Report: Lifestyle Diseases and Rural Australian Communities

This report examines lifestyle-related diseases within rural communities in Australia, highlighting the poorer health outcomes compared to metropolitan areas. It focuses on the rural population, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who experience higher rates of chronic diseases and face challenges in accessing healthcare. The report identifies risky behaviors like smoking and alcohol consumption, occupational risks, and social determinants such as education, employment, and income as contributing factors. Barriers to behavioral change, including lack of awareness and cultural factors, are also discussed. The report explores interventions such as healthcare staff visits and programs promoting physical activity and improved diets. It also critiques the effectiveness of current interventions, emphasizing the need for proper implementation to ensure positive outcomes. The report is supported by references to relevant research studies.

Lifestyle related
disease in rural
communities in
Australia

Population group
The study will address the
rural population of Australia.
Australians living in the
rural areas have poor health
than compared to those
living in the metropolitan
cities (Sarich, Ding, Sitas
and Weber 2015).

Description of issue
Poorer health in the rural areas are
consequences of the way of living.
Aboriginal and Torres Islander people
suffer more from chronic diseases (Bell et
al. 2016).
Face challenged when they require
accessing health care services (Quinn,
Massey and Speare 2015).
Risky behavior- smoking, drinking alcohol
Occupational risk- mining work or
accidents that are related to transport.

Social determinants
People from poor social or economic
circumstances suffer from health issues.
Determinants are:
1. Education- Only half population in the inner
regions, outer regions or the remotest area
have completed standard 12.
2. Employment- Lower percentage of people are
employed as no or least access to proper
workplace or work environment (Mactaggart
2016).
3. Income- Lower income but due to the
remoteness of the region have to pay more for
services (Hoare et al. 2019).

Barriers to behavior
change
Education- Less educated thus
have a reluctant attitude towards
change.
Lack of awareness- Are not
aware of the government
measures (Perry, Gallagher and
Duffield 2015).
Environment- Are culture centric
and not in favor of changes.

Interventions
Interventions in the rural areas are:
1. Healthcare staffs visiting remote
areas to promote physical exercise
(Barclay, Phillips and Lyle 2018).
2. Checking on weight gain in
females.
3. Example- Albany Physical Activity
and Nutrition intervention to
encourage people to improve diets
(Macniven et al. 2016).

Critique of interventions
Poorly developed
intervention results in just
wastage of money and
time.
If health services not
provided properly no
advantage to interventions.

References
Sarich, P.E.A., Ding, D., Sitas, F. and Weber, M.F., 2015. Co-occurrence of chronic disease
lifestyle risk factors in middle-aged and older immigrants: A cross-sectional analysis of
264,102 Australians. Preventive medicine, 81, pp.209-215.
Bell, L., Ullah, S., Olds, T., Magarey, A., Leslie, E., Jones, M., Miller, M. and Cobiac, L., 2016.
Prevalence and socio-economic distribution of eating, physical activity and sedentary
behaviour among South Australian children in urban and rural communities: baseline findings
from the OPAL evaluation. Public health, 140, pp.196-205.
Quinn, E.K., Massey, P.D. and Speare, R., 2015. Communicable diseases in rural and remote
Australia: the need for improved understanding and action. Rural and remote health, 15, pp.1-
19.
Mactaggart, F., McDermott, L., Tynan, A. and Gericke, C., 2016. Examining health and well‐
being outcomes associated with mining activity in rural communities of high‐income
countries: A systematic review. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 24(4), pp.230-237.
Hoare, E., Crooks, N., Hayward, J., Allender, S. and Strugnell, C., 2019. Associations between
combined overweight and obesity, lifestyle behavioural risk and quality of life among
Australian regional school children: baseline findings of the Goulburn Valley health behaviours
monitoring study. Health and quality of life outcomes, 17(1), p.16.
Perry, L., Gallagher, R. and Duffield, C., 2015. The health and health behaviours of Australian
metropolitan nurses: an exploratory study. BMC nursing, 14(1), p.45.
Macniven, R., Richards, J., Gubhaju, L., Joshy, G., Bauman, A., Banks, E. and Eades, S., 2016.
Physical activity, healthy lifestyle behaviors, neighborhood environment characteristics and
social support among Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults. Preventive medicine
reports, 3, pp.203-210.
Barclay, L., Phillips, A. and Lyle, D., 2018. Rural and remote health research: does the
investment match the need?. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 26(2), pp.74-79.