Assessing Obesity as a Key Public Health Priority in Australia

This report examines obesity as a significant public health priority in Australia, focusing on its impact on young adults and the reasons for its prioritization. It discusses the key concepts and ideas related to obesity, including health equity principles and social determinants of health such as dietary factors, physical activity, and lifestyle. The report highlights the prevalence of obesity in Australia, its associated health issues like heart disease and diabetes, and the economic burden it places on healthcare. It emphasizes the importance of health promotion strategies, particularly using social media, to raise awareness and encourage healthy behaviors among young adults to reduce the risk of obesity and improve overall public health. The report concludes that addressing obesity through comprehensive health promotion efforts is crucial for mitigating its negative impacts and improving the health outcomes of the Australian population.

primary health care

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
National health priority includes the focus on public health which are getting affected due to
any reason or cause. This can have high impact on individual life along with country. Here,
obesity is one of the major public health priority which are effective and causing health concern
for large number of population within country. There are large number of young adult population
are affected through the higher care of obesity. There is need to take care of this through using
different promotion and strategy which can be effective to reduce and minimise the health
concern. There is discussion about the reasons for choosing obesity as the public health priority.
There is also discussion about the key concept and ideas. It also includes the understanding of
health equity principles and related social determinants of health (Mihrshahi et. al., (2018)).
MAIN BODY
Obesity refers to a condition which includes the excess body fat which can be accumulated
within any individual. This can lead to negative effect on individual health. It can also lead to
major cause of disability. Obesity is highly effective health concern through which large number
of young adult population are getting affected which also lead to create high negative health
impact on individual. There are various reasons for obesity within individual which can cause
due to socioeconomics, individual and environmental causes. There are also some causes which
may include physical activity and diet. Here, diet and physical activity plays an important role in
increasing cases of diabetes within Australian young adult population which should be taken in
consideration and apply some strategy to avoid and minimize increasing cases of obesity
(Albracht-Schulte et. al., (2018)).
Health equity principle includes the people who are in greatest needs, and disparities in
detection, treatment and survivorship. Here, it is essential to get the authentic expression which
can deal with respect, justice, access along with dignity. Here, it is needed to take care about the
working condition, income, education, medical care, social inclusion and many more.
There are some of the social determinants of health which may include dietary factor,
physical activity, sleep, genetics, lifestyle, environmental exposure and many more. These are
effective and can lead to cause various negative heath impact like obesity as major within large
young adult population (García et. al., (2020)).

This includes the social determinants which are associated with taking care of individual
where obesity should be focused by delivery of better healthcare services and ensure about
prevention of overeating. This can help in reduce the risk of obesity within individual. Through
managing the experience and taking care of it can help in delivering better and effective response
towards reducing the cases of obesity within young adults.
There are about 2 in 3 people are affected due to obesity which is one of the major concern
within Australia. There are about 67% of young adult population are getting affected where
about 36% are overweight but not obese and about 31% are obese (Palakshappa et. al., (2019)).
These may lead to includes about 12.5 million adults overall within Australia that lead to obesity
within them (Lavie et. al., (2018)).
Figure 1: Statistics for obesity
Obesity is the health issues for Australia because there is decrease in the health index which
create different negative health impact on the young adult population. Here, obesity leads to one
of the main factor to different chronic diseases which are associated with individual bed health.
Some of the associated health issue arises due obesity are high blood pressure, heart diseases or
stroke, diabetes, osteoarthritis, gout and breathing problems (Ma et. al., (2020)). This is the one
which can lead to crate high negative health impact on individual health within Australian young

adult population. These are some of the diseases which are caused due to obesity impact. These
diseases are highly effective and lead to create high cost burden to the healthcare. There is also
need to use the large amount of money which are associated with taking care of their health and
provide health improvement through delivery of health treatment and care (Hill et. al., (2019)).
Figure 2: Statistics of obesity within different age people in Australia
To avoid the risk of obesity, there is need to take some effective measures that can allow to
provide better and effective response which can allow to get better improvement in public health
issues. In this, there is need use different strategy which may include promotion, treatment and
management. Here, treatment and management are the last option which are high costly and
needed for large amount which can lead to healthcare burden within Australia. Medication and
management is the last option which should be taken when individual possess the obesity within
them and starts to face different health related diseases (Kite et. al., (2018)).
Health promotion is one of best strategy which can be effective to reduce and minimise the
increasing cases within young adult population. Here, it is essential to focus on the health
promotion which have high potential to provide information about the cause and negative impact

of obesity that can lead to create high negative impact on their life and raise financial burden. It
is also needed to ensure about the healthcare promotion where healthcare professional can also
promote healthy diet which can be healthy and help in decrease the cases and risk of obesity
within young adult population. There is also need to use the media which may include
newspaper, social media, television, email and others. Here, social media can be highly effective
which have high reach to young adult population within seconds. Through social media it can
allow to share the health related information within young adult population which can also be
effective and allow to share information more effectively.
Figure 3: young adults statistics for obesity
There is need to provide information about the health benefits to younger adults about
possessing good and healthy body. This can enable them thorough getting better and effective
response to avoid and minimise the risk of increasing cases of obesity within young adults. Here,
creating awareness about possessing good health is effective and allow to get better care of their
health. It also helps in influencing other to possess good health to avoid obesity and live healthier
life (Partridge et. al., (2018)).

Through using the social media, it can create large number of awareness within young adult
population that can cause high impact on individual life. Here, promotion about the healthy diet
is easy and have the potential to influence large number of population to adopt such healthy
behaviour which can help in getting better and improved health and avoid the risk of obesity.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can have concluded that obesity is one of the public health
priority which should be taken in consideration to reduce the negative heath impact on large
young adult population within Australia. Obesity can cause various disease like heart issues and
high blood pressure, certain cancer, diabetes and many more. This can increase the burden on
healthcare which are associated with taking different measure that can help in reduce the cases of
obesity. Here, health promotion is effective and using social media for health promotion can
have high impact on the young adult population. There is discussion about the reason of
considering obesity as national health priority. It also includes key concepts and ideas toward the
obesity. It also includes the comprehensive knowledge and understanding of health equity
principles and related social determinants of health that are related to obesity.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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García, J. J., Grills, C., Villanueva, S., Lane, K. A., Takada-Rooks, C., & Hill, C. D. (2020).
Analyzing the landscape: Community organizing and health equity. Journal of
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A. (2019). Health in Preconception, Pregnancy and Postpartum Global Alliance:
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Kite, J., Grunseit, A., Bohn-Goldbaum, E., Bellew, B., Carroll, T., & Bauman, A. (2018). A
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American College of Cardiology, 72(13), 1506-1531.
Ma, Y., Ajnakina, O., Steptoe, A., & Cadar, D. (2020). Higher risk of dementia in English older
individuals who are overweight or obese. International journal of epidemiology, 49(4),
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Mihrshahi, S., Gow, M. L., & Baur, L. A. (2018). Contemporary approaches to the prevention
and management of paediatric obesity: an Australian focus. Medical Journal of
Australia, 209(6), 267-274.
Palakshappa, D., Speiser, J. L., Rosenthal, G. E., & Vitolins, M. Z. (2019). Food insecurity is
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