Health and Society Assessment 3: Indigenous Health Disparities

This report examines the complex health challenges faced by Indigenous Australians, particularly focusing on childhood obesity and associated inequities. It delves into the social determinants of health, highlighting illiteracy, lack of health literacy, and improper diet and nutrition as key contributors to disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. The report identifies primary health care interventions, such as school-based nutrition programs, as effective strategies to reduce obesity and improve health outcomes. Furthermore, it emphasizes the critical role of cultural knowledge and sensitivity in healthcare delivery, exploring how cultural competence and awareness can enhance access to primary care services and address disparities. The report underscores the importance of culturally appropriate language and practices in healthcare settings to improve health outcomes and promote equitable access to services for Indigenous populations.

Health and Society
Assessment 3
Extended ResponseTemplate
Using you health issue from assessment item 2:
Answer all of the three questions below based upon this onehealth issue.
Each extended response should be approximately 500 words in length each.
The reference list for all three extended response should be provided under the references heading
of this template.

Question 1
Discuss two different reasons for inequity between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous
Australians in relation to your identified health issue.
While analysing the differences in health status of indigenous and non-indigenous
Australians, their social determinants of health emerges as the primary reason for
the underlying inequality and healthcare complication (Singleton et al. 2014).
Therefore, this would be primarily discussed in this section so that the disparity and
the reason of inequality associated with childhood obesity could be easily
understood.
The primary reason for such inequality among indigenous and non-indigenous
individuals is associated their illiteracy rates and lower level of awareness about
factors that could increase childhood obesity. This is an important social determinant
lack of which affects the community adversely as they are unaware of their loopholes
as mentioned in the research of Saprii et al. (2015). Wilks and Wilson (2015) also
mentioned that the rate of education is significantly lower in indigenous community
compared to non- indigenous community and hence consequently, their income
level, employment, their achievement of healthcare also compromised. Further the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2017) also provided a report that the socio
economic status of the indigenous community affected their attainment of education,
employment and hence, consequently, their education, healthcare knowledge,
awareness level and knowledge of preventive measures or health behaviour
affected. Hence, education or lack of health literacy is one of the primary reasons
due to which childhood obesity rates are higher in indigenous community compared
to non- indigenous community (Singleton et al. 2014).
The second reason for such disparity among indigenous community’s healthcare and
their high prevalence of childhood obesity is their improper diet and nutrition regime
that affects their body mass index and makes them prone to diabetes. As per Saprii
et al. (2015), the community is associated with improper green vegetable and fruit
intake and their diet is primarily consists of sweet and high carbohydrate meals. As
per Brown et al. (2014), these are the primary reason for childhood obesity as with
higher consumption of carbohydrate could lead to high risk of obesity and hence
these are the reason due to which this community suffer from high risk of obesity and
associated risk factors compared to the non-indigenous community. Further as per
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2017), the rate of consumption of junk
food is also higher in indigenous community compared to the non-indigenous group
and it was seen that the rates of junk food consumption is 41% and 36% among
indigenous and non-indigenous communities respectively. Hence, the data collected
from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2017) mentioned that more than 30%
of the children that are suffering from obesity among indigenous community.
Therefore, it could be seen that due to lack of socio economic status, improper diet
and nutrition, economic instability, and geographical factors are associated with
increased prevalence of childhood obesity among the indigenous community.
Hence, lack of health literacy, education and improper diet and nutrition are among

the primary reasons due to which inequalities between the indigenous and non-
indigenous community related to the childhood obesity increased.
Question 2
Provide one example of a Primary Health Care intervention that is addressing this health issue for

Indigenous Australians. Explain the impact this intervention is having on reducing inequity.
While addressing the childhood obesity among the indigenous community of
Australia, specific primary healthcare intervention should be applied and evaluated
so that the underlying inequality in this community related to childhood obesity could
be eliminated.
The first and most effective intervention that should be implemented in the reduction
of childhood obesity is the diet and nutrition regime so that with application of the
childhood obesity risk of indigenous community could be reduced. As per Laws et al.
(2014), the nutritional level and diet regime of indigenous community is the primary
reason for the emergence of childhood obesity. Further, it was seen that aboriginal
children are associated with inactive lifestyle, consumption of junk food and they
spend majority of their time in front of television and hence, their body weight
increases and they become prone to severe consequences of obesity. Further, it
was also seen in the research of Welsby et al. (2014) that majority of the children of
this community is associated with improper diet consumption, unhealthy food intake
and hence, the healthcare intervention should be implemented in the healthcare of
children of this community. Hence, as per the NSW Government (2019), the
intervention should start from the primary schools so that prom the primary age, the
intervention could be applied effectively. Further, it was mentioned in the research of
Brown et al. (2014) that interventions implemented in school can reduce inequity and
prevent obesity in indigenous children living in disadvantaged areas. Besides this,
researchers Allender et al. (2015) also mentioned that diet and nutritional
intervention are among the primary interventions application of which could decrease
the occurrence of childhood obesity among society, economically and educational
backward sections of the society such as the indigenous community of Australia.
Nutrition and diet is the primary focus of multiple health interventions for indigenous
community and its people and it was seen that the impact of nutrition and diet regime
result in improvement in health outcomes for communities in Australia (Laws et al.
2014). Hence, this is the primary intervention that should be used by the healthcare
facilities in Australia so that the childhood obesity among the indigenous
communities could be decreased.
Therefore, this above section provided a detail of the intervention that should be
implemented in the indigenous community so that their obesity related complication
could be avoided.

Question 3
Discuss how cultural knowledge and sensitivity in health care may affect access Primary Health Care
services. Provide one example based on your chosen health issue.
Primary healthcare services are services that are applied in the healthcare services
that help the communities suffering from critical health complication with better
health outcome. The aim of this section is to understand the cultural knowledge and
sensitivity so that they could access the primary healthcare services to achieve their
health outcome.
While providing the healthcare intervention to the patient of this community, cultural
knowledge and sensitivity becomes an important factor so that with effective cultural
competence their healthcare behaviour of the communities could be increased
(Swain and Barclay 2015). Cultural competence is the primary requirement for the
healthcare professionals involved in the process so that with the improved access to
primary healthcare facilities, with elimination of cultural barriers, disadvantaged
groups seeking healthcare could be provided. It was also mentioned that the cultural
competence is an important aspect that helps to address the social, cultural as well
as lingual preferences and needs of patients of this communities and eliminate racial
and ethnic disparities in care. As per the research of Allender et al. (2015), majority
of the healthcare inequality is associated with lack of cultural competency of the

healthcare professionals and majority of which affects the communities of aboriginal
community. Therefore, it is important for the healthcare professionals to be trained
with cultural competency so that equality with respect to the cultural competency
could be described. Another researcher Abbott et al. (2014) mentioned that with
application of cultural awareness, cultural safety and sensitivity due to which the
ability of the healthcare professionals’ abilities to ensure equality and dignity in the
process of healthcare for indigenous Australians could be achieved. Further as per
Laws et al. (2014), this could help to provide services depending upon the
expectation of indigenous community and hence, helps to create a positive
environment for the health and wellbeing of this population group.
Besides the presence of cultural insensitivity and competency, there are situations
such as disparity in the access of healthcare that increases the occurrence of critical
health conditions among the patient of this specific community and the children of
this community suffer from childhood obesity. As per Yeung (2016), healthcare
access related disparity is a crucial aspect due to which people of this community
are unable to reach to the healthcare intervention that could increase their wellbeing
and make them aware of their risk conditions. Further, it was seen that majority of
the people that are able to receive the health care services, were provided with
better health literacy and knowledge that prevented them to be affected with more
critical health conditions. Hence, as per the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(2019), with implementation of cultural sensitivity, diversity, and dignity, the
involvement of this community in the healthcare services would be achieved.
Hence, in conclusion, it could be said that the increasing risk factor of childhood
obesity and the inequality present among the indigenous and non-indigenous
communities of Australia is due to the disparity in socio economic aspects. The
educational and health literacy and diet and nutritional aspect become the critical
aspects due to which the inequality affected the healthcare of indigenous community.
Further, this paper provided a detail of healthcare intervention for children of this
community and provides them with health literacy and awareness from primary level
so that they could develop a critical and accurate thinking and prevent their obesity
related concern. Finally, it also mentioned the cultural knowledge and sensitivity
related aspects that affects the access to healthcare for this community and leads to
critical health situation.

References
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Aboriginal patients?: views of Aboriginal cultural mentors and health workers. Australian Family
Physician, 43(1/2), p.58.
Allender, S., Owen, B., Kuhlberg, J., Lowe, J., Nagorcka-Smith, P., Whelan, J. and Bell, C., 2015. A
community based systems diagram of obesity causes. PloS one, 10(7), p.e0129683.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2017. Australia's welfare 2017: in brief. Retrieved from:
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/australias-welfare-2017-in-brief/contents/
indigenous-australians
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019. Cultural competency in the delivery of health
services for Indigenous people. Retrieved from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/4f8276f5-e467-
442e-a9ef-80b8c010c690/ctgc-ip13.pdf.aspx?inline=true

Laws, R., Campbell, K.J., Van Der Pligt, P., Russell, G., Ball, K., Lynch, J., Crawford, D., Taylor, R.,
Askew, D. and Denney-Wilson, E., 2014. The impact of interventions to prevent obesity or improve
obesity related behaviours in children (0–5 years) from socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or
indigenous families: a systematic review. BMC public health, 14(1), p.779.
NSW Government 2017. ABORIGINAL KIDS A HEALTHY START TO LIFE. Retrieved from:
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/hsnsw/Publications/chief-health-officers-report-2018.pdf
Saprii, L., Richards, E., Kokho, P. and Theobald, S., 2015. Community health workers in rural India:
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Welsby, D., Nguyen, B., O’Hara, B.J., Innes-Hughes, C., Bauman, A. and Hardy, L.L., 2014. Process
evaluation of an up-scaled community based child obesity treatment program: NSW Go4Fun®. BMC
Public Health, 14(1), p.140.
Wilks, J. and Wilson, K., 2015. A profile of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education
student population. Australian Universities' Review, The, 57(2), p.17.
Yeung, S., 2016. Conceptualizing cultural safety. Journal for Social Thought, 1.