Health Sciences: Understanding Health and Illness

This report provides an understanding of health and illness. It has discussed regarding a model for describing health in which the health determinants have been described. This report covers a varied range of topics like dementia, private hospitals, illicit drug use, chronic diseases and what the ageing of populations in Australia means for the future. This report presents a comprehensive analysis regarding the issues that are related to each of the topic and the implications for persons as well as the nation as a whole.

The report also focuses on health through life and contains features articles together with snapshots on all the stages of life and has included for the first time, an inclusive look at youth health, childhood obesity together with the health of the populations belonging to the age of working. The research in this article draws attention to the fact that there has been an increased understanding regarding the significance of social determinants of health. This report also investigates the causes behind the death of the populations in Australia. The diseases such as stroke, coronary heart disease, lung cancer, dementia and some other leading causes of death like prostate cancer in men, breast cancer in women, have been highlighted. The research in the article has drawn attention to the fact that in Australia, the disease of diabetes is becoming more common. There are a number of factors which might have contributed to this condition, such as rise in the number of individuals who are suffering from obesity and altered criterion for diagnosis. According to the research carried out in this article, the populations of Australia living outside the major cities possess higher rates of obesity and overweight as compared to the individuals living in the main cities.

The research in this article draws attention to the fact that the rates of smoking in adults on a regular basis are low at 16% overall by international standards. However, it has also been observed that in the remote parts as well as the outer regional areas of Australia, the rates of smoking are higher in comparison to the major cities. There has been an increased understanding in the significance of the social determinants of health in the recent years. The framework for the determinants encompasses the broad features of the society, socioeconomic characteristics, health behaviours, biomedical factors, environmental factors, safety factors together with health and well-being over time. In addition, the individuals living in the more underprivileged areas are more probable to smoke on a daily basis in comparison to the individuals living in the areas that are less underprivileged.

Further investigations reveal that the populaces living in the remote and rural areas have least access to the health services. They have to travel to several miles for seeking medical attention and as a result, ill heath rates and mortality in this population is higher in comparison to the populations living in the bigger cities. The research in this article draws attention to the fact that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals’ health is commonly worse than that of non-Indigenous individuals. This report has provided detailed information regarding the health status of Australians but there are some gaps, which need to be filled for obtaining a clear picture regarding the health and illness in Australia.

Reference

Aihw.gov.au. (2014). Australia's health 2014 (AIHW). [online] Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/australias-health/2014/ [Accessed 17 Aug. 2016].