants of health (SDoH)...................................................................................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The mobility of the student for studies across borders has been increased in recent
years. Australia becomes the most popular destination for the student from all around the
world. The number of global students increasing continuously each year compared to other
nations. The youth mobilize in Australia from other countries like Vietnam, Republic of
Korea, Malaysia, Brazil, Indonesia, Nepal, India, and China to gain a top quality education.
In the 2011 census, the total population of migrants in Australia was 5.3 million and it is
higher than various counties such as New Zealand, USA and UK (Choudaha, & Chang,
2012). Perth has become the important site for migrants in Australia and it is ranked 7th most
liveable city in 2017 (Murdoch Institute of technology, 2017). From 2001 to 2011 the total
number of migrants living particularly in Perth increased by 51 % (Australia Bureau of
statistics, 2014). Teenage students are the one who left their home country for education; they
are basically the school and college students who take admission in universities for graduate
courses or in schools. In this report, the demographic information of the international teenage
student in Perth & Western Australia, the health issues to that population or community,
social determinants of health will be discussed.
Demographic information
In 2016 Australia has the maximum number of student of international education
seekers in the world and they slip down to the third rank after the US and Britain in the year
2017. Nearly 50 million international students from around 200 nations studied in Australia
in the year 2015. In the first seven months of 2017, nearly 685,000 international students
staggered to study in Australia (Studies in Australia, 2018). According to the Australian
Bureau of statistics, the international students pays high fee in Australian colleges. Nearly

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A$16.8 were collected from international student in 2017, this was only A$4.4 billion before
this years but thanks for the changes in the methodology that took interviews of the students
in the airport lounges which helped to capture their spending pattern and visits from various
countries. These data show that Australia is the strong global competitor in education. The
number of the Chinese student in Australia continuously increasing each year, nearly 137000
was reported in 2015. The Chinese student population contributed nearly 27.3 percent of all
the international students in Australia. After China India contribute 10.8 percent of students
(Smith, & Khawaja, 2011).
It has been also found that the international education helped to get $ 20 billion to the
Australia economy in the year 2015. The student enrolments are heavily concentrated in the
big cities of Australia. According to the federal government data in 2015, the Ballard based
federation universities get the highest number of students enrolments, however, nearly all of
them studied in high rise glass colleges in the Melbourne CBD. There are other six
universities with the high number of enrolments more than 25 %. Only 10 percent of the
students went for the regional areas, while cities like Melbourne and Sydney attracted nearly
65 % of all the international education seekers. After the federation university, Australia
Bond College secured the second rank of having the highest number of foreigner students
with 41.3 %; the University of Melbourne secured the third rank with 31.2 % student
enrolments. In the first few months of 2017 committee for Perth published as data report and
stated that Western Australia (WA) was failed to attract students compare to other cities of
Australia and it faced a decline in student's admissions over the past fifteen years. However
the WA has cost and lifestyle advantages compare to other cities in Australia but yet it had
less number of enrolments (Ryan, 2011). The reason for this lack of interest in WA is not
clear. Chines students are specifically not interested in studying in Perth and nearby areas
(He, Lopez, & Leigh, 2012).

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Figure 1. International student’s enrolments in Australia between 1994-2015 (Sources:
Department of Education and Training, 2016)
The graph provided above shows that from 1994 to 2015 the number of global
students in Australia is increased. The number of students traveled to Australia for higher
education is higher than the student of the school and vocational education. The number of
international students came here for school education fluctuated every year from 2002 to
2015 and were higher in 2015. The green colored boxes are the school students and the dark
blue ones indicated the data of student gained higher education form Australia.
According to the Department of Education and Training in Australia, the number of
students enrolled for school education was nearly 25,762 in 2017. The data shows the
enrolments from the month of January to December (Findlay, King, Smith, Geddes, &
Skeldon, 2012).

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Figure 2. International Student Data 2017; Monthly time series of flow and year to date
of students enrolments- School (Sources: Department of Education and Training, 2009)
The number of foreigner students enrolled for higher education was 350, 472. The
total number of students enrolled for graduation is increased in July month. It was lowest in
January and increased slowly from March to June. Department of Education and Training
reported that till June 2018, nearly 645,064 international students were enrolled for
schooling, higher education, VET schools, ELICOS (English language intensive courses for
overseas students and Non-award sectors (Study in Australia (2018). Among all the students,
nearly 50 % enrolled for higher education (Department of Education and training, 2018)

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Figure 3. International Student Data 2017; Monthly time series flow and year to date of
students enrolments- Higher education (Sources: Department of education and training, 2009)
Health issues in Teenage International students
The students studying and living in Australia may often have to adopt a new culture
and the way of living is far different from their native country. Adapting to the new
environment and culture is quite difficult and the student may face health issues especially
the teenagers. These students are the school students or the first year college students who left
their family and home country for the first time. Therefore adapting to the new eating habits
and the environment is not that easy for them. Although everyone experiences sickness from
time to time some of the student’s faces lots of health issues. Sexual health is one of the main

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health issue raised among the international teenage students in Australia, especially in cities
like Perth, New South Wales (NSW), Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania. The
students are advised to used contra septic pills and other protections while having sex to be
safe from sexually transmittable diseases. Anxiety and stress might be there for the students
came to Australia for study. Various studies have been reported the sleep deprivation causes a
weak immune system and making the person more susceptible to a range of health problems.
Lack of exercise is another issue in teenage students (World Health Organisation, 2018).
Exercising and eating healthy food lowers the stress level. Other health issues the
international teenage students are facing includes skin infection like itching, dry skin and
rashes due to change of environment (Hussain, Guppy, Robertson, & Temple, 2013), upper
respiratory tract problems like flu and common cold due to bacterial or viral infections
(Falagas, Karamanidou, Kastoris, Karlis, & Rafailidis, 2010), and the chronic disorder like
diabetes and asthma might be caused which requires a specific health management plan.
Mental health issues
The students with anxiety and stress are advised to sleep as many college students
face sleep deprivation because they sleep late (Joyce, Earnest, De Mori, & Salvaging, 2010).
The stress and anxiety can worsen or results in many other medical conditions such as
diabetes, asthma, obesity, and mental health disorder (Perren, Dooley, Shaw, & Cross, 2010).
Mental illness is become the most common issue in young people aged 18 to 24 years. Stress
and anxiety found to be the most common issues in international teenage students in
Australia. Having severe anxiety and stress in adolescent is a predictor of having it in the
coming future. Anxiety is the common issues but became severe if not treated with care and
effective methods. The teenage student comes to gain education and face lots of issues related
to the all-new education system and exam patterns. When they feel inability to cope with the
situation they feel stress and anxiety. These two psychological issues may lead it because

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suicide attempts as they do not find any help. However Australian government has started
various programs and helpline number to help these students to cope with stressful events.
According to a study published by University of technology Sydney (2015), the Chinese
students face higher levels of stress and anxiety than the Australian students (Bertram,
Poulakis, Elsasser, & Kumar, 2014). When the young people do not get the mental health
support, they experienced many challenges like homelessness, and loneliness (Baker, 2018).
Older teenagers are more likely to develop symptom of mental illness like psychological
distress in indigenous Australian. According to a survey conducted named mission Australia
2016 youth survey it was found that nearly 22.8 % youth aged 15 to 19 shows the sign &
symptoms of serious mental illness in Perth and WA. The main stressors for school teens
includes coping with the stress, school and study issues and depression. Other most common
notable causes are bullying (Perren, Dooley, Shaw, & Cross, 2010), family conflicts and
suicidal thoughts. The teenage girls are more likely to develop these issues than boys (Pearce,
2017). According to a study conducted y black dog institute it was found that most common
mental disorder in young minds are anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
and conduct disorder.

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i re ear mental ealt di order pre alence accordin to di order t pe and a e e o rceF gu 4. 1 y h h s v g s y g & s x, 2013-2014 (S u :
A tralian n tit te o ealt and el areus I s u f H h W f , 2016)
Social determinants of health (SDoH)
Social determinants are the factors that impact a person's life negatively. The student
left their home or family for the first time may face health issues discussed above. Various
social factors are responsible to cause health condition for the education seekers. Student
form developing country face lots of economic issues because they have to spend a lot of
money on education. This may cause stress and anxiety (Gomes, Berry, Alzougool, & Chang,
2014). The tuition fee is much higher than the universities of their home country. Therefore
economic crisis may cause psychological health issues. Living in a new culture is always
difficult for people, especially teenagers who do not have any experience of living on their
own. Homesickness is another social determinates of health that might be occurring. The
student's visits to other countries often suffer from this issue (Obeng-Odoom, 2012). Another
social determinant is lack of socialization, the students enrolled in universities not very social
to the native people as they feel fear and hesitation due to cultural difference and language
barriers. Racism or discrimination is the stressor that has been reported to impact a person's

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psychological or mental and physical health. Various studies have been conducted on the
mental health of students, and it was concluded the mental health of people declines due if
racism increased. Australia is the destination for the students from every part of the world.
Especially the Chinese and Indians came here in high numbers. They may face racism-related
issues by some native groups. The teenager student is not very strong to face such issues.
Therefore handling such problems is difficult for them. According to a report on teenagers
from seventy-two countries published in ABC news identified a range of factors such as
exam anxiety, deadlines (Thomson, 2011), social pressure and emotionally remote teacher
and parents. It was also found that to third of the students felt stressed for their performance
at the schools (Wynaden, Wichmann, & Murray, 2013).

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Conclusion
The students from different parts of the world enrolled in various cities of Australia
for top quality education. Australia became the most popular destination for the teenage
student to confuse their education. The number of international teenage students has been
increased in past few years. The international teenage students are the one with 14 to 20 years
of age who travel from their home country to other countries for the first time. The
demographic information shows the high number of teenage student’s enrolments in
Australia cities like Perth CBD and WA. In 2016 Australia ranked number one for having
highest enrolments. They slipped to 3rd position in 2017 with the admissions of 685,000
students. Most of the student came here to study are from China India. In 2015 nearly 137000
students reported to enrolled for study in Australia. There are various health issue has been
reported among the students like sexual health problems, Anxiety, stress, skin issues, upper
respiratory infection, diabetes, sleep deprivation, asthma, obesity, and mental health. Among
all the health condition stress and anxiety are the most common problems. The social
determinants of health are homesickness, feeling, alone, lack of socialization, racism,
bullying, and lack of ability to cope with stress.

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