Addressing Obesity in Australia Through Nurse-Led Interventions

This report addresses the significant health issue of obesity and overweight in Australia, particularly among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It highlights the high obesity-related death rates in regions like Nepean Blue Mountains and examines the connection between obesity and Australia's National Health Priority Areas, as well as the social determinants of health. The report proposes a nurse-led intervention strategy involving practice nurses, school nurses, community health nurses, and occupational health nurses to provide health education, motivational interviewing, and care plans. The intervention's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are analyzed, emphasizing the importance of addressing language and cultural barriers to ensure effective healthcare delivery. The report concludes that obesity is a major concern requiring comprehensive strategies, with nurse-led interventions playing a crucial role in promoting health and preventing illness within communities.

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIETY
Health and Society
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The significance of the health issue.................................................................................................2
Relationship to the Australian National Health Priorities...............................................................2
Relationship to the Social Determinants of Health..........................................................................3
Nurse-led intervention.....................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Obesity and overweight within the Australians are the biggest concerns and act as major
health issue. The children that belong from a disadvantaged and low-income background are at a
greater amount of risk for being obese or overweight. This has a profound impact on the lives of
the children as well as their families. This further entrenches the social and the health
disadvantage (Ncoss.org.au, 2018). The obesity statistics in the Nepean Blue Mountains suggest
that the 5.8 percent of the deaths occurring in this region is caused due to obesity. The average
BMI of people living in this region have a BMI of 40. The death rates in both the females and the
males in this region is more compared to the eight other metropolitan health regions
(Dailytelegraph.com.au 2018). The study focuses on the obesity of the general population and
the nurse-led intervention that will help in the reduction of the incidence of obesity in the NSW
region especially in the Nepean Blue Mountains.
The significance of the health issue
Between the year 2017 to 2018, the rate of obesity and underweight has increased
gradually increased from 51 percent to 53 percent in the New South Wales area. Thus, based on
this trends it can be derived that the rate of overweight has remained stable. In the year 2008, the
rate of overweight is 33.6 percent while in the year 2017 the rate of overweight is 32.5 percent.
Further, it has been seen that the 32 percent adults (25 percent of females and 39 percent of
males) were overweight in the year 2017 and 21 percent were found to be obese (20 percent of
males and 21 percent of females). Excessive body weight is an important public health problem
in Australia and this risk develops into a chronic disorder and this increases with the increase in
the levels of the excess weight (Healthstats.nsw.gov.au 2018).

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Relationship to the Australian National Health Priorities
Australia's National Health Priority areas are the conditions and the diseases that
significantly contribute to the burden of illness and this results into high financial and social
costs that are imposed on the remote, rural, regional communities. The targeted conditions and
the diseases were chosen because along with the focused and appropriate attention, vital gains
can be made in the rural and the healthy population. It has been seen that more than half of the
Australians are making an effort to lose weight. Only about 30 percent of the Australians that are
obese (based on the BMI data) described their status of the weight of obese. Furthermore, it has
also been seen that only one person out of three is concerned about their body weight (Garvan
Institute of Medical Research 2018). The National Health Priority Areas (NPHA) were
established in the year 2000 and it was established due to the response of the World Health
Organization. The NPHAs were agreed by the Australian Health Ministry Advisory Council
between the year 1996 to 2012. There are 9 items in the NHPA and Obesity was included in the
list in the year 2008 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018).
Relationship to the Social Determinants of Health
In Australia, the beverages and the energy-dense foods that have a high content of sugar,
salt and fat are widely available. An imbalanced diet that contains high amounts of fat, sugar and
salt often result in increased rate of cancer, gallbladder stone, dental decay, osteoporosis, chronic
kidney disease, diabetes, insulin resistance, atherosclerosis, stroke and ischaemic heart diseases.
At the same time, it has also been found that less than 1 out of 10 Australian eat vegetables that
are enough for a single day. Less than half of the Australian population eat fruits according to the
guidelines. Inadequate vegetable and fruit intake will lead to the neurodegenerative diseases,
dementia and coronary heart diseases. Diet-related health outcomes now follow a social gradient

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is Australia and internationally Australians fall into the high-income groups with high levels of
education and better living conditions. These Australians eat balanced and a healthy diet that
leads to better health outcomes. However, it is important to note that the people residing in the
socioeconomically disadvantaged and remote areas, people living with the disabilities, minority
culture groups and the Indigenous Australians are less likely in a position to buy healthy food.
Thus their tendency to eat healthy food will reduce to a great extent and are more likely to
develop chronic diseases, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, poor oral health and more
likely to become obese or overweight (Aihw.gov.au 2018).
Nurse-led intervention
Practice nurses are the enrolled or the registered nurses that are employed or retained for
the purpose of general practice. The nursing intervention moves through the SWOT analysis in
order to find the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats.
Strengths- The nurse led intervention will include the identifying the lifestyle issues and
the possible diet issues that contribute to the obesity and at the same time will provide necessary
health education for the whole family. Wherever it is appropriate, the families will receive the
Medicare-funded from the government and the follow up will be done by the practice nurse. The
practice nurse will measure the effectiveness of the education imparted to them and at the same
time will develop strategies for addressing the issues of obesity. Whereas, if obesity-related
health issues are left untreated willed to health-related conditions. Practice nurses will undertake
the undertake the motivational interviewing and will provide brief solution based sessions along
with the families that will be able to discuss the potentially sensitive issues with the parents. The
practice nurses, registered nurses will assess the situation and initiate a care plan according to the
care needs of the clients within the scope of the nursing practice. This nursing care plan will also

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include the Medicare funding rebate (Newman et al. 2015). The primary school nurses will
primary health care services to the children that are belonging to the age group of 5 to 12 years.
The primary healthcare will include the care services for the purpose of health information and
promotion. The school nurses will engage will engage in general health centre management,
resource/networking and referral, school community development activities, health promotion,
health counselling and clinical healthcare (Gerards et al. 2012). The secondary school nurses will
be play a major role in the reducing the negative effects of the negative healthcare outcomes and
will help the young people to reduce the behaviour related to the negative health effects. The
negative health effects will include the injuries, suicide, depression, obesity, eating disorder,
smoking, alcohol and drug abuse. The role of the nurse will include assisting the young people to
make the healthy choices, school community development activities, health promotion and
planning, health counselling (Pbert et al. 2013). The community health nursing will include the
combining general nursing practice and primary health care. The community health nurses will
work with the local communities for the purpose of health promotion and prevention of illness
(Koniak-Griffin et al. 2015). The occupational health nurses will provide the safety services and
the programs for the community workers and the community groups. The occupational health
nurse will have an integral role in the in promoting and restoring of health and the prevention of
injury, illness and the providing scope for the emergency preparedness, environmental health and
disease management. it will also include the disease planning with respect to the human
technological and natural hazard (Sargent, Forrest and Parker 2012).
Weakness- The nurse led intervention requires a large number of nursing workforce and
it is widely known fact that in Australia there is a lack of the availability of the nursing
workforce. This acts as one of the major barriers to the delivery of the healthcare to the wider

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community. A large number of people that belongs from a community requires specific care
depending on the wide range of the ailments that they suffer from. Thus, in order to provide
individualised care, there is a big requirement for the skilled health workers and nurses.
Providing health care provisions for the wider community, population and the children will
require a large amount of funding from the government and this requires persistent funding
(Hoare, Mills and Francis 2012).
Opportunities- the nurse-led intervention will provide root level engagement with the
individuals, school children and adults and people that are associated with an occupation that can
lead to greater level of obesity. The nurse led intervention is based on providing education that is
an integral part of the solving obesity-related issues (Bryant, Hess and Bowen 2015).
Threats- Nurse-led intervention is one of the major contributors to primary health care
and it includes the nurses of all levels. Thus in order engage with the people at the community
level it is important to note that the language and the different culture acts as a barrier in the
delivery of the healthcare (Hart and Mareno 2014).
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the obesity is the biggest
concern for the Australian general population. The obesity-related health issues are one of the
major health issues that has affected the adults and the children. The social determinants of
obesity are the bad eating habits, lack of physical activities and improper diet. A majority of the
health issues related to the obesity is contributed by the calorie intensive food, foods containing
excessive salt and sugar.

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Reference
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Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018. First report on the National Health Priority
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Bryant, P.H., Hess, A. and Bowen, P.G., 2015. Social determinants of health related to obesity.
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Dailytelegraph.com.au, 2018. ‘Obesity takes 10 years off your life’. [online]
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