Aboriginal health policy: is nutrition the 'gap' in 'Closing the Gap'?
Jennifer Browne1, Rick Hayes, Deborah Gleeson
1School of Public Health and Human Biosciences, La Trobe University, Victoria; Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, Victoria.
Objective:
To examine the extent to which nutrition has been prioritised in national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy.
Method:
Australian Government websites were searched for Aboriginal-specific health policies and strategies developed between 2000 and 2012. Thirteen documents describing nine policies were analysed.
Results:
Increased and more comprehensive inclusion of nutrition in Aboriginal health policy was identified during the first half of this period. In the second half, however, nutrition strategies were fragmented, and a much greater emphasis was placed on smoking.
Conclusion And Implication:
With the exception of food security in remote communities, nutrition seems to have disappeared from the national Aboriginal health policy agenda. This is a concern, given the burden of nutrition-related disease in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
Related Concept Videos
01:26Traditional Level Of Health Care System
The preventive healthcare service includes tests for screening. Preventive health care services include identifying and reducing disease risk...
01:26Methods Of Healthcare Delivery System
Managed Care System:
The managed care system is designed to control the cost while maintaining the quality of care. The patient's care from admission to discharge is planned by the primary care provider or the case manager, also known as the gatekeeper. In a managed care system, the number of care providers is...
01:18Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results...
01:30Primary Healthcare Services
In 1978, international leaders convened in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, for what would be a pivotal event in global health. The Alma-Ata Declaration was the first to call...
01:26Levels of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention
In primary prevention, actions taken before disease onset prevent the disease from...
01:21Health Literacy