Direct and Indirect Impacts on Health

Daisy Paco

The task

You are required to prepare a written report based on the information gained from

1. Identify, assess and discuss both direct and indirect impacts on health the following determinants have with regards to planning, implementation, and the evaluation of health interventions.

Determinant factors

1. Demographic distribution of populations

According to Statistics New Zealand this year New Zealand has an estimated population of over 4.5 million which based on the record from 2006 census 4, 027, 947 it was increased. During 2010 New Zealander’s fertility rate or births per woman is 2.1 and median child birthing age was 30 while in Maori populations fertility rate is 2.8 and median age is 26. Also in 2010 the infant mortality rate was 5.1 per 1000 live births for the total population and the age-standardized mortality rate (technique used to allow populations to be compared when the age profiles of the populations are quite different)[1] was 3.8 per 1000 which evidently reduced from 4.8 in the year 2000 which only means that there is health improvement among their citizens. For the life expectancy of female child born in New Zealand in 2008 was 82.4 years, and for males was 78.8 years. As well as forecast shows that there will be an increase life expectancy at birth from 80-85 years by year 2050, thus corresponds to expectation for decline infant mortality. Since the ageing population of New Zealand is predominantly growing the demand for health and disability services is increasing too. It is generally recognised that increased life expectancy, due partly to the success of health interventions, has resulted in many countries facing a growing challenge of chronic illnesses and disabilities and an increasing demand for both acute and long-term health services (Goulding et al 2003). In fact the population by 2050 is predicted to extent to 5.3million, 36years to 43years increase median age and an increase of 60 older people from 18% to 29%. Therefore at the very basic level the growing statistics of old age people will definitely surge demand for both informal and formal services of health in the future.

2. Political values

Political values are set of roles and behaviours that are being shaped from within the political world. People usually acquire their political values through political socialization. Where in it can be from their family members, social media, friends, in school, book and person’s unique experiences. This factor is very essential in such way that a person’s awareness will boost them to pay particular attention in their health. For instances the people around you can be effectively influential with regards to health by merely having the values taken from social adherence like for example from school or books thought to be “prevention is better than cure”, a family with such food preferences, choosing a healthy lifestyle that probably passed to their next kin, and advertisement from medias which people may learn from it.

3. Religious beliefs

In New Zealand the predominant religion is Christianity with over half the population based on New Zealand Census 2006. At about 55.6% identified themselves as Christians, while 34.7% had no religion and 4% with other religion affiliation. With the arrival of missionaries indigenous Maori population convert themselves to Christianity from being in animistic traditional religion. Denominations of main Christians include Roman Catholics, Methodism, Presbyterianism and Anglicanism. Others are Pentecostal, Baptist and Latter-day-Saint. Religious belief is a distinct way or strong belief on divine intervention, existence or control with destiny, supernatural power and worship of a deity or deities. People with strong religious belief may cope with stress better and may avoid such bad alternatives to lessen stress like alcohol, smoking and drugs. Another is going to worship keeps people physically active thus decreases the risk in acquiring certain diseases and disability. Moreover, there are also negative impacts of religious belief on health such as psychological well-being and self-esteem maybe affected, causes negative emotions like fear and stress that contributes to have negative physiological effects, individual might engage to vices like smoking, drug use and drinking alcohol and lastly might stereotype in the group.

4. Human values

Human values for me are the person’s own notion or concept of how things are given importance. It is all about the decision made by individual for the pursuit of doing what is right or what is expected of them. Health can be influence depending on individual preferences. For example, you can be as healthy as you wanted to and as you choose to be. A person with strong value to health knows how to become one by having healthy lifestyle, proper management of disease, physical activities and avoiding such vices. Hence, some people are just careless of their health because it doesn’t really matter to them as long as they enjoy what they do without thinking of possible future result like smoking causes lung cancer, drug used leads to withdrawal, depression, mental illness and drinking alcohol for liver damage.

5. Ethnicity

Ethnicity is described as distinctive cultural and social practice preserved within the group between generations, a sense of identification with the group and often a common genetic heritage, and a common history and origin (Last 1995). New Zealand ethnicity make-up is diverse increasingly. It includes European origin which is still the leading single group, Pacific Islander, Maori, Asian and others. Ethnicity can have significant impact on health and on uptake of health services. Thus understanding and knowledge on ethnic backgrounds of a population can help improve the healthcare of such population. In addition, it is being addressed here in New Zealand the disparities of health due to ethnic orientation. And it is said that there’s still a difference between access of health services between Maori and non-Maori’s despite the presence of Treaty of Waitangi which gives them right and privileges on health services. As well as there’s a limited access to health merely by ethnic discrimination.

6. Traditions

Traditions is a way of behaving, doing something and thinking that is being passed down from great generation to generation within a certain group or society either through word of mouth or practice. Traditions disparities influences attitude of patients towards medical care and their ability to manage, understand, and deal with the progress of an illness, the consequences of medical treatment, and the meaning of a diagnosis. Patients and their families bring values and tradition related to reporting of symptoms, notions of health and illness, expectations for how health care will be delivered, and beliefs concerning medication and treatments. Furthermore, traditions impact patient expectations and roles, managing death and dying patient, how much information about treatment and illness are desired, family and gender roles, bereavement patterns, and decision making processes. Therefore, it is important that when giving care to patient we pay due respect with cultural and traditional differences and must remain non-judgemental when given data or information that is different from us.

References:

1. Wikipedia. (2014, August 25). Demographics of New Zealand – Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia. RetrievedSeptember29, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_New_Zealand

[1] Wikipedia. (2014, September 4). Age Adjustment. RetrievedSeptember29, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_adjustment