VCAA Health and Human Development Understanding health and wellbeing

Social health and wellbeing (H+W) refers to the state and quality of an individual’s interactions and relationships with other people, including the ability to manage and adapt appropriately to a variety of social situations. Social H+W is said to be dynamic as it is constantly changing. This could involve an individual having a wide supportive network of friends and this having optimal social H+W, but then the person moves away from such friends to a different state, hence significantly reducing this supportive network of friends, negatively impacting social H+W via such a sudden change.

If a person experiences good physical health and wellbeing (H&W), they may have a healthy body weight. This can make them have a healthy body image and self-love, which promotes mental H&W by increasing self-esteem. If a person experiences greater self-esteem, they may be more confident in their abilities, which may motivate them to join a sports team. This can help them regularly attend sports practices that help them to maintain good fitness and energy levels, thus promoting physical H&W.

If people are experiencing high levels of confidence and self-esteem (mental health and wellbeing (h&w)) this can mean they are more likely to want to engage with family and friends and attend social gatherings to maintain meaningful relationships (promoting social h&w). This can mean people feel less stressed and anxious in their lives as they have people to talk about their feelings with (promoting mental h&w). Thus, if people are less stressed, they are more likely to be able to communicate effectively with others which promotes social h&w.

Optimal mental health and wellbeing includes the ability to think logically and make decisions. This may increase a person's likelihood of maintaining a job, increasing the amount of people in the country working and paying taxes. Thus, increasing the government revenue to spend on education and infrastructure.

DALY is a measure of burden of disease, where one DALY equals one year of healthy life lost due to premature death and time spent with disease, injury or disability.

HALE is the average amount of time an individual can expect to live in full health, that is time spent without the health consequences of disease and illness.

Under consumption of fruit, such as apples, may contribute to increased YLL's in Australia. Fruit is high in fibre, which regulates bowel movements by adding bulk to faeces. Thus not enough fruit can increase the risk of constipation which is a risk factor for colorectal cancer due to waste staying inside the body. This can cause premature death increasing YLLs contributed to overall burden in Australia.

Mortality relates to death, often at a population level.

Environmental: Working conditions.

Indigenous Australians tend to take on more dangerous labour work due to lack of access to other job opportunities. As a result, they might put themselves to work in dangerous working conditions to earn an income and contributes to a higher mortality rates due to injury among Indigenous Australian compared to non-Indigenous Australian.

Sociocultural: Social exclusion.

Indigenous Australians still face discrimination from the wider public, making it hard for them to socialise and feel accepted. Thus, it can severely affect their mental health negatively and lead to substance abuse such as alcohol abuse. Overconsumption of alcohol can lead to alcohol poisoning and increase the mortality rates due to alcohol poisoning among Indigenous compared to non-Indigenous Australians.

Illness is an individual’s experience with a particular disease or condition.

Illness is subjective as it is experienced differently by different individuals. For example, two people may have the flu, but one person may have a supportive family to take care of them when they are sick, and the other may not have that, which can cause them to be more sick and perceive their experience as worse.

If an individual has optimal physical health and wellbeing and adequate energy levels, they may have enough energy to go to school and socialise with their peers, allowing them to expand their supportive network of friends and improve their social health and wellbeing.

Individuals can donate to non-government organisations (NGOs), such as World Vision, to assist them in continuing their work in low-income countries. This may assist funding World Vison projects that centre around education programs for women and girls in small, rural and conflict affected communities where women often have limited access or denied access to education. Thus, this may mean that more women and girls have adequate literacy and numeracy skills and have increased opportunities for employment later in life, helping to reduce inequality and discrimination based on sex in low-income countries.

Sexual orientation – Through reducing levels of discrimination based on sexual orientation, less gay and lesbian individuals will face derogatory comments from others or violent abuse, assisting in increasing their sense of belonging (spiritual) in the community as they will feel more accepted.

Gender identity – Through reducing discrimination based on gender identity, fewer transgender people will be denied access to employment, assisting them in being able to earn an income. They can use this income to afford nutritious foods, such as vegetables, helping to reduce levels of malnutrition and assisting them in being free from illness/disease (physical).

For example: It relates to the disposal of human waste (see marking criteria for more accepted answers).

If children cannot adequately wash their hands after going to the toilet, they may ingest faecal matter when eating, which can lead to diseases such as diarrheal disease. Therefore a lack of access to basic handwashing facilities may lead to children experiencing increased YLD associated with diarrheal disease.

Lobby the government by designing and sending letters to your Member of Parliament about providing more support to countries that have poor hand washing facilities. This is using your voice to make a difference by encouraging governments to acknowledge the issue and take action. This may contribute to more funding for aid programs which can assist implementing programs to provide greater access to facilities in schools for handwashing in low-income countries.

Dimension 1: Environmental sustainability can mean that the effects of climate change are mitigated through a reduction in greenhouse gases. This can result in a decrease in temperatures and subsequent bushfires, resulting in a reduction in injury due to bushfires, promoting physical health and wellbeing, globally.

Dimension 2: Environmental sustainability can mean the food sources in the environment are used in a way that can be maintained into the future. Therefore, people around the world are less likely to worry about whether the planet will run out of food, decreasing stress and anxiety levels and promoting mental health and wellbeing globally.

Cigarettes and e-cigarettes contain carcinogens which when consumed, can cause faults in the body’s cells as they divide, which can lead to tumours. Hence increased smoking and vaping can increase the prevalence of cancer in Australia.

Cigarettes and e-cigarettes also contain harmful chemicals that lead to a build-up of plaque in the arteries, atherosclerosis, which can increase the likelihood of a heart attack. Hence, increased rates of smoking and vaping can increase mortality rates from heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases in Australia.

The social model of health, which incorporates the Ottawa Charter, involves health promotion programs such as the Quit program. The Quit program, through its free website provides tools, such as, recommending people to distract themselves with a video if they feel the urge to smoke. This example of helping individuals ‘Develop Personal Skills’ shows how the Quit program equips smokers with the skills to quit their smoking addiction, hence increasing the likelihood that they will persist and quit. This can reduce overall rates of smoking and vaping.

Individually: If smoking/vaping rates are reduced, people are more likely have better functioning of their body systems and attend work, therefore earn an income to afford a decent standard of living and necessities such as food, shelter. Therefore, acting as a resource for individuals.

Nationally: Reducing smoking/vaping rates reduces risks of associated health conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This means nationally more people can experience optimal physical health and wellbeing by being free of disease and illness. This means less hospitalisation from fatal COPD conditions, reducing the strain on the health system, allowing more funds to be diverted towards infrastructure by the government, acting as a resource nationally.

People could donate to a non-government organisation that works in low-income countries to address violence against women and take individual action, as this will increase the funds available to this non-government organisation (NGO). This means the NGO may be better able to implement education programs for women so they can get an education, decreasing the risk of being forced into marriage and being physically abused, preventing violence.

Dimension 1: The prevention of violence against women and girls could help reduce the risk of injuries or harm occurring, such as female genital mutilation. This can help reduce the risk of contracting infectious diseases such as hepatitis, helping promote the functioning of the body and its systems. This would therefore promote their physical health and wellbeing.

Dimension 2: The prevention of violence against women and girls can also mean women and girls are safe enough to attend school or work, where they can socialise with others and develop supportive networks of friends, helping to promote their social health and wellbeing.

Fibre is responsible for clearing the digestive tract and adding bulk to the faeces. If the digestive tract is cleared, the risk of abnormal cell growth in the digestive tract and colorectal cancer is reduced. Therefore adequate fibre intake can result in a reduction of mortality related to colorectal cancer.

Fibre provides feelings of fullness, which can prevent individuals from overeating and consuming excess energy, which would be stored as adipose tissue. The reduction in adipose tissue reduces the risk of an individual developing obesity or obesity related condition like type 2 diabetes, resulting in a lower incidence of type 2 diabetes when fibre is adequately consumed.

Nutrition Australia publishes recipes free of charge on their website. These recipes could contain ingredients, like broccoli, which are high in fibre. This means the Australian population can follow, cook and consume these recipes, helping to increase their fibre intake.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines are effective in increasing fibre intake as by encouraging people to enjoy a wide variety of foods from the five food groups every day (guideline 2), the guidelines encourage adequate consumption of foods from grain (cereal) foods, as well as high intake of fruits and vegetables, which are high in fibre and can increase fibre intake. However, the Australian Dietary Guidelines do not provide information on specific serving sizes, so Australians may believe they are consuming an adequate amount of high fibre fruits or vegetables, however it is actually not the recommended amount of fibre. The Australian Dietary Guidelines may also promote increased fibre intake by encouraging Australians to ‘limit foods containing saturated fat, added salt and added sugars and alcohol’, by reducing consumption of discretionary foods, people are more likely to increase consumption of complex carbohydrates and vegetables which are high in fibre.

Australians may have taste preferences for low-fibre sugary foods such as sweets, over high-fibre foods such as vegetables. These taste preferences are formed over time and can be difficult to break, posing a challenge to changing one’s diet to increase fibre intake, particularly if people do not like the taste of high-fibre foods.

Obesity is a direct risk factor for cardiovascular disease, as excess body fat and adipose tissue due to obesity places greater strain on the heart to pump blood around the body, increasing blood pressure and the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the prevention of obesity would reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and positively impact health status by reducing morbidity rates of cardiovascular disease.

Global marketing of processed foods specifically targets children in all countries. Organisations adopt such aggressive marketing tactics for children to make processed foods appear fun and tasty. This means children are more likely to consume processed foods from organisations such as McDonalds and may develop taste preferences for these unhealthy foods. Taste preference can be difficult to change as well as associations that processed foods are fun. This may mean that children may struggle to consume healthier foods, such as fruit and vegetables, due to preferring the tasty, fun nature of processed foods, thus making dietary improvements difficult to achieve.