Exploring Social Determinants of Health in Contemporary Australia

This essay explores the social determinants of health and illness in contemporary Australian society. It discusses how factors like socioeconomic status, early life experiences, social exclusion, employment, housing, and the built environment influence health outcomes. The essay highlights disparities in health based on socioeconomic position, with lower socioeconomic groups experiencing higher rates of chronic diseases and lower average lifespans. It also examines the impact of social exclusion, unemployment, and inadequate housing on mental and physical health. The essay further discusses the role of the built environment and the widening economic diversity in shaping health and social well-being. It concludes by emphasizing the need for community-level health centers and proactive government policies to address these challenges and promote a healthy work-life balance.

Contemporary Australian
Society

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The social determinants of health and illness
The contemporary Australian Society is undergoing many types of changes. These changes
have affected the Social determinants of Health and Illness in Australia. The social
determinants of Health are considered to be as the situation in which a person takes birth,
grow, live, work and age. Such situations have designed by the circulation of resources,
money and power at the national, local and global levels. In 2014-15, around 20% of
Australian lying in the lower socioeconomic areas was 1.6 times as probable as top most 20%
are also facing two chronic health situations like diabetes and heart related disease (Germov
& Poole, 2015). People staying in the lowest socio-economic region have 3 years lesser
average age than people that lives in uppermost area.
In terms of Socioeconomic position can be described by indicators such educational
attainment, occupation or income (Reading & Wien, 2009). 66% of population aged 20-64
years in 2017 held a non-school qualification. In 2013-14, approx. 13% of the population of
Australia were assessed to be in comparative income poverty. This number has altered in a
very small amount over a last decade. In the primary work groups, managers were leading in
terms of average weekly total cash earning.
In terms of early life, one out of 10 mothers that gave birth to the children in 2015 had
smoked at least ones in their pregnancy period. The smoking rates have varied from 3.4% in
the highest socio-economic group to 18% in the lowest socioeconomic group. Around 22%
children who entered primary school in 2015 were known to be developmentally vulnerable
on one or more aspects. This includes social competence, physical wellbeing and health,
language, cognition skills, emotional maturity, general knowledge and communication skills
(Bourke, Humphreys, Wakerman & Taylor, 2012). Around 10% of the children in the age
group of 4-12 years are having emotional and social wellbeing in 2013-14 (Badland, et. al.
2014). This had an effect on the individual and relational characteristics in their school, home
or at other community environment.
In terms of social exclusion, Australian society has changed and this had a negative effect on
the society development. Social exclusion by the help of stigmatisation or discrimination can
lead to psychological damage and sometimes may harm health by creating stress and anxiety
in the long term. Sometimes illness also causes social exclusion. Around 4.3 million people
of Australia are over the age 15 years and have experienced social exclusion in 2015.

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Approx. 1 million people are facing deep exclusion and 1.1% is very deep social exclusion.
Certain type of people are more likely to face social exclusion like people over the age of 65
years, immigrants from Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander people, early school leavers,
people having certain kind of disability or having long term health situation, non-English
speaking nations, lone-parent households, public housing tenants and lone-parent households
(Yen, Gillespie, Kljakovic, Brien, Jan, Lehnbom, ... & Usherwood, 2011).
Australian society has also changed in terms of the employment and work. Unemployment
has caused psychological stress and has impacted on the mental and physical health. Number
of unemployed in the country has increased and hence social being has been effected truly.
For people over the age of 15 years, the ratio of employment to population has varied to a
large extent in last 2 decade i.e. 58% in December 1997 to 62% in December 2017. The
unemployment rate fell from 7.9% to 5.4%. In 2017, there were approx. 1.4 million families
in Australia and approx. 11% of them had dependents (McMillan, et. al. 2013).
Housing and Homelessness is also an important social determinant of health. Having access
to affordable, secure housing and affordable can reduce the probability of people being
socially excluded by factors like overcrowding, poor mental and physical health as well as
homelessness. There are more than 116,000 women, men and children in Australia were
known to be homeless in 2016. This shows an increase of 4.6% from the data that was
collected in 2011. Around 195,000 households were on social housing list with more than
47% waiting for more than 2 years. Due to overcrowding people who needed extra bedroom
was 3.8% higher than 2011 i.e. 3.4%. Overcrowding was the major problem for indigenous
household as it was 10% (Australian Government, 2018).
Another essential social determinant for health is Built environment. It is basically the setting
for human activity. It affects health equity where it impacts on behaviour, safety and local
resources. Such environment also influences, housing conditions, social determinants, access
to educational and work opportunities. In 2011, around 98% of all the residents of Canberra
lived in 400 meters of public green space as compared to 79% of the residents in Melbourne.
In 2012, approx. a quarter of the total commuters had a travel time of 45 minutes or more in
one way (Australian government, 2013). It results in financial cost through journey delay,
fatigue, stress and other health influences.
Due to the change in the external environment the health and social well-being of Australian
society is changing from past few decades. The transition can also be noticed in terms of

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living wages which has changed a lot in the last few decades. The economic diversity has
widened even after the fact that per-capita income has increased (Germov & Poole, 2015).
This is because the difference between the rich and the poor is increasing at much faster rate.
Rich people are getting richer and poor are becoming poorer. It is having effect on the health
condition. People on the lower side of the economic platform have been facing more chronic
health issues as described in the social determinant of health.
Health policies of the government towards improving the health and social well-being of the
individual have changed over the decades. Overcrowding in the aboriginal society has proved
to be the challenge for the government in the modern day society. Community level health
centres needs to be developed. The environment is also degrading hence in future the health
condition of the people is further going to decrease and hence the government should be
ready with their plans to manage this situation (Germov & Poole, 2015). The healthy work-
life balance can help the firm in maintaining their health condition. A stressful life is a major
reason for the people gaining various kinds of health issues and illness.

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REFERENCES
Australian government, (2013) The social determinants of Health. Retrieved from:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/oatsih-
healthplan-toc~determinants
Australian Government, (2018) Australian’s health 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/746ded57-183a-40e9-8bdb-828e21203175/aihw-
aus-221-chapter-4-2.pdf.aspx
Badland, H., Whitzman, C., Lowe, M., Davern, M., Aye, L., Butterworth, I., ... & Giles-Corti,
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Bourke, L., Humphreys, J. S., Wakerman, J., & Taylor, J. (2012). Understanding rural and
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McMillan, S. S., Wheeler, A. J., Sav, A., King, M. A., Whitty, J. A., Kendall, E., & Kelly, F.
(2013). Community pharmacy in Australia: a health hub destination of the
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Reading, C. L., & Wien, F. (2009). Health inequalities and the social determinants of
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Yen, L., Gillespie, J., Kljakovic, M., Brien, J. A., Jan, S., Lehnbom, E., ... & Usherwood, T.
(2011). Health professionals, patients and chronic illness policy: a qualitative
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