Australia's Health Priorities

Priorities in Australia's Health

Summary

• The Role of Epidemiology

  • Epidemiology: Study of patterns and causes of health and disease in populations to improve health.

    → taken from hospitals, health professionals, surveys & Medicare

  • Measures of epidemiology:

    • Mortality: Number of deaths in a population over a time period.

    • Infant Mortality: Number of deaths in the first year of life per 1000 live births.

    • Morbidity: Rates, distribution, and trends of illness, disease, and injury in a population.

    • Life Expectancy: Estimate of years a person is expected to live at a particular age.

      • Males born in 2016-2018: 80.75 years.

      • Females born in 2016-2018: 84.9 years.

      • High life expectancy is linked to low infant mortality, an aging population, and access to high-quality healthcare.

• Identifying Priority Health Issues:

  • Social Justice Principles:

    • Equity: Fair allocation of funding and resources (e.g., Medicare, additional funding for ATSI).

    • Diversity: Ensuring sufficient healthcare services for all diverse groups (e.g., interpreters in hospitals).

    • Supportive Environments: Environments that support health through cost, availability, and access.

  • Priority Population Groups: Identifying groups suffering increased rates of illness and disease (e.g., males, ATSI).

    • Males have higher rates of cancer.

    • ATSI can expect to live 10 years less than non-ATSI.

    • Lower oral health in people from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

  • Prevalence of Condition: Rates and trends of morbidity and mortality highlighting health problems of concern.

    • CVD, Cancer, Injury, Mental Health, Asthma, Diabetes, Arthritis contribute substantially to mortality and morbidity and are seen as priority areas.

  • Potential for Prevention and Early Intervention: Focus on preventable chronic illnesses.

    • Main risk factors: smoking, diet, alcohol, physical activity levels.

  • Costs to the Individual and Community:

    • Direct Costs: Medical expenses, loss of employment.

    • Indirect Costs: Pain, loss of quality of life, pressure on families, emotional toll, absenteeism, decreased productivity, and retraining.

    • Direct Community Costs: Funding of the healthcare system.

    • Indirect Community Costs: Loss of contribution to society.

In-Depth

The Role of Epidemiology

• Definition: ‘The study of the patterns and causes of health and disease in populations, and the application of this study to improve health’ (AIHW).

• Information Gathering:

  • Hospital usage.

  • Health professionals.

  • Surveys.

  • Medicare.

Limitations of Epidemiology

• Statistics can be manipulated and biased.

• Focus on the negative (e.g., disease) rather than the positive (e.g., wellbeing).

• Doesn't account for determinants of health or reasons for inequities.

• Provides little data on the impact of illness or disease.

Measures of Epidemiology

• Age-standardised death rates by sex (1907-2018) show trends over time.

Morbidity

• Rates, distribution, and trends of illness, disease, and injury in a given population.

• Top 3 leading causes of total burden, 2015:

  • Under 5: Pre-term & low birth weight complications ($13.6$%)

  • 5-14: Asthma ($13.1$%)

  • 15-24: Suicide & self-inflicted injuries ($9.7$%)

  • 25-44: Suicide & self-inflicted injuries ($7.3$%)

  • 45-64: Coronary heart disease ($6.8$%)

  • 65+: Coronary heart disease ($10.9$%)

Mortality

• The number of deaths for a given cause in a given population, over a set time.

• CVD: Conditions affecting the blood vessels of the brain.

• COPD: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Lung Disease).

Infant Mortality

• The number of deaths in the first year of life per 1000 live births.

Social Justice Principles

• Aims to decrease or remove inequity from a population.

  • Equity: the fair allocation of funding and resources. Example Medicare = free health care for all. ATSI is a group that get extra funding to improve poorer health.

  • Diversity: Australia has a diverse population therefore there needs to be sufficient health care services and facilities for all diverse groups. Example: Interpreters in hospitals.

  • Supportive Environments: We have the right to be healthy and the environments need to support this. cost, availability and access are examples.

How to Identify Priority Health Issues

• Consider cost of treatment, equity, costs to the individual and the community, potential for early intervention and prevention, prevalence, and priority population groups.

• Decisions should be based on social justice principles.