Hsc pdhpe full course notes, Updated 2023
HSC Core 1: Health Priorities in Australia
How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified?
Measuring health status
Measuring health status is an important aspect of promoting health in Australia - it allows us to identify priority hea...
How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified?
Measuring health status
Measuring health status is an important aspect of promoting health in Australia - it
allows us to identify priority health issues, monitor progress & re-evaluate health
promotions.
Role of epidemiology
● Epidemiology is the study of disease in groups or populations through the
collection of data & information, to identify patterns & causes.
● Used by governments & health-related organisations to obtain a picture of
health status of a population to identify patterns & analyse how health
services & facilities are used.
● Epidemiology considers the patterns of disease in terms of:
- Prevalence - number of cases in a population at a specific time.
- Incidence - the number of new cases occurring in a population over
a period of time.
- Distribution - the extent.
- Apparent causes - determinants & indicators
● Commonly uses statistics on births, deaths, disease incidence, money
spent on health care, disease prevalence, hospital use & work days lost.
● Epidemiology has proven to be an effective approach to measuring health
status but it has some limitations as:
- It does not always show significant variations between the
health status of populations.
- Might not accurately indicate quality of life in terms of people’s level
of distress, impairment or disability.
- Cannot provide the whole health picture, data on some areas such
as mental health are incomplete or non-existent.
- Fail to explain ‘why’ health inequalities exist.
- Do not account for determinants.
Measures of epidemiology
Measure Definition What’s happening in
Australia?
Life expectancy Is a measure of how long, Increasing
on average, a person - Males: 80.4yrs
is expected to live. - Females: 84.6yrs
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Mortality The number of deaths The leading causes of death
from a specific cause in Australia are:
or in a specific population cardiovascular disease,
over a period of time cerebrovascular disease,
(usually alzheimer’s and
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one dementia followed by lung
year) cancer.
.
Morbidity Trends in illness, injury In Australia, our disability
and disease free years are increasing,
which do not result in meaning people are not just
death in a specific living longer, but they are
population. living longer free from
chronic illnesses. Leading
issues of morbidity in
Australia are: increased
rates of diabetes and
dementia. Others include
cardiovascular disease,
oral health,
musculoskeletal and
mental health disorders.
Infant Mortality The number of deaths in Decreasing
the first year
of life per 1000 live births.
Identifying priority health issues
SPPPC (Social justice principles, Priority population groups, Prevalence of
condition, Potential for prevention & intervention, Costs to the individual &
community.)
Social Justice principles
● Social justice is the promotion of fundamental & universal human rights &
the removal of inequality. This involves identifying areas where health
inequalities exist & providing resources & support to eliminate inequalities.
● Principles of social justice:
- Equity - resources are allocated to populations in most need e.g.
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) receive additional
funding & resources.
- Diversity - differences that exist between individuals + groups
e.g. providing brochures in multiple languages & having
interpreters in hospitals.
- Supportive environments - environments where people work, live
& play e.g. breast screen vans in rural & remote areas.
● Social justice principles seek to recognise & address both the health
outcomes & the factors that influence health.
Priority population groups
● Some of our priority groups are:
- ATSI: have much higher death rates (heart disease, injury, respiratory
disease & diabetes)
- Low socioeconomic: have much higher incidence of risk factors such
as high blood pressure & smoking.
- Elderly
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- Rural & remote: have higher death rates & incidence of mental health
problems & injury.
- Males: are at a greater risk of developing heart disease & lung cancer.
Also less likely to seek medical assistance.
Prevalence of condition
● Prevalence is the current number of cases of the illness or condition.
Epidemiological data on the number of existing cases is a key piece of
information that can be used to identify priory health issues.
● Identifying trends can also be used to determine which conditions may
need to be addressed.
● Cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, mental health issues, asthma &
injury are major causes of mortality & morbidity in Australia and many
are preventable.
Potential for prevention & early intervention
● As a priority issue is identified, it is vital that there is a potential for
prevention & early intervention that will make treatment more successful.
The easier it is to prevent a disease, the more likely a health promotion
will have an impact on the burden of the disease & reduce its incidence.
● Conditions/diseases that are easily preventable include; obesity, type 2
diabetes, lung cancer & skin cancer.
● Conditions/diseases that have potential for early intervention include;
breastcancer, arthritis & cardiovascular disease/heart attack.
Costs to the individual & community
● The effect of disease & injury on community are often measured in terms of
disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). This measure is used to assess &
compare the fatal & non-fatal effects of disease on the population.
● One DALY is described as ‘1 year of healthy life lost to premature death,
prolonged illness or disability or a combination of these factors’. The more
DALYs, the greater the burden.
● The measured cost of ill-health can be split into direct and indirect costs.
- Direct costs are those that can be financial. Include money spent on
prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Information on hospital
admissions, length of stay in hospital prevention strategies, the cost
of medical services/treatments and pharmaceutical prescriptions can
be used to estimate the costs of ill-health in a population.
- Indirect costs are difficult to measure accurately, such as an
individual’s reduced quality of life & relationship breakdowns
associated with ill-health. When individuals are diagnosed with health
conditions, their emotional wellbeing is affected and can lead to
reduced self-esteem, social isolation and depression.
Individuals who experience a complete or partial loss of independence
due to illness, usually face an indirect cost to the individual's family
and friends due to relationship breakdown or having to care for the
individual. Indirect cost to the community is the loss of productivity
associated with the individual being absent from work due to ill health.
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