Ways to Health Status in Australia - Report Example

Ways to Report Health Status in Australia Name Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Ways to report health status in Australia 2 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 Reporting of health status in Australia 3 2.1 Death rates 3 2.2 Diabetes prevalence 4 2.3 Body weight 6 2.4 Health status of Aboriginal and non-aboriginal children using – body weight 7 3.0 Conclusion 8 Reflection 8 4.0 References 10 Ways to report health status in Australia 1.0 Introduction The Australian Institute of health and Welfare (AIHW) reports measurement of health status is important for a population because health does not only influence how people feel, but how they go about their daily activities (AIHW, 2016). A larger percentage of Australians report their health as ‘good’ or ‘better’ but such self assessment could mean different things. According to AIHW (2016) however, health refers to much more that the simple presence or absence of disease but rather should reflect factors of the gene, environment and lifestyle, socioeconomic conditions and cultural influences as well as whether or not there exists health care services and programs of the best possible quality. The AIHW therefore, examines health from a diverse range of perspectives from the leading types of ill health to specific health inequalities and risks faced by the various population groups and the services available for prevention and treatment of illnesses. This paper seeks to highlight the various indicators of the health status of Australians and then provide a comparison of the health status of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian children. The report will rely on information provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet and the Australian Bureau of Statistics to make this evaluation and derive conclusions. The report will focus on the following three health status indicators: death rates, Diabetes prevalence, and body weight. 2.0 Reporting of health status in Australia 2.1 Death rates The age and cause of death are critical indicators of the health status of a given population. These factors give an indication on the success of interventions that have been implemented to improve disease outcomes, the changes within the populations health status and the disease processes as well as insight into any inequalities in the health status between population groups (AIHW, 2017b). In 2008, Australia recorded 74, 000 deaths among male Australian with the leading cause of death in this population group being ischaemic heart disease. Other major causes of death included lung cancer and stroke (AIHW, 2017b). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistic (2014a), there were about 147, 700 deaths in Australian population in 2013 a figure that was 600 more that the deaths in 2012. Averagely, the number of deaths has risen from 2003 by 1% every year for males and by 1.2% for females. However, although the number of deaths has been rising, the numbers have represented a sustained fall in the percentage of the whole Australian population. From 1907 to 2013, Australia has recorded the age standardized rate of deaths for males and females falling by 71% and 76% respectively (AIHW 2015). In 2015, 3, 088 deaths in Australia were identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. For the period between 2013 and 2015, the age standardized death rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander was 0.98% of the total Australian population representing a slight decrease of 1% for the period 2003-2005. Generally, the age standardized rate of death for the Aboriginal and Straight Islander people was 1.7 times that for non-Indigenous Australians in 2015. Different jurisdiction also performed differently with Northern territory recording the highest and the New South Wales recording the lowest at 1.5% and 0.8% respectively (Australian Indiginous HealthInfoNet, 2015). 2.2 Diabetes prevalence Diabetes is a group of disorders that causes the body to fail in the conversion of glucose into energy. The result is increased sugar levels in the blood that results into serious health problems like heart disease, eye disease and blindness, kidney failure and other conditions. Several types of diabetes exist but the most common include the type 1 and types 2 diabetes as well as the Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). The type 1 diabetes is less common in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. This population is at a greater risk for the type 2 diabetes and it has cause serious health problems for this group. The Aboriginal and Strait Islander people have been found to develop this kind of diabetes much earlier and will usually die for it at an earlier age compared to other non-Indigenous people (AIHW, 2014). GDM has also been seen among some pregnant women in Australia although it has been more common among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander compared to other non-Indigenous women. Between the period 2012 and 2013, diabetes was reported by 9% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The report indicated that level of diabetes among this group was three times or more compared to the levels of the non-Indigenous people. A greater number of women (10%) reported cases of diabetes than men (8%) among the Aboriginal and Strait Islander people. There greater diabetes prevalence (13%) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote areas than those in urban areas (8%) (ABS, 2014b). This group of Australians also reported cases of diabetes at younger ages compared to the non-Indigenous and this prevalence increased as they became older from about 5% at the age of between 25-34 years to about 40% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of the age 55 years and above (ABS, 2014c). Diabetes has been a major cause of death among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and in 2013, there were recorded 202 deaths among this population. This represented the second major cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Islander people. It also meant that this disease caused death among these people six times more than it did for non-Indigenous people (Australian Indiginous HealthInfoNet, 2015) 2.3 Body weight More Australians continue to become overweight or obese with studies showing that about 63% of Australian adults being obese or overweight, representing a 10% increase from 1995 (AIHW, 2017e). The standard measure that is used to classify an individual’s weight status is the BMI. BMIs of between 25 and 29 are considered overweight and those more than 30 are considered obese. Being overweight or obese has been reported to increase a person’s risk for suffering cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancer and other conditions. A high BMI has been found to result from a number of contributing factors like poor nutrition, alcohol use, genetic predisposition physical inactivity etc or a combination of these factors (AIHW, 2012c). On the other hand, being underweight with BMI of 18.5 and below could lead to serious health consequences as well as reduced body immunity. Among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, abdominal obesity and Obesity diagnosed through BMI and waist circumference measurements have seen to be major risk factors for high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. At the same time, optimal BMI values and waist circumference limits have remained uncertain for the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people because of the different shapes of the body and other physical factors. There are suggestions, however, that a BMI of 22 could be more desirable for determining obesity than 25 among the Aboriginal people. Evidence has also indicated that measurement of the WHC among the Indigenous people gives greater accuracy and is easier to measure. The ‘variables of resistance’ method has also been found to be an easier means of calculation of the fat free mass in Aboriginals. Also used are measurements of weight and height, age gender in the clinical assessments and management of obesity 2.4 Health status of Aboriginal and non-aboriginal children using – body weight Research by the LSAC found that in Australian children, obesity at young age of 4 -5 years was reversed by the time the children were 8-9 years (AIHW, 2017f).Results of a survey by the Australian Health Survey in 2012 indicated that about one quarter of all children in Australia between the ages of 2 and 17 years were overweight or obese (AIHW, 2017d). Out of these, 18% were overweight while 7% were obese. There was no major difference between the percentages of girls and that of boys with regard to being obese or overweight. Across the different age groups, there were only slight differences on the rates of obesity or overweight. 23% of children aged 2 – 4 and 27% of those aged between 12 and 15 were eight overweight or obese (AIHW, 2017d). On the hand, 30% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children of the age 2 years to 14 years have been found to be obese (10%) or overweight (20%). The report also indicated that 62% of the Aboriginal children were on normal weight while about 8% were underweight (ABS, 2014d). The percentages of Aboriginal boys and girls of this age were not very different with boys recorded at 28% and girls at 32%. After age-adjustment, it was found that the total obesity and overweight levels were comparatively higher for Aboriginals between the ages 2 and 14 that the figures for non-Indigenous children of the same age (at the ratio 1.2) because of the higher rates in both the genders for Aboriginals (10% for Aboriginal boys compared with 6% for non- Aboriginal boys and 11% and 7% for girls respectively. For children between the ages of 3 – 17 years, a study in remote central Australia conducted in 2010 revealed that about 21% of the children of Aboriginal origin were overweight while 5.4% had obesity 3.0 Conclusion This report was aimed at highlighting three health status indicators used to assess the health of Australian populations. The report has also made a comparison of the health status of Aboriginal children and that of non-Aboriginal children. As has been discussed above, death rate, diabetes prevalence and body weight are some of the ways the health status of Australians is reported. The age of death and cause of death are recorded and used to evaluate interventions put in place for disease control and to provide insight into changes in health status of the population and inequalities in the population. The Australian government is also interested in monitoring body weight and the related conditions like diabetes to assess the health status of the citizens. This paper also found that on average Aboriginal children recorded 1.2 times higher obesity/overweight levels than the non-Aboriginals. Reflection I have learnt that the Australian government has keen interest in the health status of the Australian people and has been keen to develop guidelines that have been used for this purpose. As a result, the government has accumulated numerous information about the health status and this information has been used in the betterment and improvement of the health interventions and policy development. The Australian people are faced by a wide variety of predisposing factors that have lead to a big percentage of the population having to deal with a range of health complications and diseases. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who represent a minority percentage of the Australian population have a sight general disadvantage in the matters of health and personal wellbeing in many of the sectors of health. Their life expectancy is slightly lower compared to that of the general Australian population, their death rate with regard to percentage in the total population is slightly higher and they are more likely to be of overweight or obese compared to the whole Australian population. It appears like the Aboriginals remain at a disadvantage in terms of good health and seem to be predisposed to health risks at a greater scale compared to the non-Aboriginals. 4.0 References ABS. (2014). Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health survey: updated results, 2012–13. (ABS Catalogue no. 4727.0.55.006) Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics ABS. (2014b). Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health survey: updated results, 2012-13 - Australia: table 5.3 [data cube]. Retrieved 28th April 2017 from ABS. (2014c). Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health survey: updated results, 2012-13 - Australia: table 6.3 [data cube]. Retrieved 28th April 2017 from AIHW. (2012). Australia’s health 2012. (AIHW Catalogue no AUS 156). Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved on 28th April 2017 from < http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=10737422172> AIHW. (2014). Australia’s health 2014: the 14th biennial health report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved on 28th April 2017 from < http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication- detail/?id=60129547205 > AIHW. (2017b). Health Status. Retrieved from < http://www.aihw.gov.au/male-health/health- status/> AIHW. (2017d). Who is overweight? Retrieved on 28th April from < http://www.aihw.gov.au/who-is-overweight/ > AIHW. (2017e). Overweight and obesity. Retrieved on 28th April from < http://www.aihw.gov.au/overweight-and-obesity/ > AIHW. (2017f). Health through your life. Retrieved on 28th April 2017 from < http://www.aihw.gov.au/australias-health/2014/healthy-life/ > Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet. (2015). Mortality. Retrieved from < http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/overviews/mortality> Read More