Health Priorities in Australia

Question 1

Outline the measures of Epidemiology

Answer 1

• Mortality=number of deaths within a population
• Infant mortality=number of deaths of people under the age of 1
• Life expectancy=measure of how long a person is expected to live at any given time
• Morbidity=measure of sickness and injury that do not result in death

Question 2

Describe the limitations of Epidemiology

Answer 2

• can be manipulated by interpreters and very open to bias
• focus on the negative aspects of health rather than the less measurable positive aspects, QOL and wellbeing
• do not account for the determinants of health: individual, sociocultural, socioeconomic and environmental
• little data on the impact of disease and illness

Question 3

Why is it important to prioritise health issues

Answer 3

• fair allocation
• money and resources not wasted
• target issues that will have a large impact

• In order to address health issues effectively, priorities must be established
• Ensure fair allocation of resources and funding, by applying social justice principles enables us to identify priority population groups and empower them to take ownership and act to improve their own health
• rural and remote areas lack resources, servies and facilites and therefre it is a priority of the government to ensure that this inequality is amended
• ensure that money and resources are not wasted, funding must go towards diseases that are prevalent in society and that have a large cost on the individual and community.
• Futhermore allocating funding to prevalnet and high-cost issues such as CVD, Cancer, Diabetes or dementia will help ensure the greatest impact of the resources and funding.
• prioritise health issues that can be prevented or where early intervention has a large impact on the cost of the disease for both individuals and the community
• for example a sprained ankle has low cost therfore prioritisaiton will have little affect of the health status of Australia compared to prioritising Cancer.