People's Bad Health is Based Upon the Poor Choices They Make in Their Life - Term Paper Example

People's bad health is based upon the poor choices they make in their life Name Institutions People's bad health is based upon the poor choices they make in their life The health disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians are astronomical. In fact, these disparities are the greatest single challenge faced by the Australian government as it tries to realize its healthcare objectives. A number of United Nations committees have labeled it a human rights concern and the Australian government has accorded the disparities such a status. According to the social determinist theory, a population’s health and disparities are linked by numerous social factors. The choices made by the Australians certainly influence the health. Social seclusion has largely influenced the choices made by indigenous Australian and in turn this choices negative impact on their health leading to numerous health disparities. Social seclusion entails separate socialization of indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians. It is a form of segregation which effective manage to create two distinct groups separated by social boundaries within the country. As a result the two groups develop different habits and cultures that further increase the seclusions. They school differently and in the case of indigenous Australians many do not values education. The differences shape the society differently encouraging each group to develop a range of attitudes, lifestyles and make choices that affect their lives differently. First, has limited the indigenous Australians access to information which limits their ability to make informed choices in regard to their health. They make poor choices in regard to maters of health. A large number of them rarely seek medical care from specialist and a large number of them suffers from prevent and curable elements in silence. Some lose their lives while others suffer permanent physiological and physical impairment. Indigenous people rarely accessed medical care until in the latter stages of illness. Most of those who seek treatment drop out from treat programs prematurely. It is the attitudes towards treatment programs that make some of the indigenous people make such self defeating decisions. Seclusions encourage stereotypes, which makes healthcare providers to ignore the socio-cultural concerns of this people (Nayler, 2006). Furthermore, there are varying personal preferences among individual members of the indigenous people that influence their perception toward this healthcare programs and this affect their decision to looks for treatment. Conversely, the non indigenous Australian have access to a wide range of information about healthcare. They seek healthcare services as soon as the notices signs of illness and always complete their treatment regimes. Non-indigenous Australians also have better health statistic because the care about the kind of healthcare they receive and thus prefer getting healthcare services. Conversely, indigenous Australians do not give much thought about the kind of health practitioner the see for medical services. Most of indigenous Australians do not care the kind of practitioner they go to when they are sick.. Social seclusion has influenced the ability of the indigenous peoples to access information about nutrition and the economic ability to purchase nutritional foods. As a result some to the people in this community experience malnutrition especially infants and young children. Poor nutritional has negative consequences on life expectancy and most of the indigenous people have a lower life expectancy compared the non-indigenous Australians. Their non-indigenous counterparts values proper nutrition and have adequate information and knowledge in regard to dieting and nutrition. This puts them in a proper position to make proper choices in regard to food and nutrition. According to the Social Justice Report (2005) poor nutrition could also be a contributing factor to the 20 years gap in the life expectancies of the non-indigenous people and that of the indigenous populations.. Housing choices are yet another outcome of social seclusion, which is certainly a product of the influence of social seclusion on the economic capabilities of the indigenous people and the non-indigenous people. The non-indigenous groups have stronger economic capabilities and choose proper housing in properly sanitized neighborhoods. On the other hand the indigenous people have limited choice do to their economic abilities. As a result, they setup poor housing structures and live in poorly sanitize environments. Such environments encouraged al lot of diseases especially vector born diseases and communicable diseases. This difference in the choice of residential houses and environment has enormous health implication. They also contribute to the health disparities experienced by the two divisions of the Australian populations. Alcohol consumption behaviors among Australians also have enormous effects on the Australian population. In the country, alcohol is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug (Wilson et al, 2010). In 2007, The National Drug Strategy Household Survey estimates indicated 82.6% of persons aged 14 years and above had consumed alcohol in the previous 12 months (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008). 20.4% of the Australians (comprising of 17% females and 23% females) frequently consumed alcohol to risky levels in regard to Australian alcohol consumption guidelines (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008). According to Wilson et al (2010) 3.2% of the Australian disease burden is a product of product of alcohol consumption. It is one of the leading causes of disease and injury in males under the age of 45. Alcohol is also a precursor to numerous other vices including child abuse, child neglect, self inflicted harm, suicide, and violence. Although indigenous Australians make up only 2.6% of the Australian population, they experienced the highest levels of alcoholism that non-Indigenous Australians (Wilson et al, 2010). Although indigenous Australians have a clear perspective of the effects of alcohol and actively participate in tackling alcohol issues, their alcohol related disease burden remain way above the average national burden. It is not clear the what the main drive behind high consumption of alcohol by indigenous Australians, but it is clear that the consumption of alcohol by the two groups are a cause of social and health disparities between the two groups. The indigenous Australians have a higher mortality rate associated with alcoholism as compared to the non-indigenous Australians. Wilson et al (2010) further notes that about 7% of the deaths of the indigenous Australians results from alcohol related causes. The mortality rate is 19 times grate than that of the non-indigenous citizens. Other outcomes that severely affect the ingenuous more commonly due to the consumption of alcohol include morbidity, social and emotional challenges. Evidently the choices people make to consume or not to consume alcohol have enormous implications on their health. It is mainly social factors the encourage people to engage in alcohol consumption. According to Wilson et al (2010) social environment influences the lifestyle choice in a certain way. In this regard, the social environments in which the indigenous Australians live encourage them to consume more alcohol. On the other hand, the environments in which the non-indigenous Australians live encourage them to make smart choices in regard to alcohol consumption. Other socially related cause of illness whose effect seam to follow along the line of social seclusion is tobacco smoking. Tobacco is a leading cause of ill-heal among smokers. The common conditions caused by tobacco consumption include stroke, cancer, heart diseases, lung disease and numerous other health complications. This certainly affects their life expectancy. Both active and passive smoking lead to health complications. Estimates in 2008 showed indigenous Australians consume more tobacco than non-indigenous Australians (Australian Indigenous Health InfoNet, 2013). The number of indigenous smokers is double that of non-ingenious smokers. About two in every three indigenous Australians smoke daily. One in every six indigenous children bellow one year and three months has lived with a smoker at one time. In addition about one in every six adults has lived with a person who smokes indoors and one in every five deaths of indigenous people is a product of tobacco related complications. According to Australian Indigenous Health InfoNet (2013) the prevalence of tobacco consumption among indigenous men is 83% and among women, it is 73%. Tobacco consumption has negative affected the life exultancy of the indigenous people reducing the life expectancy of men 6.5 and 5.1 years in men and women respectively. The consumption of tobacco is not only through smoking, the also chew the leave. Tobacco is even consumed at ceremonies. Social seclusion affect indigenous and non-indigenous Australians differently in regard to making smart health choices. While most non-indigenous Australians make choices that influence their health positively, most indigenous Australian make choices the negative impact on their health. As seen from the above discussion most indigenous Australian adopts lifestyles that negative affect their health such as consumption of too much alcohol and tobacco. The different in the choices made is certainly a product of socialization. The indigenous Australians socialize differently from the non-indigenous Australians. The two group share little social values and thus make choices different. The outcome of the different socialization and choice is the different in health statistics between the two groups. Since the indigenous Australian make most often make most of the poor choices, they suffer more afflictions. They also report high mortality rates and a low life expectancy than the non-indigenous Australians. References Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet (2013) Summary of Australian Indigenous health, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/summary Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2008). 2007 national drug strategy household survey: first results. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Nayler, D. (2006). Advance Care Planning with Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. Respecting Patient Choices Program (RPC). Social Justice Report. (2005). Achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation - A human rights based approach. Sydney: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Wilson M, et al. (2010). The harmful use of alcohol amongst Indigenous Australians. Retrieved from http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/alcoholuse_review Read More