Primary Health Care in a Global Context: Diabetes Strategy Evaluation

This report evaluates Australia's primary health care strategy for diabetes, focusing on Strategic Outcome 3 of the National PHC Strategic Framework. The report identifies diabetes as the chosen public health issue, prevalent in Australia, and analyzes how the framework addresses social determinants like equity and social justice, particularly within vulnerable populations such as indigenous communities and those with low socioeconomic status. It examines epidemiological factors contributing to diabetes, including age, history, obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity, and discusses health promotion strategies for prevention, screening, and early intervention. Furthermore, the report connects these strategies to the WHO's five key principles of primary health care, emphasizing the organization of healthcare services, stakeholder participation, and policy dialogue to achieve better health outcomes. The role of nursing practice is discussed in the context of applying the strategic framework and promoting health equity. References include Department of Health, WHO, and other relevant sources.

Running head: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
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PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
According to WHO (2019), primary healthcare is demarcated as the caring of the
individual apart from treatment of the disease or the illness, the individual has been suffering
from. It helps to meet the health requirement of the individual in order to enhance the health
outcomes of the patient with the help of increased efficiency and quality care. The chosen public
health issue is diabetes, which has the prevalence rate of around 6% of the whole population of
the Australia. According to the (Department of Health, 2019), around 1.2 million of the entire
inhabitants of the Australia has been detected with diabetes. The chosen primary healthcare
strategic framework is the strategic outcome 3, which intends to take actions to in order to
challenge the social determinants of the health and comfort with highlighting on the prevention,
health promotion, detection and accordingly developed intervention (Standing Council on
Health, 2019). It aims to improve the wellbeing outcome of the patient, who has been suffering
from diabetes. According to the framework strategy of the primary healthcare, to reduce the
recurrence rate of the diabetes, several health promotion strategies are applied to educate the
people about the prevention strategy of the diabetes, the screening procedure such as
measurement of the blood and the early intervention, which include diet modification and
involvement in physical activities (Department of Health, 2019).
According to the WHO (2019) the social determinants of the wellbeing are defined as the
living condition of the individual in which they are born, raise, live and then age which shapes
their life. Equity and social justice are the social determinant which tends to change the living
pattern of the individual. Equity in the healthcare facilities access is very essential as it leads to
enhance health outcome of the public health (Marmot, 2017). The diabetics’ prevalence rate in
the Australian indigenous population, individual belonging to low socio economic conditions are
four times higher than that of the other Australian population (Department of Health, 2019). One

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of the major causes behind this is the inequity in the access of the healthcare facilities among
these populations. Social justice is also considered as one of the social health determinants,
according to which the each and every individual of the population is able to avoid the illness
which can be preventable such as diabetes and hence can escape premature death (López &
Gadsden, 2016). With the assistance of the strategic framework 3, the vulnerable populations of
the Australia are educated about the prevention strategy of the diabetes in order to enhance the
social justice among the patient. Different health promotion strategy should be developed to
increase health equity among the vulnerable population of the Australia. With the aid of the
strategic outcome 3, the ways to address the social determinants such as, equity and social justice
is identified. Life style related risk-factor for the diabetes such as consumption of unhealthy diet,
smoking are targeted (Torres et al., 2015). Based on that, superlative treatment or interventions
are evaluated and should be provided to the patient.
An epidemiological factor is demarcated as the entities which possess the potential to
alter or modify the health condition of the population. With the aid of strategic outcome 3, the
vulnerable population is educated about the epidemiological factors of the disease. The
epidemiological factors responsible for diabetes are the age, past medical history, obesity,
smoking and physical inactivity (Zheng, Ley & Hu, 2018). The chosen framework will educate
the people about these factors with the help of the different health program. Apart from these,
health equity is enhanced which will assist each and every individual to access the healthcare
facilities and get the appropriate treatment of the disease.
According to WHO (2019), the primary goal of the healthcare service is to attain better
and enhanced healthcare service for the whole population. In order to achieve the goal, five
different key elements have been identified which includes,

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First goal is social disparity and the social exclusion in the healthcare setting. With the
help of strategic outcome 3, all the social determinants which are responsible for causing the
disease are identified and based on these, the health outcomes of the individual is enhanced. In
addition to these, the life style related risk factor are identified and targeted which will help to
achieve the second goal formulated by the WHO which is, organizing healthcare service for the
population according to their healthcare needs. In case of people suffering from diabetes, the risk
of infection in smokers and the obese are higher than any other individual, hence the treatment
should be person centered.
The strategic outcome 3 also aims to apply the best evidence treatment available for the
illness which includes involvement of the family member. In case of the diabetes, the patient is
provided with specific diet, involvement of the physical activity, which requires involvement of
the family member, which fulfills the third principle formulated by WHO that is, enhancing
stakeholder’s participation.
It also aims to identify to enhance the use of best treatment for the whole population
which aids to achieve goal 4 that is, policy dialogue is pursued with the aid of the collaborative
models and goal 5 that is, in all different sectors, the health is integrated developed by WHO
(2019).
To conclude, strategic outcome 3 of the primary healthcare framework aims to provide
different strategies that assist tackle the social determinants responsible for causing a disease
with the help of health promotion strategy, prevention, detection and intervention. It also aids to
promote heath equity and social justice which is mentioned in the discussion. The
epidemiological factors associated with the strategy are also discussed. WHO has formulated 5

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key principles for the primary healthcare which are achieved with the support of strategic
outcome 3 of the healthcare framework. The strategic outcome 3 aims to identify the social
determinants of the health such as age, education, health, and employment equity in order to
enhance the health outcomes. The life style reacted risks are then determined and targeted and
based on that the interventions are formulated.

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References:
Department of Health. (2019). Department of Health | Diabetes. Retrieved 19 August 2019, from
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/chronic-diabetes
López, N., & Gadsden, V. L. (2016). Health inequities, social determinants, and intersectionality.
Marmot, M. (2017). Social justice, epidemiology and health inequalities. European journal of
epidemiology, 32(7), 537-546.
Standing Council on Health. (2019). NATIONAL PRIMARY HEALTH CARE STRATEGIC
FRAMEWORK. Retrieved 19 August 2019, from
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/434853/nphc_strategic_frame
work_final.pdf
Torres, A., Blasi, F., Dartois, N., & Akova, M. (2015). Which individuals are at increased risk of
pneumococcal disease and why? Impact of COPD, asthma, smoking, diabetes, and/or
chronic heart disease on community-acquired pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal
disease. Thorax, 70(10), 984-989.
WHO. (2019). WHO | Chapter 7: Health Systems: principled integrated care. Retrieved 20
August 2019, from https://www.who.int/whr/2003/chapter7/en/index1.html
World Health Organisation. (2018). Primary Health Care. Retrieved 19 August 2019, From:
https://www.who.int/primary-health/en/
Zheng, Y., Ley, S. H., & Hu, F. B. (2018). Global aetiology and epidemiology of type 2 diabetes
mellitus and its complications. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 14(2), 88.