Health and Human Development Notes

Health and Wellbeing

  • Health and wellbeing is the overall state of a person’s physical, social, emotional, mental, and spiritual existence.
  • It is dynamic and subjective.

Dimensions of Health and Wellbeing

Physical Health and Wellbeing
  • Functioning of the body and its systems.
  • Includes physical fitness, energy levels, body weight, blood pressure, and absence of illness or disease.
Social Health and Wellbeing
  • Ability to form meaningful relationships and adapt to social situations.
  • Includes communication skills, empathy, and a supportive network.
Emotional Health and Wellbeing
  • Ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions.
  • Involves resilience, mood regulation, self-awareness, and capacity to respond appropriately to emotional situations.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
  • Current state of a person’s mind.
  • Includes the ability to think clearly, solve problems, cope with stress, make decisions, and maintain self-esteem.
Spiritual Health and Wellbeing
  • Involves a sense of purpose, values, morals, and beliefs.
  • Includes feeling connected to others, nature, or a belief system and having direction in life.

WHO Prerequisites for Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) outlines key prerequisites for good health:

  • Peace: Reduces violence, displacement, and stress.
  • Shelter: Provides protection and promotes security.
  • Education: Improves health literacy and employment.
  • Food: Reliable access to nutritious food.
  • Income: Enables access to healthcare, education, and housing.
  • Stable ecosystem: Ensures access to clean resources.
  • Sustainable resources: Allows for long-term access to food and water.
  • Social justice: Ensures equal rights.
  • Equity: Recognizes that some need more support to achieve health.

Perspectives on Health and Wellbeing

Youth Perspectives

  • Focus on mental, emotional, and social dimensions.
  • Concerns include stress from school, body image, and social media.
  • Value emotional balance, acceptance, and social connection.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives

  • Holistic view: health is connected to community, culture, and land.
  • Spiritual, cultural, and community ties are central.

Indicators of Health Status

  • Incidence: New cases of a condition in a population over a period.
  • Prevalence: Total number of existing cases at a specific time.
  • Morbidity: Illness levels, including incidence and prevalence.
  • Mortality: Number of deaths in a population.
  • Burden of disease: Measured in DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years), combining YLL (years of life lost) and YLD (years lived with disability).
  • Hospitalisation rates: Frequency of hospital admissions.
  • Life expectancy: Average years a person is expected to live.
  • Core activity limitation: Struggles with self-care or mobility.
  • Psychological distress: Mental strain, measured by the Kessler scale (K10).
  • Self-assessed health status: Subjective rating of one's own health.

Equations

  • Burden of disease is measured in DALYs: DALYs=YLL+YLDDALYs = YLL + YLD

Health Status of Australia’s Youth

  • Generally positive with low mortality and high life expectancy.
  • Leading health issues: Mental illness (anxiety and depression), injuries, obesity, and asthma.
  • Rising psychological distress among adolescents.

Sociocultural Factors Influencing Youth Health

  • Family: Supportive families improve wellbeing and lifestyle habits.
  • Peer group: Influences identity and risk-taking behaviours.
  • Education: Improves knowledge and decision-making.
  • Income: Influences access to resources.
  • Health literacy: Impacts how effectively youth seek health information.

Youth Health Issues Requiring Action

  • Mental health, alcohol and drug use, injuries, sexual health, obesity, and discrimination.

Government and Non-Government Programs

  • Programs aim to reduce health inequalities and improve youth wellbeing.
  • Government programs like headspace offer mental health services.
  • The Butterfly Foundation focuses on body image.
  • Doctors in Schools provide accessible health services.

Community Values and Expectations

  • Values include respect, equity, access, effectiveness, and confidentiality.
  • Programs are expected to be safe, inclusive, culturally appropriate, and evidence-based.

Key Features of a Youth Health Issue – Example: Mental Health

  • Impact on health dimensions: Affects emotional, mental, social, physical, and spiritual wellbeing.
  • Data: Mental illness is the top burden of disease for 15–24-year-olds.
  • Risk factors: Family conflict, bullying, social media pressure, and trauma.
  • Protective factors: Supportive relationships and help-seeking.
  • Services and support: GP services, school psychologists, and headspace.
  • Programs: headspace, Smiling Mind, and beyondblue youth programs.
  • Personal strategies: Talking, exercising, and mindfulness.

Costs Associated with Mental Health

  • Direct: GP appointments, medication, and hospitalisation.
  • Indirect: Missed school, reduced income, and reliance on family.
  • Intangible: Emotional pain and loss of confidence.

Youth Advocacy

  • Raising awareness and promoting campaigns.

Major Nutrients and Their Functions

  • Carbohydrates: Provide main energy source.
  • Fibre: Aids digestion and controls blood glucose.
  • Protein: Builds body tissues and a secondary energy source.
  • Fats:
    • Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated (good): Improve heart health.
    • Saturated and trans fats (bad): Increase heart disease risk.
  • Water: Supports body functions and regulates temperature.
  • Calcium: Strengthens bones and teeth.
  • Iron: Helps form haemoglobin and prevents anaemia.
  • B-group vitamins: Help release energy from food.
  • Vitamin C: Helps iron absorption and the immune system.
  • Vitamin D: Aids calcium absorption.

Food Selection Models

  • Australian Guide to Healthy Eating: A visual food circle.
  • Healthy Eating Pyramid: Shows layers of food groups.
  • Health Star Rating System: Front-of-pack label showing healthiness.

Nutritional Imbalance

  • Short-term effects: Fatigue, constipation, and dehydration.
  • Long-term effects: Obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Sources of Nutrition Information and Validity

  • Reliable sources include health professionals and government websites.
  • Evaluate a source by considering credentials, purpose, date, bias, and evidence.

Marketing Tactics Targeting Youth

  • Includes celebrity endorsements and social media influencers.
  • Often promotes processed foods.

Enablers and Barriers to Healthy Eating

  • Social, cultural, and political factors.
  • Media and advertising influence choices.