Assignment 1 — Report on a public health campaign
Executive summary
The report analyses common public health problems in Australia. Currently, a majority of the Australia’s population is consuming large amounts of Alcohol and foods containing sugars and unsaturated fats. According to the health forum of Australia, the population is aging, and incidences of chronic diseases are increasing. Most of the Australians, especially teenagers, have changed their diet by eating fewer fruits and vegetables while eating more foods containing calories (Carroll, 2014). Get Set 4 Life campaign targets young children aged four years and below.
Unhealthy eating leads to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, stroke among others. One of the unhealthy habits is poor nutrition. According to the government of South Australia (2016), a poor diet such as the one containing a high level of sugar and saturated fats, contribute to the risk of developing serious health problems such as obesity, tooth decay, high blood pressure, and depression. Get set 4 life campaign focuses on children’s healthy habits since they are young and will be able to assimilate a healthy lifestyle throughout their lives. Also, the aim of the campaign is to ensure that, every four years old kid in Australia is healthy and ready to learn in schools (Australian government department of health, 2016).
Population
Unhealthy eating habit in Australia is becoming a pressing problem for everyone. For the last 15 years, Australians have reduced the intake of healthy foods and decreased their physical activities. The statistics show that one in every four adults have reduced their consumption of fruits and vegetables by 30% with only seven per cent taking the recommended diet. Such statistics were collected after a survey was done on 12000 Australians (Carroll, 2016). The problem is majorly on teenagers who have contributed to the statistics to a larger extent. Furthermore, Australians eat about three kilograms of food and drinks on a daily basis where over a third of such foods include junk foods, sodas, alcohol, and chips; they are high in sugars and saturated fats (Carroll, 2016).
The unhealthy eating habits are now becoming a major concern for the government. This is because the cases of illnesses related to bad diet are increasing on a daily basis.
Risk factors
Eating unhealthy foods leads to health problems. They result in a low intake of nutrients in the body, such as carbohydrates, minerals, fatty acids, proteins, fluids, and fiber. For instance, in Australia adult men have reduced their energy intake by 1400 kJ per day within the last 15 years, while that of women has decreased by one percent 7400kJ in a day (Carroll, 2016). Notably, body illnesses and other health complications are major risk factors, and include, decaying of teeth due to too much sugar, eating syndromes, increased blood pressure, and increased cholesterol in the blood, type 2 diabetes, cancer, stroke, depression, heart disease, and obesity. Most of such illnesses are referred to as lifestyle diseases ("The risks of poor nutrition", 2016).
Prevention measures can be taken to avoid such risk factors, and in fact, prevention means are much easier to follow. Such measures include; taking a minimum of two fruits in a day together with vegetables, replacing sugary drinks with clean fresh water, reducing the intake of salty, fatty, or sugary foods, planning meals earlier before going for shopping to avoid buying of unhealthy ingredients, taking a complete change in the diet by focusing on healthy foods that have a good taste, and enjoying cooking healthy meals with friends and family ("The risks of poor nutrition", 2016).
Campaign approach
Get Set 4Life Campaign addresses the problem in a number of ways. First, it focuses on ensuring that children of young age adopt better eating habits at a tender age such that it will become an integral part of their life. It will be hard for them to adopt bad eating habits in their teenage or adult life. By that, they will influence the other young people born after them; such that proper feeding habits will be passed to all upcoming generations. Next, the campaign centers on ensuring children adopt regular physical exercise as part of their life. It will increase their body flexibility and help them in overcoming certain illnesses such as obesity. Thirdly, the campaign ensures that children develop better language and speech which will develop their communication skills from a tender age. Next, hygiene among young children is another focal point that the campaign needs to observe. This includes environmental and oral hygiene. Sleep patterns being another focus of the campaign allows children to develop proper sleeping habits that will ensure proper growth and development ("Department of Health | Get Set 4 Life - Habits for Healthy Kids Guide", 2016).
Get set 4 Life also provides guides to parents which will make sure that they have enough resources that will help their children in adopting healthy habits throughout their lives. Also, the guide will ensure that children are ready to learn when school starts.
In conclusion, the primary concern for the campaign is to break the bad eating habits that have been adopted mostly by teenagers and adults by bringing up a generation that is conscious of what it should eat. By that, all other generations that will come after that will be able to adopt the same healthy eating habits.
Analysis of campaign
Get set for life campaign is still operational and helping a lot of kids in developing better habits that include proper sleeping, hygiene, oral health, regular physical exercises among others ("Department of Health | Get Set 4 Life - Habits for Healthy Kids Guide", 2016). The fact that the guide is available for both parents or guardians and children makes it more useful. Further, the campaign has gone ahead and translated the copies of the guides to various languages that are common in Australia. This allows for every native child in Australia to access the guide and implement it on their children. Also, breaking the guidelines into guides that are available online and in schools, makes it easier for anyone to access them and hence, increasing the success of the campaign. Notably, the success of the campaign has also been enhanced by the presence of other initiatives focusing on the healthy habits of children. Such initiatives include swap it and measure up, Healthy Communities’ initiatives, among others ("Health promotion messages - Healthy Kids", 2016).
Future action
References
