Health Policies Related To Obesity In Children In Australia

1. One of the policies that apply to the health issue of obesity in children is Australia’s food policy index. The food policy index is a policy that was created by the Global Obesity Centre in collaboration with the obesity policy coalition and the Australian prevention partnership center. The policy was developed to help with the assessment of the existing food-related policies in Australia and identify the gaps in those policies that need to be addressed (Alsharairi, 2018 p. 18). The assessment done through this policy covers vital areas that have been shown to have an impact on the diets and obesity in the population (Garnett, et al. 2016 p. 34). For example, the assessment is done on the composition of food composition, labeling of food products and monitoring of food premises including cafeterias (Bellew, et al. 2019 p. 29). This policy applies to obesity in children in Australia in various ways. First, the food policy index identifies gaps in existing policies in childhood obesity in Australia and proposes measures that need to be taken by the government to close those gaps (Baker, et al. 2017 p. 141). Globally, Australia is known to have the best policies in childhood obesity. However, despite having the best policies that are meant to address obesity in children, the rates of diabetes in children are still high in Australia. For example, from 1995 to 2015, the rates of childhood obesity have been increasing steadily with 25% of children in Australia being obese in 1995 and 27% of them being obese in 2015 (Innes-Hughes, et al. 2019 p. 450). Assessing Global Policy Implementation On Obesity In Australia Essay Paper  Generally, it’s said that in every four children in Australia, one of them is either obese or overweight (Littlejohns & Wilson, 2019 p.729). These statistics show that childhood obesity in Australia is a significant problem that the existing policies have not been able to address. However, through the food policy index, the government has been able to monitor the effectiveness of the existing childhood policies in various jurisdictions to determine the gaps that need to be closed for the issue of obesity in children to be properly addressed (Newson, et al. 2018 p. 55).

The food policy index has been able to provide evidence on the effectiveness of the existing government childhood obesity policies by assessing and summarizing the findings of the effectiveness of these government policies and programs in its annual reports (Reilly, et al. 2018 p. 378). It’s from these findings that gaps in the existing childhood obesity policies can be identified and prioritized by the government. For example, the 2017 food policy index report provides various priority recommendations that the government needs to consider in addressing childhood obesity in Australia. The major recommendations include the need for the government to introduce stronger incentives and accountability mechanisms for institutions of learning to comply with healthy food provision policies (Sacks & Robinson, 2019 p. 33). Based on this report, most schools are not complying with the existing healthy food policies because there is no strong accountability on the part. As a result, school-going children are being fed with unhealthy foods especially in the school cafeteria which exposes them to obesity (Thurber, 2014 p. 56).

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Food Policy Index

Another health policy that applies to this health issue is the “National Framework for Universal Child and Family Health Services”. This policy was created through a partnership between the territory governments, the state, and the non-government sector in Australia with the commonwealth. In this policy, the core services that all children Australian children aged 0-8 years should receive free of charge regardless of their cultural or religious beliefs (Thurber, 2014 p. 56). Since this policy was created to outline the core services that children in Australia require, the policy applies to obesity in children in Australia because the rates of mortality and morbidity of obesity in children are very high in Australia. For example, the rates of obesity among the children in Australia as of 2018 stands at 28% (Thurber, 2014 p. 56). Since obesity is a risk factor of various conditions, it’s reported that the rates of diabetes among Australian children is continuing to rise. Therefore, childhood obesity treatment services are core services that children in Australia need. This means that this policy needs to prioritize childhood obesity treatment as the core service that children in Australia need.

2. The principles that apply to this issue as relevant to indigenous people include the principle of equity. The principle of equity stipulates that resources in the society should be distributed starting from those who need them the most before those who need these resources are distributed to those who need them the list (Reilly, et al. 2018 p. 378). The indigenous people in Australia have for years been subjected to historical injustices that have made them experience various inequalities especially in access to quality care (Reilly, et al. 2018 p. 378). The inequalities to access quality care have negatively affected the health of indigenous people and as a result, the rates of mortality and morbidity of obesity among the indigenous people are higher compared to non-indigenous people. For example, the rates of obesity among the indigenous children as of 2013 were 10.6% compared to 6.9% in non-indigenous people (Littlejohns & Wilson, 2019 p.729). These statistics show that there is a huge gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous people in access to quality care for obesity disease. Applying the principle of equity, it means that even though both indigenous and non-indigenous children require obesity health services, the high rates of obesity incidence among the indigenous people makes them more in need of these services. Therefore, to ensure equity, the government should prioritize indigenous children over non-indigenous children when delivering health services for obesity.

National Framework For Universal Child And Family Health Services

Another principle that applies to this issue is the principle of rights. The principle of rights stipulates that the freedom and liberties of people in the society should be respected (Thurber, 2014 p. 56). Healthcare is a basic need and all citizens in Australia have a right to access quality care. However, the indigenous people have for years been denied the right to access quality care. For example, healthcare facilities are not distributed evenly in indigenous communities as they are in non-indigenous communities (Thurber, 2014 p. 56). This denies the indigenous people the right to access obesity treatment services for their children. Also, as a result of inequalities to education that these indigenous people have been subjected to for years, most of the indigenous people are not well informed about healthy eating habits. As a result, most of the indigenous people have been denied the right to information about their health. Hence, these people practice unhealthy eating habits that expose their children to obesity. Therefore, to ensure that the indigenous people are given equal rights like other people in Australia, the government needs to close all the gaps that exist between the indigenous and non-indigenous people.

References

Alsharairi, N. (2018). Current government actions and potential policy options for reducing obesity in Queensland schools. Children, 5(2), 18.

Bellew, W., Bauman, A., Kite, J., Foley, B., Reece, L., Thomas, M., Mihrshahi, S. and King, L., 2019. Obesity prevention in children and young people: what policy actions are needed?. Public health research & practice, 29(1).

Baker, P., Gill, T., Friel, S., Carey, G., & Kay, A. (2017). Generating political priority for regulatory interventions targeting obesity prevention: an Australian case study. Social science & medicine, 177, 141-149.

Garnett, S. P., Baur, L. A., Jones, A. M., & Hardy, L. L. (2016). Trends in the prevalence of morbid and severe obesity in Australian children aged 7-15 years, 1985-2012. PloS one, 11(5), e0154879.

Innes-Hughes, C., Rissel, C., Thomas, M. and Wolfenden, L., 2019. Reflections on the NSW Healthy Children Initiative: a comprehensive state-delivered childhood obesity prevention initiative. Public Health Res Pract, 29(1), p.e2911908.

Littlejohns, L. B., & Wilson, A. (2019). Strengthening complex systems for chronic disease prevention: a systematic review. BMC public health, 19(1), 729.

Newson, R., Rychetnik, L., King, L., Milat, A., & Bauman, A. (2018). Does citation matter? Research citation in policy documents as an indicator of research impact–an Australian obesity policy case-study. Health research policy and systems, 16(1), 55.  Assessing Global Policy Implementation On Obesity In Australia Essay Paper