Running Head: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES 10 10 Running Head: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES 10 10 Running Head: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES 10 10 Running Head: PR

Running Head: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES
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PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES1
Primary health care, according to World Health Organization (WHO), can be defined as
healthcare services which include basic and emergency services, and provide the necessary
treatment and prevention of the basic and commonly occurring diseases. These services were
introduced in order to provide different healthcare facilities to all sections of the global
population (WHO, 2019). The primary health care system operates based on 5 principles, which
were introduced first at the International Conference on Health Promotion in the year 1986.
These guiding principles are as follows:
Accessibility – This service facilitated the availability of the different healthcare services
to reach every niche of the global population.
Public participation – This service also requires the active participation of the global
population and the different communities, in order to provide a holistic approach towards
different healthcare problems and promote good health (Conklin, Morris & Nolte, 2012).
Health promotion –WHO not only facilitated the availability of different services, these
principles also include helping a community by strengthening their socio-economic status, in
order to improve their overall health status.
Effective usage of technology – Appropriate or effective use of technologies like medical
equipment which are feasible, affordable, accessible and deemed culturally appropriate, to
help provide proper and efficient healthcare services.
Inter-sectoral approach to health improvement - Active participation of different sectors
including the healthcare sector can help in effective promotion of health.

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES2
This paper will focus on the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Australia compared to
India, with respect to the Primary health key strategy of providing consumer-concerned
healthcare services. The social determinants, environmental factors and epidemiology of the
chosen disease will be discussed in the section below.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a key cause of mortality of the global population.
This is a collective term which includes diseases like coronary heart diseases, hypertension,
congenital heart diseases, heart failure, and cerebrovascular diseases.
In Australia, in the recent years, around 1.2 million people suffered with cardiovascular
conditions. Coronary heart diseases were the leading cause for male mortality in Australia with a
percentage of 13% of the total deaths (Waters, Trinh, Chau, Bourchier & Moon, 2013). The
country still lacks efficient management of the increase in cardiovascular diseases in the
Australian residents, which have been sped up by factors like ageing, smoking, substance abuse,
and lack of proper use of healthcare facilities. Studies proved that majority of the Australian
adults lack ideal cardiovascular health. The country has faced a massive burden of CVD in
relation of illness, hospitalization, disability, death, and the overall prevalence of these diseases
(Aihw.gov.au, 2019).
In the recent years, India has witnessed the alarming rise in the prevalence of
cardiovascular diseases. The country saw about a 50% increase in the prevalence of heart
diseases from the 1990s to 2018, which resulted in the doubling of the mortality due to these
diseases. The Global Burden of Disease study evaluated that the cardiovascular mortality rate
was about 272 per 100000 Indians, which is relatively higher than the global mortality rate of
about 235 per 100000 of the population (Prabhakaran, Jeemon & Roy, 2016). Being a

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES3
developing state, India is yet to manage the excessive use of tobacco, excessive drinking, and
lack of proper diets in the country and lesser availability of effective healthcare services
(Prabhakaran et al., 2018).
While Australia has enough resources to implement on proper healthcare, India lacks the
funding and infrastructures to do so. The main difference other than the lack of proper healthcare
services, is the reason behind the incidence of these diseases, which in case of Australia is purely
due to increased physical inactivity, incorporation of junk food in their diet, and substance abuse,
while in case of India, it is mainly due to substance abuse, lack of availability of nutritious foods,
prevalence of diabetes and limited healthcare services (Prabhakaran et al., 2018).
The consumer-concerned healthcare services facilitate the involvement of consumer
feedback and opinions in the healthcare services provided by them. It has been seen that this
method has led to the building of better consumer partnerships, which resulted in the improved
patient outcomes and efficient healthcare services. This enables the healthcare system to take the
opinions of different sections of the population, making it more culturally competent and
efficient.
This key strategy of Primary Healthcare system of Australia enabled the country’s
healthcare services to connect with local hospitals, consumers and other local healthcare
providers to form protocols in order to efficiently manage different cases and issues . This helped
identify the health requirements of the population belonging to different niches of the
community. This strategy required the active participation of the whole community, Medicare
locals, and healthcare service providers, in order to formulate the different healthcare practices
for chronic and increasingly prevalent diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and more.