Social Determinants of Health in PDF

Running head: SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
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SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH1
Introduction
The risk of heart diseases in Australia is at a rise because of various behavioral factors
like consumption of tobacco, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, lack of proper physical
activities and many more. According to reports, the prevalence of detrimental heart diseases
among the citizens of Australia was about 1.2 million nearly about 4.8% of the population
which has been consistent over the time (Abs.gov.au., 2018).Cardiovascular disease is
considered to be one of the major causes of death in Australia and is considered to be one of
the major health issues. Despite of major improvements over several decades, heart diseases
in Australia remains one of the major burdens in the economy of the country as well (The
Heart Foundation., 2019). Many indigenous people are suffering from heart diseases due to
their behavior patterns but also due to environmental and social factors. This paper is going to
focus on the social detriments of heart diseases among the indigenous population of Australia
and is going to provide a public health intervention in order to counter heart diseases among
the population in the country.
Discussion
Burden of heart disease among indigenous Australians
The burden of heart disease among the indigenous people in Australia is higher in
comparison to the non-indigenous people in the country. According to research, the
indigenous people in Australia experience burden about 2.3 times the rate of the non-
indigenous people in Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare., 2016).
According to scholars, the most common diseases that were reported by the
Indigenous people in Australia were heart failure, hypertension and the most common

SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH2
Rheumatic heart disease among the indigenous people in comparison to the non-indigenous
people (Walsh & Kangaharan, 2017). This prevalence of the disease among the indigenous
people is highly related to the quality of life of the people. Bielefeld & Altman, (2015) states
indigenous people have always faced discrimination in the society which has led to their
exclusion, unemployment, poverty, lack of accessibility to education and healthcare which
has led to the indigenous people. The quality of life which they lead for survival is tough and
poor which leads them to be in stress which causes risk factors like hypertension which leads
to heart diseases like heart failure. Their living conditions also affect their behavior which
makes them addicted to tobacco and other drugs which also contribute to chronic heart
diseases which is detrimental for their health which often leads to death.
Social determinants of health
Indigenous people of Australia do not get equal opportunity to be healthy like the
non-indigenous Australians. This socio-economic challenge or disadvantage which is
experienced by the Indigenous Australians places them to be at a higher risk of getting
exposed to environmental as well as behavioral risk factors. The inequality experienced by
the Indigenous Australian in terms of health status is mainly due to the systemic
discrimination which has occurred through the low access to services in terms of healthcare,
inadequate healthcare infrastructure and the inaccessibility of the mainstream services
(Markwick et al. 2015).
This discrimination of the Indigenous people in the Australian society has also led to
the lack of education in the society which has further led to situations like lack of awareness
among the people about the detrimental effects of heart disease, lack of knowledge about
prevention of diseases like this and also the ill effects of their behaviors and lifestyle choices