Infant Mortality Rates In Australia

Noticeably the life expectancy in Australia have been appreciably higher due to lower infant mortality, the promotion of healthier lifestyles, continuously improving life standards, and ongoing medical advances leading to improvement in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, vast improvement in aged care management , decline in premature death due to chronic disease like cancer , cardiac & stroke and

Additionally, both diabetes and a poor diet are associated with a higher risk of CHD. The Australian government has emplaced a number of policies and programs to control tobacco use to improve the health of Australians, including the ‘Evaluation of Tobacco Plain Packaging.’ Also, the Australian government promotes healthy life choices through these initiatives: Get set 4 Life - Habits for Healthy Kids, The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden National Program, Healthy Spaces and Place plus the Learning from Successful Community Obesity

Obesity is a public health issue that has devastatingly developed into a global epidemic. According to the World Health Organization, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is dramatically increasing worldwide at an appalling and intimidating rate with more than 1.9 billion adults aged18 years and older being overweight in 2014. Out of these 1.9 billion adults being overweight, 600 million were classified obese. While the issue regarding overweight and obesity are prevalent in all countries, the National Health and Medical Research Council stated that Australia’s obesity levels have been developing faster than any countries in the world over the past thirty years. Although obesity may have been primarily considered as a personal concern three decades ago; it is overwhelmingly a societal concern today in Australia. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare have measured that in 2011 and 2012, around 63% of Australian adults had the characteristics of being overweight and corpulence. That is over a quarter of the adult population in Australia being obese.

Since Australia is one of the Countries with highest life expectancy of 83 years, it is obvious that Australia has a very good health quality compare with most of Nations. However, comparing with a country like Zimbabwe with life expectancy of 61 year, Australia has more risk of obesity. According to World Health Organisation

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines obesity as ‘abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health’. (1) A general measure used to monitor obesity is the body mass index (BMI). A person with a BMI of 25+ is considered overweight and 30+ is obese. Between 2011 – 2012 62.8% of Australians adults, aged 18+ were overweight or obese, with 27.5% of the cases being obese. This has increased by 6.5% since 1995. (2) The obesity epidemic in Australia needs to be addressed urgently as it is a precursor to most preventable lifestyle diseases and a BMI over 25 is the second highest contributor to burden of disease in this country. (3) According to WHO, worldwide the rate of obesity has doubled from 1980-2014. (4) In 2014-2015,

The most severe stage of overweight, Obesity, is a serious medical condition that Australians cannot afford to ignore. Obesity has been linked to low self-esteem and a diminishment in the overall quality of life for the individual. (AIHW, 2010). More importantly, obesity can result in the development of musculo-skeletal problems, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, sleep apnea, Type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. (AIHW, 2010). Of these diseases, the

What are the steps that can be taken to improve the disparity of infant mortality in minority communities?

The percentage of overweight and obese children in Australia, despite rapid increases in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, have remained mostly steady for the past 10 years, with 23 to 24% of Australians under the age of 18 classified as overweight, and 5 to 6% of the same demographic classified as obese. Through time Australia’s number in people suffering obesity has increased dramatically from 56.3% in 1995 to 61.2% in 2007-08. Compared to 1995, the proportion of Australians that were overweight in 2015 has fallen by 6%.

(Bell, 2012) .Obesity levels in Australia over the past few years have exceeded beyond a point where something needs to be done sooner rather than later. There are many reasons behind the rise in obesity levels in Australia such as the

Life expectancy for Australian’s has reached an all-time high. A male child born today, can expect to live an extra 2.36 years and 1.44 for females (Abs.gov.au, 2012). Although the expected length of life has skyrocketed, there are numerous health statistics that put Australia to shame. It has been estimated that by 2031, 3.3 million Australians will have been diagnosed with the incurable type 2 diabetes (Diabetesaustralia.com.au, 2013). Australia’s biggest killer, Coronary heart disease (CHD) was responsible for 13.6% of all Australian deaths recorded in 2012 (Abs.gov.au, 2012). One catalyst for CHD and Diabetes is Australia’s rising epidemic of obesity. During this report, obesity will be covered, and why is it a current health issue in

Data from the internet shows that obesity rates in Australia grew faster than any country in the world. World famous medical journal “The Lancet” published a study, according to Australian childhood obesity is close to 25%, adult as high as 63%. Now the Australian obesity levels have been compared with the United states, only slightly lower than that of New Zealand. Statistics shows that two out of every three adults are either overweight or obese. This is a cause for concern.

The World Health Organisation and the OECD have expressed concern at the rates of obesity andits cost to individuals in terms of their health and costs to governments in terms of health care. Obesity is now seen as a major epidemic.In Australia, overweight and obesity affects more than half of the population. This epidemic iscommon at all ages, in all parts of Australia and throughout all population groups. It is aworldwide problem and has been observed over the last twenty years in most, if not all countries.

It is important to better know these maternal practices and their roles in infant mortality and whether or not these behaviors have changed over time. Knowing these behaviors is key to prevention, and should influence future investigations regarding infant mortality. In addition, mothers may be able to improve these behaviors which are known to decrease the risk of infant mortality due to lower respiratory tract infections (Singleton et al., 2009). Knowing the disparities that exist in maternal behaviors can help direct the focus of future studies to determine why these disparities exist. Determination of risk factors, such as maternal marital status or live birth order, should lead to more focus in infant mortality prevention measures during

The article I reviewed was about the low infant mortality and low birth rates of Mexican American and Latina mothers. According to the article, infant mortality rate is used to judge the quality of health in a population. Even though the majority of Latinos and Mexican Americans are less educated and are living in poverty, the infant mortality rate, as well as the low birth weight, is remarkably low. When compared to African Americans, Mexican Americans had the lowest amount of low birth weight babies (Magana, A., & Clark, N. M. (1995)). “Despite similar socioeconomic profiles, infant mortality among Mexican Americans (8/1000 live births) is less than half that of African Americans (18/1000 live births)

From 1985 to 1995 the number of overweight 7-15 year olds almost doubled. The numbers of obese children has more than tripled 20 years on from that. At the current rate, it is predicted that 55 per cent of young Australians will be overweight or obese by 2020. This is a disturbing trend that needs resolved as soon as possible as it places a huge risk for future generations. Studies have proved that if a child is obese, and has obese parents, there is a high likelihood that the child will be obese as an adult. This is so because kids tend to share eating lifestyle habits with parents. If the upcoming challenge of obesity defeats the young people today, future generations will be hampered by medical and physical disadvantages. Are you starting to see why Australia is in desperate need to advance with this