HEALT 2114 Task 2a: Diabetes and Indigenous Australians Essay

This essay examines the significant health issue of diabetes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, highlighting its prevalence and impact compared to non-Indigenous populations. It delves into the historical context, specifically how colonization has influenced the development and progression of diabetes within these communities, altering lifestyles and access to healthcare. The essay identifies and discusses the impact of social determinants of health, such as socio-economic disadvantage, poor education, and inadequate access to healthcare services, on the development and progression of this health issue. The cultural implications and obstacles to addressing diabetes, including dietary habits, cultural barriers to healthcare access, and language differences, are also explored. The paper concludes by synthesizing the key findings, emphasizing the need for culturally sensitive and comprehensive strategies to address diabetes and improve the health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

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Health care
Diabetes

Contents
Introduction: Diabetes overview in Australia........................................................................................3
How history of colonisation has impacted on the development of this health issue for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Australians..........................................................................................................3
Social determinants of health on the development and progression of this health issue........................4
Cultural implications and obstacles to address the issue of diabetes among aboriginal and Torres
islanders Australians..............................................................................................................................5
Social determinant of the diabetes among indigenous people of Australia............................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
Rrferneces.............................................................................................................................................7

Introduction: Diabetes overview in Australia
A chronic disease is marked by the high level of glucose in the blood. It occurs either
by the inability of body to produce insulin or if body not using enough insulin. The major
type of diabetes are type a diabetes, gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes. It is one of the
biggest fast growing chronic diseases all over the World. In Australia also, it tends to possess
the challenge for the public health system everywhere. The biggest burden of this disease is
seen on the indigenous people and socially disadvantage people. Moreover, Torres and
Aboriginal Strait Islander of the Australia tends to experience the high level of diabetes. They
like to face three times more diabetes as compare to the non-indigenous people. Besides this,
it is also found that the aboriginal children of Australia like to face eight times more type 2
diabetes. Aboriginal people of Australia likely to die six times more from the diabetes as
compare to the non indigenous people (O’Brien et al, 2016).
The complications of diabetes include the large blood vessels such as stroke, heart disease,
such as eye disease, kidney disease as well as nerve disease. Type 2 diabetes usually sene in
the adult people due to the deficiency in the production of insulin. They are not able to
control type 2 diabetes due to the lack of lifestyle modifications. The rates of hospitalisation
have also increased among those people due to the increasing remoteness.
How history of colonisation has impacted on the development of this health issue for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
It is seen that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait people used to maintain the hunter
gatherer lifestyle up. However, the arrival of some Europeans in 1788 has led the significant
changes in their lifestyle. The adverse changes in the nutrition and physical activity played
the significant role in the diabetes development of aboriginal people. the first ever issue of
diabetes among the aboriginal people is the biggest problem. Prior to this record, aboriginal
people were found to be lean and fit and did not hurt from any of the metabolic feature of the
European population. After the age adjustment, aboriginal people started facing the issue of
high blood pressure as compare to the non-indigenous adults. After the age adjustment it is
also seen that aboriginal and Torres Strait islander likely to have abnormal triglycerides and
HDL cholesterol.

After the community disturbance, they are not given proper facilities to get easy
access to the healthcare system and medicines. Due to this, they started facing problems
related to emotional and health issues specially in the remote areas. Moreover, diabetes
among the colonism among Australia, racism sued to pervasive. After this, indigenous people
were given pressure to love in the mission where freedom to hunt, practicing of tradition
ceremonies, as well as socialising were restricted. Therefore, conflict and restriction linked
with the colonisation led to the loss of their liberal life. This has ultimately affected the
psychological and physical effect on the indigenous people (Ehrlich, Kendall, Parekh &
Walters, 2016).
Social determinants of health on the development and progression of this health issue
Diabetes is prevalent from the last 3 decade that is increasing day by day. The arte of
diabetes are more prevalent among the elder, and indigenous Australia who are living in
remote as well as disadvantaged areas. Mostly, aboriginal people face diabetes 2 that is
highly preventable by keeping the healthy lifestyle. In the remote areas people, the death
rates were 2 times more as compare to the major cities. Type 2 diabetes has been seen as the
12th biggest contributor of the disease burden. In the year 2015, data has showed that the
entire problems managed by GPs were related to the diabetes (mainly type 1 diabetes). In the
next two years, the rate of diabetes among indigenous Australian was 4.2 times with the
increasing gap with age. Among those, around 61 per cent were suffering from type 2
diabetes. It is seen that type 2 diabetes mostly present among the aboriginal people as
compare to non-aboriginal due to the poor diet, physical activity, tobacco smoking ad obese
(Daniel, Rowley, McDermott & O'dea, 2012).
Around 1 among 8 Indigenous Australian adults are suffering from diabetes based on
the report presented by aboriginal health measure survey.in the year 2017 and 2017, men
were found to be more suffering diabetes as compare to women. It has occurred due to the
ineffective health habits and consumption of alcoholic things.

Cultural implications and obstacles to address the issue of diabetes among aboriginal
and Torres islanders Australians
It is true that diabetes is more widespread among the Aboriginal and Torres Islander
Australia as compare to other Australians. Death rates as well as hospitalisation rates are
high. The decision maker faces several challenges at the time of implementing strategies for
achieving effective secondary prevention such as blood sugar control as well as allied health.
It is found that the aboriginal people of Australia do not ensure homogeneous growth in
respect to the diabetes. One of the major cultural; implication is the unhealthy diet due to the
lack of money. Most of the aboriginal people found to be smoking, or drinking due to lack of
problem measures. Moreover, it is also seen that the around forty two per cent of the
aboriginal people in Australia used to smoke on daily basis (Titmuss, Davis, Brown &
Maple‐Brown, 2019).
Cultural barriers therefore said to be the obstacles that is faced by indigenous people
due to the different medical practices, language and conception of sexuality and gender. Tis
led the serious miscommunication between different parties from different cultural
background. this led to the accessing health checks and follow up appointment. Although
healthcare system of Australia has however develop the several sophisticated healthcare
system. In spite of this, indigenous people gave to face the issues (Gwynne, Jeffries &
Lincoln, 2019). The language of sophisticated healthcare system is not understood by the
indigenous people due to the language barrier. Therefore, people who understand their
cultural background are able to overcome from this issue (Rowley, Daniel, Skinner, Skinner,
White & O'Dea, 2010).
Social determinant of the diabetes among indigenous people of Australia
Social determinant is said to be the condition in which individual grow, born, work,
live and age. The major social determinant for the diabetes in indigenous Australian is the
socio-economic disadvantage across the major indicators. The major determinant is the poor
literacy and education that is linked with the poor health status that used to affect the capacity
of the people to use any kind of information available for the good health. Most of the
indigenous people of Australian do not have enough money or sources to get the access of
health care services as well as medicines. In the aboriginal people, most of the time run down
housing and overcrowding is found that is directly linked with the poverty and then
contributes to the spread of communicable disease. Several research have also shown that the

poor people of not have control over their lives. This further contributes to the high burden of
the unhealthy stress. Due to the chronic stress, it tends to impact the circulatory system, body
immune system, as well as metabolic function through the variety of hormonal pathways
(Reading & Greenwood, 2018).
The risk of failure in kidney among Australian Indigenous people with diabetes is ten times
higher than in non-Indigenous people with the disease. The higher rate of diabetes in the
Indigenous population results from genetics, poverty and the lack of education. They do not
able to understand the disease due to lack of consultancy services. After some time, it
increased to a great extent.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Australians have to come across diabetes in several ways, as compare to the
non-aboriginal people, aboriginal people face to face the issue. Due to the lack of access to
health care treatment, they are not able to get the right treatment for the diabetes. This has
increased his issue of diabetes among them. besides this, they also do not have proper
education through which they not able to understand the exact problem. The unhealthy eating
pattern of these kind of people has also increased the disease.

Rrferneces
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Wolfe, R. (2016). Type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes: greater than fourfold risk
among Indigenous compared with non‐Indigenous Australian
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Crowshoe, L., Dannenbaum, D., Green, M., Henderson, R., Hayward, M. N., & Toth, E.
(2018). Type 2 diabetes and Indigenous peoples. Canadian journal of diabetes, 42,
S296-S306.
Daniel, M., Rowley, K. G., McDermott, R., & O'dea, K. (2012). Diabetes and impaired
glucose tolerance in Aboriginal Australians: prevalence and risk. Diabetes research
and clinical practice, 57(1), 23-33.
Ehrlich, C., Kendall, E., Parekh, S., & Walters, C. (2016). The impact of culturally
responsive self-management interventions on health outcomes for minority
populations: a systematic review. Chronic illness, 12(1), 41-57.
Gwynne, K., Jeffries, T., & Lincoln, M. (2019). Improving the efficacy of healthcare services
for Aboriginal Australians. Australian Health Review, 43(3), 314-322.
Jacklin, K. M., Henderson, R. I., Green, M. E., Walker, L. M., Calam, B., & Crowshoe, L. J.
(2017). Health care experiences of Indigenous people living with type 2 diabetes in
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O’Brien, P. E., DeWitt, D. E., Laurie, C., Brennan, L., Wentworth, J. M., Anderson, M., ... &
Dalton, D. P. (2016). The effect of weight loss on Indigenous Australians with
diabetes: a study of feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of laparoscopic
adjustable gastric banding. Obesity surgery, 26(1), 45-53.
Reading, C., & Greenwood, M. (2018). Structural determinants of Aboriginal peoples’
health. Determinants of Indigenous Peoples' Health: Beyond the Social, 1.
Rowley, K. G., Daniel, M., Skinner, K., Skinner, M., White, G. A., & O'Dea, K. (2010).
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Australian Aboriginal community. Australian and New Zealand journal of public
health, 24(2), 136-144.
Titmuss, A., Davis, E. A., Brown, A., & Maple‐Brown, L. J. (2019). Emerging diabetes and
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people. Medical Journal of Australia, 210(3), 111-113.