Understanding The Patterns Of Mortality And Morbidity Of Heart Disease In Australian Women

Patterns of Heart Disease in Australian Women

Discuss about the Social Behavioral and Cultural Factors in Public Health.

In across the world, the number of patients of heart disease is increasing at much faster rate. This has become a challenge for the people that are residing in different parts of the world. According to researches, it is found that particular kinds of people are more prone to the heart disease (Lewis, Calver, Zhu, Flicker & Prince, 2011). This has been done by analysing the patterns of heart disease within a women’s group in a population. There are various ways in which these patterns related to mortality and morbidity can be analysed. This is generally done by comparing it with the other groups. This report revolves around describing the patterns for heart disease within the population. It also analyses the ways in which social determinants of health approaches could be used to explain the patterns of mortality and morbidity by comparing it with other population group. In the later section of the report, a public health intervention that addresses a social determinant of health has been described.

In the last few decades, it has been seen that Australian women are facing cardiovascular disease on the larger scale. This has been due to several reasons related to their lifestyle. Researches revealed that due to smoking habits, high alcohol intake, poor diet, diabetes, lack of physical activity, mental health issues are some of the major reasons for the development of heart disease in women from Australia (Armstrong, Thiébaut, Brown & Nepal, 2011). This is more common in the women over the age of 35 years. Some researchers also show that factors such as lack of education, low income etc. are also one of the reason for the development of heart disease. This pattern is generally neglected in many cases. This is because they are not living a very healthy life style or say cannot afford the type of amnesties that are required for leading a healthy life (Dunstan, Thorp & Healy, 2011). Stress and depression has become one of the most common factors that are leading women to such kind of diseases. In offices style of working has changed as there is very less physical work, this is increasing the number of women patients that are in jobs. It is also common in the Australian women over the age of 40.

The patterns shows that change of lifestyles have somehow led to women getting affected by the heart diseases. Diseases related to heart show the pattern of mortality and morbidity among women (Woodward, Webster, Murakami, Barzi, Lam, Fang … & Rodgers, 2014). There are many cases where people having such diseases and they were not diagnosed on time. The ineffective management of medical treatment is one of the major reasons why the problem grew such wide. The social determinants are seen as the factors that may lead to understanding of the health conditions.

Social Determinants of Health and Heart Disease

Australia is a highly developed nation in terms of medical facilities and hence at the time of birth no such issues can occur. The social determinants that actually lead to pattern of mortality and morbidity are lifestyle and work (Lopez, Flicker & Dobson, 2012). The life style has changed from the use of resources in daily lives to eating habits. Since most of the women in Australia are working lady hence they are find a very little time for preparing their own food. This has increased the number of women that are reliant on fast food in daily lives. With the increasing intake of fat and reduction in the physical activities in daily lives increases the chances of heart diseases. Another essential factor that needs to be ensured is that the places in which a person is living in (Crouch, Wilson & Newbury, 2011). This can be understood by the fact that in the rural region there is lack of infrastructure. This might lead to poor health determinants in the women. Regular check-up facilities in the remote regions is not so effective. It is also seen that the type of transport, health system and the food ingredients that they take affects their health status. Various researchers believe that disabilities and mental illness are some of the most common factors that lead to heart disease. Women with mental conditions have been seen to have such problems commonly.

This is somehow different for the people in different parts of the world. This is generally due to the fact that geographical condition is also different. Australian women’s mortality and morbidity is highly affected by the heart disease (Williams, Cunich & Byles, 2013). Researches show that people who are coming to Australia from other parts of the world are highly prone to heart diseases (Ronksley, Brien, Turner, Mukamal & Ghali, 2011). This is most common in the case of Asian women as they are more prone to such diseases. It can also be due to the fact that they are not generally adapted to the conditions that are present in Australia and a sudden change in the life style or eating habits influences their health. These inequalities in the ways people live within any part of the world decide the immune system they have in their body.

All these social determinants of health like the work and lifestyle shows the patterns of morbidity and mortality that is present in any organisation. There are many women that are facing heart disease due to different types of factors. One of the major reasons for the disparities in the health status can be understood by the fact that the people who are not health concisions always face problems related to such diseases. Personal behaviour also mentions the

Public Health Interventions for Heart Disease

There are many public intervention programs that are run by the Australian Government. These public health interventions are addressing a social determinant of health that is causing heart diseases. The social determinants of health can be made better with the help of the health programs that is run by the government (Magee, Kritharides, Attia, McElduff & Banks, 2012). This also includes changing behaviour of the people towards their health conditions. It’s not that just personal behaviour that affects the health but the social behaviour also has an impact on the spreading of heart disease. This includes habits like drinking and smoking is increasing day by day. There are social determinant of health like work which can be removed with the help of unemployment. Social support is given to the people that are facing such kind of health issues. Transportation, housing, education also plays a very important role in the public health. It is also seen that the people that are not coming to the main stream of the health infrastructure is made to come with the use of new health care schemes (Sibbritt, Davidson, DiGiacomo, Newton & Adams, 2015). This also involves providing access of the healthcare facilities to the people that are living in the rural areas.

It is the fact that providing above mentioned public interventions can help in saving the lives of the people that are suffering from the heart diseases. Since any disease does not only makes the health conditions of the people poor but also affects their economic status (Jordan, Wilson & Dobson, 2011). Covering the people in the health cover by the governments can give them facility to have regular check-ups. The social gradient of health can also be improved with the help of giving better life style to the women that is living in the rural region. This can be done with the infrastructure development like the transport, housing as well as education. This will also diminish the number of people that are suffering from other kinds of diseases or say can decrease the number of mortality and morbidity rates. This would also affect the health status of the people who are fit and hence will help in reducing the chances that new people facing these diseases.

Apart from the health sector there are any other areas that are also needed to be changed so as to fight against these major issues. The other sectors that need to be made effective for removing the problems are huge like the IT sector (Brown, Pavey & Bauman, 2015). This is due to the fact that the influence of the IT sector is increasing and it is reducing the physical activities in day to day lives. Apart from this the educational sector also needs to be rejuvenated. This will help in changing the social as well as personal behaviour of the people. The fast food sector also needs to think about their customer’s eating habits and hence making their food ingredients to be healthy.

Conclusion

Conclusion

From the above based report, it can be concluded that health diseases in the Australian Women is increasing at much faster rate. The pattern shows that there are many factors that are becoming the cause of spread of these diseases. This can be accessed by comparing it with population from other parts of the world. Public intervention like work, social support or access to healthcare can help in dealing with this situation as well as also helps in addressing the social gradient of health. There are many other sectors that can be involved apart from the health sector in improving this condition.

References

Armstrong, A. R., Thiébaut, S. P., Brown, L. J., & Nepal, B. (2011). Australian adults use complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of chronic illness: a national study. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 35(4), 384-390.

Brown, W. J., Pavey, T., & Bauman, A. E. (2015). Comparing population attributable risks for heart disease across the adult lifespan in women. Br J Sports Med, 49(16), 1069-1076.

Crouch, R., Wilson, A., & Newbury, J. (2011). A systematic review of the effectiveness of primary health education or intervention programs in improving rural women’s knowledge of heart disease risk factors and changing lifestyle behaviours. International Journal of Evidence?Based Healthcare, 9(3), 236-245.

Dunstan, D. W., Thorp, A. A., & Healy, G. N. (2011). Prolonged sitting: is it a distinct coronary heart disease risk factor?. Current opinion in cardiology, 26(5), 412-419.

Jordan, S., Wilson, A., & Dobson, A. (2011). Management of heart conditions in older rural and urban Australian women. Internal medicine journal, 41(10), 722-729.

Lewis, J. R., Calver, J., Zhu, K., Flicker, L., & Prince, R. L. (2011). Calcium supplementation and the risks of atherosclerotic vascular disease in older women: results of a 5?year RCT and a 4.5?year follow?up. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 26(1), 35-41.

Lopez, D., Flicker, L., & Dobson, A. (2012). Validation of the frail scale in a cohort of older Australian women. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 60(1), 171-173.

Magee, C. A., Kritharides, L., Attia, J., McElduff, P., & Banks, E. (2012). Short and long sleep duration are associated with prevalent cardiovascular disease in Australian adults. Journal of sleep research, 21(4), 441-447.

Ronksley, P. E., Brien, S. E., Turner, B. J., Mukamal, K. J., & Ghali, W. A. (2011). Association of alcohol consumption with selected cardiovascular disease outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Bmj, 342, d671.

Sibbritt, D., Davidson, P., DiGiacomo, M., Newton, P., & Adams, J. (2015). Use of complementary and alternative medicine in women with heart disease, hypertension and diabetes (from the Australian longitudinal study on Women’s health). The American journal of cardiology, 115(12), 1691-1695.

Williams, J. S., Cunich, M., & Byles, J. (2013). The impact of socioeconomic status on changes in the general and mental health of women over time: evidence from a longitudinal study of Australian women. International Journal for Equity in Health, 12(1), 25.

Woodward, M., Webster, R., Murakami, Y., Barzi, F., Lam, T. H., Fang, X., … & Rodgers, A. (2014). The association between resting heart rate, cardiovascular disease and mortality: evidence from 112,680 men and women in 12 cohorts. European journal of preventive cardiology, 21(6), 719-726.