Impact Of Urbanization On Australian Health Sector: A Systematic Review

Methods

The Australian healthcare sector is one of the best in the world when compared to the care sectors that other countries have, especially the developing ones. However, there are several issues that still need to be fixed in order for it to be the best in the globe. Some of these factors include the high rate of urbanization, increased costs of care, and improper funding of the health care. The Australian market is benefited with the availability of both the private and the public sectors that aid in the funding of the care services but due to the perception that the health care costs should be left for the market, the funding loses its way. This article will strictly focus on the issue of the increased rate of urbanization that has increased the absence of proper care for every person, the lack of enough resources, and the increased rates of suicides. As it is known to every Australian, the higher the urbanization rate that we are experiencing comes with a cost as it makes it difficult for the state to do planning for every family that is in the rise.

In order to come up with the relevant details on how the increased rate of urbanization has affected us as Australians, I had to utilize a number of search engines specifically made for the nursing profession so as to increase my efficiency. These search engines include the likes of MedNets, the Hardin MD, Google Scholar, PubMed, Entrez, and eMedicine for the best results. For instance, most articles used in this research work have been attained by Google Scholar as it offers a wide range of peer-reviewed articles for the researchers. The keywords used in the search for the relevant information included urbanization, Australian health sector, effects of rapid urbanization, WHO on urbanization, and the dangers of poor health care.

Since the essay has to strictly focus on the medical data that is available particularly for the Australian people, the peer-reviewed data that was used in this research article was from the medical journals. Every article that consisted of the data that was helpful in terms of the rate urbanization has affected the healthcare sector of Australia was keenly used. Other articles that supported the research with the data on the effect of urbanization in Australia were also put into consideration. The external research was, in addition, conducted especially on the records provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the proper and exact records of how many people are affected by the rate of urbanization here in Australia. Since our country speaks mostly in English, articles that had data in English were the only ones used. Those written in Mandarin and Russian were never considered to be used. In addition to the external sources used those data sources that redirected me to Wikipedia and Wikimedia were strictly canceled and never utilized as they lack originality and uniqueness.

Results

From the research that was conducted, the following outcomes were attained. From PubMed, it was evident that rapid urbanization results in poor delivery of healthcare to the Australians for the following reasons. First of all, the high rate of people moving to the urban centers results in the overutilization of resources that are limited by the high number of people (Lambert, et. al., 2015). This is because the resources are limited meaning that they can only satisfy the limited number of people if it is to last longer. However, too many people cause the increase rate of utilization of this resource resulting in its scarcity over a very short period of time (Shanahan, et. al., 2015). This fact has been the reason why the cost of living in the urban centers is high compared to that in the upcountry.

Secondly, urbanization brings about the increase of people settling in one developed region. As a result, some may come with new infections and infect the already residing persons or contract the infections that are within the area of the local’s residence (Li, et. al., 2016). A key example is the spread of HIV/AIDS. The rate at which urbanization happens here in Australia has caused some members of the society to lose their daily source of revenue and decide to participate in drug and immoral businesses such as prostitution (Bhaskar, et al., 2016). As a result, more people become the customers of the new business in town and may end up contracting and spreading the HIV from one person to another and even to their loved ones (Kuddus & Rahman, 2015).

The third factor is that the rapid urbanization results in the reduction of the employment chances that are available for every member of the society (Badland, et al., 2014). These aspects create a gap between the haves and have not by raising the rate of unemployment. When too many people are jobless, there is a high chance of the persons trying to find a new way of sustaining themselves in these towns (Chen, et al., 2016). This fact results in the practices of immorality through the named prostitution, stealing, rape cases, and increased armed robbery cases as well. In the end, more social injustices number up in our towns and, as a result, it becomes more difficult to prevent further infections as more people are unsafe from the disease hazardous areas.

Discussion

Considering the lifestyle in Sidney, many immigrants who come to live in the town lack the knowledge of how the already set-up health care system works. When compared to the upcountry medical fees, it is very evident that the cost of medication in Sidney is high (Pavao-Zuckerman & Pouyat, 2017). As a result, many immigrants who settle in the town may never understand or seek the medical attention form the hospitals making it very difficult for the state to control these ailments when the hosts are reluctant of seeking help. Environmental pollution also increases with the increase in the number of people living in a crowded region (Yuan, Ren, & Chen, 2015). Thus, the easiness of the spread of the diseases, such as malaria and diarrhea that arise from the faces of dirt, becomes more presentable.

Finally, from the MedNets search engine, it has been found out that the higher the rate of urbanization here in Australia, the more the chances that poisonous substances are spread to the environment. The availability of the poisonous substances in the environment increases the chances of abortion, neonatal deaths, defects in births, and the improper growth of the fetus in the mother’s womb (Badland, et al., 2014).

Conclusion

From the research that I conducted, it is evident that the high rate of urbanization in Australia has resulted in the negative impacts towards the environment and the society as well. It is seen that the high number of people causes job scarcity, which triggers social injustices, which then result in the increased rates of disease transmission from one person to another.

The study objective of this research is basically to educate people on why to excessive migration to the urban centers may be ineffective for their health and wellbeing as a whole. If the rate is reduced, more ailments and their transmission may be reduced as well as the improvement of the care services being offered to the general public (Liu, Pan, & Wu, 2016). If more people would identify the benefits that come from the utilization of the resources that are available in the upcountry, the issues of social immorality, the housing problem, and increased ailment transmission between one person and another can be effectively managed.

I would best recommend further research on how best people can be educated on not migrating to the urban centers as well as how the state can be encouraged to develop the upcountry so as to attract more people to the upcountry rather than to the urban centers.

References

Badland, H., Whitzman, C., Lowe, M., Davern, M., Aye, L., Butterworth, I., et al. (2014). Urban liveability: emerging lessons from Australia for exploring the potential for indicators to measure the social determinants of health. Social science & medicine, 111, 64-73.

Bhaskar, A. S., Beesley, L., Burns, M. J., Fletcher, T. D., Hamel, P., Oldham, C. E., et al. (2016). Will it rise or will it fall? Managing the complex effects of urbanization on base flow. Freshwater Science, 35(1), 293-310.

Chen, K., Zhou, L., Chen, X., Ma, Z., Liu, Y., Huang, L., et al. (2016). Urbanization level and vulnerability to heat-related mortality in Jiangsu Province, China. Environmental health perspectives, 124(12), 1863.

Kuddus, A., & Rahman, A. (2015). Affect of urbanization on health and nutrition. International Journal of Statistics and Systems, 10(2), 164-174.

Lambert, K. G., Nelson, R. J., & Jovanovic, T. (2015). Brains in the city: neurobiological effects of urbanization. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 58, 107-122.

Li, X., Song, J., Lin, T., Dixon, J., Zhang, G., & Ye, H. (2016). Urbanization and health in China, thinking at the national, local and individual levels. Environmental Health, 15(1), S32.

Liu, G. G., Pan, J., & Wu, X. Y. (2016). Urbanization, population health, and policy reforms. In Urbanization and in Public Health China, 337-364.

Pavao-Zuckerman, M., & Pouyat, R. V. (2017). The effects of urban expansion on soil health and ecosystem services: an overview. In Urban Expansion, Land Cover and Soil Ecosystem Services, 153-175.

Shanahan, D. F., Fuller, R. A., Bush, R., Lin, B. B., & Gaston, K. J. (2015). The health benefits of urban nature: how much do we need? BioScience, 65(5), 476-485.

Yuan, B., Ren, S., & Chen, X. (2015). The effects of urbanization, consumption ratio and consumption structure on residential indirect CO2 emissions in China: a regional comparative analysis. Applied energy, 140, 94-106.