NHPA and Social Determinant of Health of Australia

Running head: NHPA AND SOCIAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
NATIONAL HEALTH PRIORITY AREAS AND SOCIAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH OF
AUSTRALIA
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1NHPA AND SOCIAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Introduction
The aim of the paper is to examine the Australian’s national health priority with focusing
on the heart disease. Which says that people of Australia are facing 9 different health disease that
has overburden the whole community. Further the paper has highlighted the social determinant
of health of Australian people and reflect that people from remote areas are more likely to get
severe health issues.
Australia’s National health priorities
There are many illnesses in the society and community that lead to overburdening them.
National Health Priority Areas are the responsible body to take initiative to focus on public issue
and health policy. It the collaborative association that tends to include commonwealth and state
and territory government. There are total 9 National Health Priority Areas in Australia, each of
them are the reason for the high death rate in Australian (Tolhurst 2015). Those areas are injury
prevention, asthma, heart disease, arthritis and musculoskeletal condition, mental health,
dementia, diabetes mellitus, obesity and cancer. The major focus of this paper is on
cardiovascular diseases.
National Health Priority Areas- Cardiovascular disease.
Background
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the issue that effect the heart and circulation system. It
leads to other health issue like high blood pressure, heart attack, heart failure, coronary arrest and
peripheral vascular disease. It has been reported in year 2006-2007 that out of six persons one
person is facing problem of heart disease in Australia (Harrison et al 2013). In the year 2017, the
mortality rate due to cardiovascular disease is 33.3% (Lam et al 2015). In looking into the recent

2NHPA AND SOCIAL DETERMINANT OF HEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
statistic of death rate due to heart disease it is attributed that, total of 18590 Australian have died
in 2017. 15% of Australian people died every next day from heart problem in 2017, which can be
related as every 28 minute, people dies due to heart illness (Bener et al 2013). Major problem of
CVD occurs in aboriginal peoples and Torres strait islander who live in remote areas. This is the
major reason to include this disease in National Health Priority Areas.
Major cause of the disease
Australian people take high fat and high sodium diet that has increased the risk for CVD
in them. It has estimated that over 400,000 people are affected with heart issue and encounter
heart attack (Dumbrell and Steele 2013). Other reason for the concern are low exercise, different
lifestyle and work environment majorly they have sedentary job, stress and genetic cause.
Health management by NHPA
NHPA implemented various program that focus on reducing the rate of heart disease in
Australia. Such programs and scheme are as follows
 Medicare Benefit Schedule, gives supports to patients by providing subsidies on
treatment of chronic disease.
 Pharmaceuticals Benefit Scheme- They provide subsidies on medicine for CVD.
 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the funding body that invest
on diagnosis and treatment of CVD, through investigation of their cause and effect, in
addition to give care to person undergoing CVD (Woodruffe et al 2015).