Horizon City Community Health Assessment: Identifying Key Issues

This assignment presents a community health assessment report focused on the city of Horizon, South Australia. It includes a detailed demographic profile, psychosocial assessment, and an overview of community infrastructure, health services, and resources. The report identifies obesity as a significant health issue, highlighting its prevalence and contributing factors such as education level, socioeconomic status, and physical inactivity. The role of registered nurses in health promotion, particularly in addressing obesity through strategies aligned with the Ottawa Charter and NMBA guidelines, is also discussed. The report emphasizes the importance of addressing obesity to mitigate related health problems like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases within the community. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Community Health Assessment Report
Introduction (200 words)
Community health reports can be defined as an important and potent tool to explore
and evaluate the health status of a particular community and identify the public health
priorities of the community by the means of comparing the data with the demographic and
population based confounders and factors. Hence, in order to discover the potential health
issue of a particular community and be able to address the possible health issues, it is crucial
for the care providers to understand the key contributing factors to the health status and the
life expectancy of the particular community. Researchers are of the opinion that the health
conditions of a particular community is usually the most profoundly impacted by the age
groups, gender, and the socioeconomic stratification of the community based on the
population (Wolfenden et al. 2018). The community health reports attempts to discover all
the different factors associated with these disparities in health and be able to target the causal
factors so that the health priorities can be optimally addressed. This assignment will attempt
to articulate a community health reported based on the city of Horizon; the assignment will
have a detailed community assessment of the city of Horizon, including demographic
profiles, psychosocial profiles, community infrastructure and available health services and
resources. Along with that, this report will also identify a potential health issue for the chosen
community and the role of registered nurse in health promotion for the chosen issue with
respect to Ottawa charter and NMBA guidelines
City of Horizon Community Assessment (1200 words)
1. Demographic Profile
The city of horizon is situated in the south east limestone coastal region of South
Australia. The distance of this town from Adelaide is around 324 kilometres and has the land

area of 4284 hectares (Wolch, Byrne and Newell 2014). According to the Australian Bureau
of Statistics (2018), the population of City of Horizon is around 29308 people and as per that
the population density is around 6.86 person per hectare. the geographical location of the city
of Horizon makes it responsible for prime focus of different horizons such as residential,
commercial and industrial hub as well as it is a popular tourist place. While describing the
gender and age related demographics, it should be mentioned that the census revealed that the
population of males in this area is 13693 with a percentage of 48.3%, whereas females are
present in the majority with 14657 or 51.7% (South Australian Public Health. 2018). Citizen
in this area lived in 12,273 dwellings and hence the average household size was 2.3. There
are different communities residing in the such as the aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders
with 2.3% (652 individual) and 85.9% Australian born individual .Further, 5.1% people used
to speck language other than English. The census data also determined that population had a
majority of older people, compared to youngsters, as 44% of population was higher than the
age of sixty, whereas only 16.5% people were young, therefore indicated towards the ageing
society (South Australian Public Health 2018). This profile determined that the healthcare
related problems were dominating in the society as maximum of the population was above
the age of sixty. Therefore, they had the chance of suffering from different diseases
(Macpherson 2013).
Further, the demographical discussion also included marital status, family structure and
composition and the climate of the city of Horizon. The family structure is the most important
demographic indicator as it helps to understand the area’s residential function and role, level
of demand or employment as it directly proportionate to the age of the community and the
family profile. In the city of Horizon, more than 16% people were married and had families
compared to the regional data of 25%. The number pf couples having children was 1780,
whereas couples having no children were 4367. The society also had single parent with 829
parents looking after their kid alone. Hence, the emerging groups were lone person or without
children that increased by the number of 900 from 2011 to 2016. The average house hold size
was 2 person per family. The climate was perfect as the geographical position of the city
made it one of the famous tourist spots in Australia.
2. Psychosocial Profile :
Psychosocial profile of a community is an important tool to understand the health
consequences the community can face while leading a normal life style. In this section,

different indicators of community such as education level, employment level, household
income, occupation type, communication network such as internet, transportation, social
support service and community groups and organisations will be discussed. While discussion
the educational level, it should be discussed that 3296 people in the city of Horizon had
territorial qualification, whereas more than 13400 people do not have any education in their
lifetime. 8.5% of people had bachelor’s degree (South Australian Public Health. 2018).
Teenagers had 36.7% of educational qualification and they were working for different
organizations in the area. The rate of employment was very high as more than 93% people of
city of horizon were employed and within that 48% were working for fulltime jobs. The rate
of unemployment, that affect the socio-economic status of communities were 6.7%. The rate
of employment increased from 2011 to 2016 and showed 10% of increase (Australian Bureau
of Statistics 2018). These people were associated to agriculture and dishing as more than 10%
of the total labour staff were attached with agriculture and fishing. Other than this the famous
working sectors were, healthcare industry, retail trade and food service and accommodation
service to tourists. Individual income was a serious issue as maximum population had weekly
individual income of $400-$599, whereas only 2% had personal weekly income of $2000 and
above. Majority of the family (2034) had an average income of $400-$599. Further, in case of
communication, in the city of horizon, more than 58% homes had a strong broadband
connection (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018). This was affected due to age, household
income, educational qualification and many more. 7242 families were connected to internet
whereas, 6379 had broadband connections. More than 64% of people travel using car as
drivers and only 5.6% of them travelled as passengers, therefore the socio-economic status
can be understood from this aspect. Further, there are several policies and legislations were
applied in different sectors of the area such as Australian healthcare policy in the healthcare
sector Australian criminal activity related policies and many more so that the social
infrastructure and social peace can be maintained (South Australian Public Health 2018)
3. Community Infrastructure, Goods and Services:
There is a range of community infrastructures, goods and services in the city of Horizon.
It offers its residents and tourist populations with exceptional facilities. The community on

this area is progressive and thriving and they are habituated to spend quality lifestyle with
several city facilities such as shopping and entertainment accommodations, ports and
recreation activities, leisure activities, food outlets and tourism (South Australian Public
Health. 2018). The primary local attractions include Horizon hotel, Horizon mall, several
cafes and restaurants further, it also has facilities such as fishing, sailing, hiking, trail bike
riding, winery tours and lush green parks for the citizen to spend quality time. This city had a
multicultural society, due to which it was able to create a community cultural centre, musical
and book library and museum that enhances the service provision of the area and attracted
more tourists in the region (South Australian Public Health 2018)
4. Health Services and Resources:
As the city of Horizon was a famous tourist spot, it offered its residents quality healthcare
with a tertiary level hospital, that acquired facilities such as physiotherapy, podiatry,
pathology, radiology, pharmacy, and different medical science services such as diet and
nutrition related processes with adequate physicians or general physicians. More than 3500
people used work in healthcare services in the city of Horizon and the rate increased by 11%
since 2011. Further social assistance, such as aged care facility, mental healthcare, specialist
facilities, welfare service and social service were also topics for employment for people of
city of Horizon (South Australian Public Health 2018). The primary healthcare related need
of people of Horizon was poor diet and nutrition, unhealthy life style, mental health, obesity,
domestic violence, delayed childhood development, community transport and suicidal
tendency prevention (Macpherson 2013). The public health authorities in the facility used to
follow the Australian public healthcare act according to which, it was the duty of the local
government to determine the effectiveness of the public health authorities, ensure proper
sanitation and disinfectant service to that locals and tourists does not acquires infection.
Therefore, in case of healthcare related concern, the locality had resources and was focused
on issues such as mental health and obesity which were included in the key consideration of
health ion the city of Horizon (South Australian Public Health 2018)

Potential Health Issue (450 words)
According to the demographic data discovered in the community assessment, it was
discovered that the obesity is a key health issue in the chosen demographics and is also
serving as the primary causal agent of the other related health issues in the community,
especially diabetes type 2 and cardiovascular problems. It has to be mentioned in this context
that 79% of the adults residing in the Horizon are either obese or are overweight on the verge
of being obese. On a more elaborative note, it has to be mentioned that the rate of obesity
differs on the basis of gender, whereas one in five adult males residing in this community are
considered obese at 20.1% are considered obese, the percentage is slightly lesser in women at
17.7%. The rate of childhood obesity is also high in the community, 6.0% of the boys (4
years old) have been reported to be obese, and 4.8% of the girls were reported to be obese.
Hence it has to be highlighted in this context that the percentage of obesity is higher in the
males than their female counterparts, and there are various health determinants affecting the
obesity statistics in the community (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018).
First and foremost, the educational attainment has to be the most important socio-
economic determinants that impact the obesity of the target population. Lack of educational
attainment is the most prominent health determinant in the chosen community and close to
13400 people in the community do not have any basic education and hence they have no
basic health literacy regarding the body weight of the population and hence the majority of
the population is not associated with any promotional or preventative campaigning for
obesity prevention (Gomersall, Dobson and Brown 2014). Considering the socioeconomic
status as a determinant of health, it has to be mentioned that for the community the income
status of the community has a significant impact on the living condition or dietary pattern of
the community. A vast majority of the population is living under the low socioeconomic
conditions and hence their dietary patterns are also affected leading to high obesity. Close to
48.2% of the total population are not meeting the daily nutritional requirements and cannot
meet the daily intake of 2 fruits per day statistics. Considering the social participation and
physical inactivity, 40% of the total population is not physically active leading a sedentary
lifestyle contributing to the obesity burden as well (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). It
has to be understood that a continual higher burden of diabetes on the community is due to

the obesity, and according to the statistics, it has to be mentioned that 93% both the total
burden of diabetes is facilitated by the type 2 diabetes, which has intricate links with the
obesity and lack of physical intolerance. According to the Roberto et al (2015), type 2
Diabetes paves way for many other related health concerns. As obesity is the causal factor to
diabetes type 2 in the community, it is a grave health issue in the community
Role of the Registered Nurse in Health Promotion (450 words)
In order to address any of the health priorities of the health issues of a particular
community, the registered nurse plays a fundamental role in educating the target population
and conveying information in an effective and easily understandable manner. In this case as
well, the registered nurse will have to undertake a profound role in the promotional strategies
and campaigning. According to the standard one of NMBA registered nurse practice
standards it is very important for the nursing professionals to access, analyze, and use the best
available evidence to aware the target population or design the key promotional strategies
(Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2018). The registered nurse will have to use strategies of
enablement, advocacy and mediation in order to design and implement strategies to promote
obesity prevention in the target population. Enablement strategy is the strategy that is used by
the health care professionals to promote and implement interventions strategies that will help
in the patients gain better control of their health. In case of advocacy strategies, the registered
nurse will have to advocate the health needs of the target population so that the policymakers
and the respective government can address the particular needs of all sectors of the society in
health promotion and disease prevention. Lastly, the mediation strategies will help in the
registered nurse act like the moderator to the target population conveying key information
and promotional behaviors that can help the target population adapt healthier lifestyle habits
and fight obesity (Burgess, Hassmén and Pumpa 2017).
Considering the Ottawa charter of health promotion, the first area, “building healthy
public policy”, aligns perfectly with the advocacy strategy that the registered nurse will have
to use (World Health Organization, 2018). Here the nurse will have to assess and explore the
access to health care and health literacy for the target population and how that impacts the
obesity statistics. Followed by which the Registered nurse will have to advocate these
accessibility needs to respective government so that it can be interpreted to public policies
enabling better access to health promotional campaigning and prevention strategies including
all the culturally diverse population (Delavari et al. 2015). The enabling strategies will align

with area 2 and 3 of Ottawa charter, “creating supportive environments” and “strengthening
community action”, where the nurse will have to indulge in different educational
campaigning enhancing the health literacy of target population with culturally competent
workshops and seminars to help the population understand the impact of obesity and learn
how to prevent it (Noriea et al. 2018). Lastly, the mediation strategies of the registered nurse
will correspond to area 4 of Ottawa charter, “developing personal skills” helping the high risk
obese or overweight individuals, helping them learn and adapt dietary changes and healthy
exercising habits which will empower them and help them take control of their weight
management (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018).
Conclusion (200 words)
On a concluding note, the community assessment of the city of horizon discovered that the
there are a few critical burdens of diseases that are affecting the health status of the
community. A few examples of the most of common of the disease burdens include the
diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, renal diseases and many other conditions. However the
main contributing factors to the health issues is the extremely high rate of obesity in the
community leading to the above mentioned co-morbidities. Obesity is a health issue that has
intricate links to social determinants and socioeconomic factors and in this case as well, the
social and economic determinants of the community were discovered as the most important
factors enhancing obesity statistics of the community and adding to the burden of diabetes
and related health conditions. The assignment outlined few key health promotional strategies
for obesity prevention and management that can be performed by a registered nurse with
respect to NMBA standards and Ottawa charter. The data explored and evaluated in the
community health report helped to identify key contributing factors to the obesity in the
chosen community and helped to design strategies to address the key issues identified
affecting the burden of obesity. Hence, the contribution of community health assessment
reports is extreme in order to understand health inequalities and burden of communities and
to design specific strategies to overcome the heath issues as well.

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