Bowel Cancer in Australia: Priority for Healthcare Industry

This article discusses the priority of bowel cancer in the Australian healthcare industry and explores a health promotion program called 'Bowel Cancer Awareness Month'. It examines the key features of the program, how it demonstrates the principles of primary healthcare, the strategies used, and recommendations for improvement.

NUR121 health, Culture and Society Task 3: Workbook 40%
Name the health issue: Bowel Cancer in Australia
1. Why is the issue a priority for the Australian healthcare industry? (100 words)
The third largest diagnosis among cancer in Australia was bowel cancer in 2015. It is likely
to stay as third most frequently diagnosed cancer in 2019 as well. In 2015, in Australia,
15,604 fresh incidents (8,573 men and 7,031 women) were identified with bowel disease.
In 2019, 16,398 fresh bowel cancer incidents (9,069 men and 7,329 women) are expected
to be identified in Australia (Bowel-cancer.canceraustralia.gov.au 2019). It is projected
that in2019, one in 14 (1 out of 12 men and 1 out of 17 women) will be at risk of diagnosis
of bowel disease by their 85th birthday. The most frequent cause of cancer mortality in
Australia in 2016 was bowel cancer and it is likely to stay as the second most prevalent
cause of cancer mortality in 2019 as well (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,
2019). In 2016, Australia had 5,375 fatalities (2,936 men and 2,439 women) from bowel
cancer. In 2019, 5,597 fatalities (3,009 men and 2,588 women) are projected
(Bowelcanceratlas.org 2019). In 2019, the threat of a bowel cancer death is projected to
be 1 per 43 (1 out of 37 men and 1 out of 51 women) before their 85th birthday (Bowel-
cancer.canceraustralia.gov.au 2019).
References:
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019. Cancer in Aboriginal & Torres Strait
Islander people of Australia, Colorectal cancer (C18–C20) - Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Available at:
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/can/109/cancer-in-indigenous-australians/contents/
cancer-type/colorectal-cancer [Accessed 26 May 2019].
Bowel-cancer.canceraustralia.gov.au 2019. Bowel cancer statistics | Bowel cancer. Bowel-
cancer.canceraustralia.gov.au. Available at:
https://bowel-cancer.canceraustralia.gov.au/statistics [Accessed 26 May 2019].
Bowelcanceratlas.org 2019. InstantAtlas™ Report. Bowelcanceratlas.org. Available at:
http://www.bowelcanceratlas.org/ [Accessed 26 May 2019].
2. Describe the health promotion program and discuss the key features that are used to
address the health issue? (400 words).
The Health promotion program that will be discussed here is the ‘Bowel Cancer
Awareness Month’. This health promotion program includes ‘Red Apple Day’; hence, it
will be discussed in this context as well (Bowelcanceraustralia.org 2019). June is Bowel
Cancer Awareness Month, a bowel cancer project by Bowel Cancer Australia to increase
awareness about the second fatal cancer of Australia and collect money for the largest
community funded charitable organization devoted to bowel cancer prevention, early
detection, study and quality care. A feature of the Bowel Cancer Awareness Month is Red
Apple Day ( occurs on Wednesday, June 19, 2019), which encourages Australians to
promote Bowel Cancer Australia's essential activity by acquiring the Bowel Cancer
Sensitivity Ribbon and by implementing themed funding raises (Bowelcanceraustralia.org
2019). Bowel Cancer Australia was made up of a tiny group of experts who concentrated

not only on the cured clients but on all Australians for a stronger health future. They
worked together to create a charitable organization recognized as Bowel Cancer Australia
in 2000, which was the only domestic organization devoted to increasing awareness and
financing studies on bowel cancer. The program promotes that only by enhanced
financing for research increasing awareness of the illness, and promoting individuals to
test for the condition could Australians actually see a decrease in the alarming level of
death from the illness in the education program health practitioners engaged in bowel
cancer testing and treatments (Bowelcanceraustralia.org 2019). Bowel Cancer Australia
has risen to be the major community based charitable agency to help everyone impacted
by early detection, bowel cancer prevention, study, quality of therapy and care. Bowel
Cancer Australia offers vital programs in all Australian countries and territories, and
significant partnerships around the globe. The apple logo of Bowel Cancer Australia is a
symbolic symbol for the message of the organization on bowel cancer. The Bowel Cancer
Australia logo appears as a human bowel abstract. A bug is triggered by the tiny wedge in
the apple. The worm cannot proceed to affect the fruit or tree's health if identified
prematurely and deleted (Bowelcanceraustralia.org 2019). With individuals, it's the same.
Bowel cancer can be identified soon, which implies that patients and relatives can live
their good lives. It can also be handled effectively. A nutritious source of food fiber is also
red and green fruits.
References:
Bowelcanceraustralia.org 2019. Our Work - Bowel Cancer Australia. [online]
Bowelcanceraustralia.org. Available at: https://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/our-work
[Accessed 26 May 2019].
Bowelcanceraustralia.org 2019. Bowel Cancer Awareness Month - Buy a Bowel Cancer
Awareness Ribbon. Bowelcanceraustralia.org. Available at:
https://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/bowel-cancer-awareness-
month#BowelCancerAwarenessMonth [Accessed 26 May 2019].
Bowelcanceraustralia.org 2019. Bowel Cancer Awareness Month - Buy a Bowel Cancer
Awareness Ribbon. Bowelcanceraustralia.org. Available at:
https://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/bowel-cancer-awareness-month#RedAppleDay
[Accessed 26 May 2019].
3. How does the program demonstrate the principles of primary healthcare? (400 words)
World Health Organization have recommended that any health promotional plan should
be based on the primary health care principles(Lee 2015). According to the Ottawa
Charter there are five principles of primary health care. These five principles are
Accessibility, Public or community participation, health promotion, inter- sectoral
collaboration and appropriate use of technology(Lee 2015). This health promotional
program ‘Bowel Cancer Awareness Month’ also uses this principles to while implementing
the strategies of the ‘Bowel Cancer Awareness Month’. One of the primary measurement
of this health promotional program is to increase the accessibility of the health care
facilities for the people who are suffering from bowel cancer. For this purpose, this
promotional program plans and acts on the initiative to increase more accessibility to the

community people living in the remote area as it has been found that the people living in
the remote area suffers from the health issues due to the lack of accessibility to the
health care facility. Another principles of the primary health care service is the community
or public participation (George et al. 2015). In this regard, ‘Bowel Cancer Awareness
Month’ also works in accordance with these principles. One of the key approach of this
promotional program is to work with the participation of the target community and to
involve the primary stakeholders or the community people in this program. According to
the Ottawa charter, the health promotion involves the aspect of the shelter,peace,
food,education, sustainable resources,income, equity, and social justice. ‘Bowel Cancer
Awareness Month’ health promotional program aim to improve and enhance the
conditions or parameters of the education, equity, awareness and accessibility of the
common Australian people (Thompson, Watson and Tilford 2018). For example, one of
the key focus area of this health promotional program is to increase the awareness and
educate the people about bowel cancer by providing free resources with regard to the
bowel cancer. However, there have been struggles in order to achieve efficient promotion
of healthcare are recognized as an exemplary designs of extensive public health
care center. They typically have no knowledge in developing solid assessments or
prepared access to instruments to assess operations in the area of health promotion. If
assessments are not carried out or are not performed properly, this will affect the efficacy
of this health promotional program (Hou 2014).
References:
George, A.S., Mehra, V., Scott, K. and Sriram, V., 2015. Community participation in health
systems research: a systematic review assessing the state of research, the nature of
interventions involved and the features of engagement with communities. PLoS
One, 10(10), p.e0141091.
Hou, S.I., 2014. Health education: theoretical concepts, effective strategies and core
competencies. Health promotion practice, 15(5), pp.619-621.
Lee, M.S., 2015. The principles and values of health promotion: building upon the Ottawa
charter and related WHO documents. Korean Journal of Health Education and
Promotion, 32(4), pp.1-11.
Thompson, S.R., Watson, M.C. and Tilford, S., 2018. The Ottawa Charter 30 years on: still
an important standard for health promotion. International Journal of Health Promotion
and Education, 56(2), pp.73-84.
4. What health promotion strategies are used by the program and how are the principles
of health promotion applied in their strategies? (400 words)
There are various strategies which are being used by this health promotional program.
One of the primary health promotional principle is to provide adequate amount
education and awareness information to the affected individuals and this health
promotional campaign’s primary goal is to increase awareness about the second most

fatal cancer of Australia and collect money for the largest community funded charitable
organization devoted to bowel cancer prevention, early detection, study and quality care
(Kilaru et al. 2014). Another primary health care principle is to reduce the inequity in
health among the community member and to provide equal accessibility to the every
member of the community. To achieve that this health promotional campaign has been
released a Bowel cancer app. In today’s digital era almost every own a smartphone and
through this app this health promotional campaign can reach to maximum number of
individual in a very short time frame (Bowelcanceraustralia.org, 2019). Thus, this health
promotional campaign abides by the accessibility part of the primary health care
principle. Another primary health care principle is accessibility of the medical service to
everyone particularly people living in remote area. In this context as well this Bowel
cancer app help reach this promotional plan in the remote area where conducting
physical awareness program might be financial burdensome to the organization
(Bowelcanceraustralia.org, 2019). In order to determine the project policies, community
participation and contribution can be influential and it should be implemented. Hence it
can be seen that this health promotional program is focused on involving the community
stakeholders in the program for the better infiltration and efficacy. Another aspect of the
primary health care promotional principle is the involvement of the primary stakeholders
in the promotional campaign which are the individuals in the community in this context.
This Bowel cancer awareness health promotional campaign has also been working in this
regard. They have conducted various interactive program like ‘Big Bowel Tour’ which
gives the primary stakeholder a detailed and hands on experience on the sigh, symptoms
and effect of bowel cancer. Studies have suggested that the audio visual technique is far
more effective while delivering a message, hence, this particularly effective in this regard
(Powell et al. 2017).
References:
Bowelcanceraustralia.org (2019). Bowel Cancer App - Comprehensive Bowel Cancer
Resource. [online] Bowelcanceraustralia.org. Available at:
https://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/bowel-cancer-app [Accessed 26 May 2019].
Kilaru, A.S., Asch, D.A., Sellers, A. and Merchant, R.M., 2014. Promoting public health
through public art in the digital age. American journal of public health, 104(9), pp.1633-
1635.
Powell, B.J., Beidas, R.S., Lewis, C.C., Aarons, G.A., McMillen, J.C., Proctor, E.K. and
Mandell, D.S., 2017. Methods to improve the selection and tailoring of implementation
strategies. The journal of behavioral health services & research, 44(2), pp.177-194.
5. How can the program be improved to better meet the needs of their target group?
(200 words). Provide one recommendation and support it with a reference.
This Bowel cancer awareness program has some done good work among the people who
are suffering from the bowel cancer. However, there are some area which can be

improved with regard to this awareness campaign. First of all, this awareness program
should be conducted throughout the year for better effectiveness and penetration
(Sharma 2016). In distant fields, a radically distinct strategy is required if the incidence
and prevalence of bowel cancer has to be reduced. Studies have reported that aboriginal
Australians are more likely to suffer from bowel cancer in comparison with the non-
aboriginal Australians (Moore et al. 2015). However, there is a clear failure in current
methods that do not embolden or enable indigenous individuals to reduce the occurrence
and incidence of bowel cancer among the indigenous Australians. This should be one of
the areas which need to be improved. Particular attention or preventive strategies should
be implemented in this awareness program, so that it can help reduce the prevalence of
bowel cancer among the aboriginal Australians. This program should also conduct free
screening program and consultation program in addition to awareness so that the people
from lower socio- economic group can avail the proper medication and treatment advice
(Kris-Etherton et al. 2014).
References:
Kris-Etherton, P.M., Akabas, S.R., Bales, C.W., Bistrian, B., Braun, L., Edwards, M.S., Laur,
C., Lenders, C.M., Levy, M.D., Palmer, C.A. and Pratt, C.A., 2014. The need to advance
nutrition education in the training of health care professionals and recommended
research to evaluate implementation and effectiveness. The American journal of clinical
nutrition, 99(5), pp.1153S-1166S.
Moore, S.P., Antoni, S., Colquhoun, A., Healy, B., Ellison-Loschmann, L., Potter, J.D.,
Garvey, G. and Bray, F., 2015. Cancer incidence in indigenous people in Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, and the USA: a comparative population-based study. The Lancet
Oncology, 16(15), pp.1483-1492.
Sharma, M., 2016. Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion.
Jones & Bartlett Publishers.