Overweight and Obesity in Adults in Australia: A Snapshot 2007-08

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the First Issue of Overweight and Obesity in Adults in Australia: A Snapshot, 2007–08 . The increase in overweight and obesity rates in recent decades is a major public health concern in many countries including Australia. Before 1980, obesity rates were generally well below 10%, but have doubled or tripled in many countries since then. Sedentary lifestyles which have come about due to increasing affluence and the modernisation of society, and changes to diets containing more energy-dense foods are believed to be the main causes in the rise in overweight and obesity rates.


Life expectancy may decrease due to the increasing number of overweight and obese people who experience health problems, such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. Overweight and obesity are prominent health risks that can affect a person's ability to work or participate in family and community activities and have serious implications for the health sector in terms of cost and burden on services.

Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities

Safe Work Australia has just released their latest report on work-related deaths due to injury called Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities 2008-09. This report shows that there has been little change in the number of workers killed each with 286 workers killed in 2008-09, 100 of which were due to traffic incidents on public roads. In addition 117 workers died while travelling to or from work and 41 members of the general public were killed due to someone else's work activity. Truck drivers and workers on farms are the groups most at risk of being killed while working. The report said that 358 truck drivers have been killed while working over the six years until 30 June 2009. The report can be found at www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au

NICE Pathways online tool

NICE has launched a new online tool for health and social care professionals which, for the first time, brings together all connected NICE guidance on a topic in a user-friendly electronic flowchart.
This digital resource will allow users to quickly view and navigate NICE guidance and other tools on any given topic across an entire care pathway. For example, the postnatal care pathway considers everything from the baby's first 24 hours up until the first 2 - 8 weeks. Individual pathways also link to other related pathways - for example the diet pathway links with the physical activity pathway.

Osteoarthritis Topic Resource Center

The Osteoarthritis Topic Resource Center was created to help physicians gain greater understanding of osteoarthritis and improve diagnosis and management of patients with this condition.
The site includes guidelines :
Medical Management of Adults With Osteoarthritis Michigan Quality Improvement Consortium
Care and Management of Osteoarthritis in Adults: Summary of NICE Guidance National Institute for Clinical Excellence (UK); and resources such as the following articles:
Managing osteoarthritis: A multidisciplinary approachMusculoskeletal Medicine, October 2010 Issues in pharmacological management of osteoarthritis Musculoskeletal Network, January 2011

Blue Mountains GP Network Chronic Disease Self-Management Project

The Blue Mountains GP Network (BMGPN) received funding from the Federal Department of Health and Ageing through the Chronic Disease Self-Management/Lifestyle and Risk Modification Grants program to implement the Chronic Disease Self-Management Project from 1 July 2009 to the end of May 2010. The BMGPN Chronic Disease Self-Management Project developed a number of objectives and initiatives aimed at increasing awareness of self-management programs and techniques in the local area, including implementing ‘Moving On’, a generic self-management course developed by Arthritis NSW and designed to increase people’s knowledge and skills to enable them to self-manage their chronic conditions more effectively.

The Moving On program was structured into seven sessions conducted over seven weeks in three hour blocks. The sessions covered: managing fatigue and physical activity; healthy eating and leisure; coping; stress management; relaxation; sleeping; medications and working with the health care team. Each Moving On session was facilitated by a health professional and a lay leader. The lay leader was someone with a chronic condition who could provide input from their personal experience and could provide a positive role model for participants. The health professional leader contributes their technical knowledge and skills plus ensures that information was evidence-based, verifiable and correct. An evaluation of the Project was undertaken by members of the Serious Continuing Illness Policy and Practice Study (SCIPPS) team based at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy (MCHP), University of Sydney. The "Report of the evaluation of the Blue Mountains GP network chronic disease self-management project" is now available.

Planning For the End of Life for People with Dementia

Planning early for end of life is essential for people with dementia, yet most do not do it while they can still make their own decisions. Understanding what care planning options are legally available is vital to ensuring a person’s wishes for their end of life are recorded and respected when the time comes, said Professor Colleen Cartwright, who has written a new report on the topic for Alzheimer’s Australia. "Planning for the End of Life for People with Dementia: Part One ; Part two"

“There are difficult decisions to be made and people need to understand what their legal rights are and to ensure that they will be protected, especially in cases where the person in the end stages of life has dementia,” said Professor Cartwright, who is the Director of the ASLaRC Aged Services Unit in the Health and Wellbeing Research Cluster at Southern Cross University. "Taking the steps to plan in the early stages of dementia is fundamental and talking to your family, carers, friends and doctors is essential.” The report was developed in consultation with members of the Alzheimer’s Australia National Consumer Advisory Committee (NCAC).

Inital Evaluation of Rural Programs at the Australian National University

Foreshadowing the proposed national career tracking of Australian medical school graduates, this evaluation of compulsory and elective rural medical components at the Australian National University adds to the evidence on undergraduate rural practice intention. Of interest are findings on motivation to select or decline elective year-long rural immersion. This article "Initial evaluation of rural programs at the Australian National University: understanding the effects of rural programs on intentions for rural and remote medical practice" appears in the journal 'Rural and Remote Health'.(NRHA eforum 23/5/11)

Colorectal Cancer Screening in Rural and Remote Areas

An article "Colorectal cancer screening in rural and remote areas: analysis of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program data for South Australia" has been published in 'Rural and Remote Health'. With the incidence of colorectal cancer rising across populations, these authors analysed Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) data for rural and remote South Australia, seeking factors and characteristics that impact on the uptake of voluntary screening. Although the findings are geographically specific, they are essential reading for health planners, policymakers and all others interested in the epidemiology of this high mortality disease. (NRHA eforum 23/5/11)

Trends in Access to Dental Care Among Australian Adults 1994 - 2008

A report "Trends in access to dental care among Australian adults 1994-2008" has been released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Between 1994 and 2008 half of all Australians visited a dentist most years and the proportion of those who visited for a check-up increased from 46% to 55%. However, there were growing inequalities in the use of dental care. People on low incomes, those who live in rural areas and those without dental insurance did not have the same gains in visiting a dentist regularly for a check-up compared to higher income earners, urban dwellers and those with dental insurance. (AIHW catalogue number (DEN204))

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Pathways

The NHS National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) launched NICE Pathways at its annual conference in Birmingham in May 2011. An online tool for health and social care professionals, NICE Pathways brings together all connected NICE guidance on a topic in a user-friendly electronic flowchart. Previously there has been no easy way to see at a glance everything NICE has said on a specific condition, for example diabetes, across all its separate published guidance. For the first time ever, this digital resource will allow users to quickly view and navigate NICE guidance and other tools on any given topic across an entire care pathway. For example, the postnatal care pathway considers everything from the baby's first 24 hours up until the first 2 - 8 weeks.

There were 18 pathways on various subjects launched at the conference covering the whole range of different types of NICE advice, including health technology appraisals, clinical guidelines, public health and social care advice, quality standards and implementation tools, this is part of a wider move to provide a more personalised, audience-focused way of looking at NICE guidance. Individual pathways also link to other related pathways - for example the diet pathway links with the physical activity pathway. NICE Pathways will continue to develop by including more content and more topics in the future.

Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: An Overview

"The health and welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: an overview 2011". This report is a summary publication of Indigenous health and welfare statistics prepared by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Together with a series of articles available online from the AIHW Indigenous observatory and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it provides a comprehensive statistical picture of Indigenous health and welfare. Topics covered in the publication include: demographic characteristics; determinants of health and welfare; health and functioning; mortality and life expectancy; health across the life stages; health care and other support services; and health and welfare expenditure.

AIHW catalogue number (IHW42).

Indigenous observatory papers (available on the internet only):

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child safety
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability
Access to health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
A profile of homelessness for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Comparing life expectancy of indigenous people in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States
Contribution of chronic disease to the gap in adult mortality between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Australians
Eye health in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Life expectancy and mortality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

2009 Adult Vaccination Survey: Summary Results

The 2009 Adult Vaccination Survey forms part of the evaluations of two vaccine programs for older Australia. The first is the National Influenza Vaccination Program for Older Australians, which commenced in 1999; and the second is the National Pneumococcal Vaccination Program for Older Australians which commenced on 1 January 2005. The results have been published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) in "2009 Adult vaccination survey: summary results".

The survey showed that in 2009, 74.6% (2.2 million) Australians aged 65 years or over were vaccinated against influenza. However, only 54.4% (1.6 million) older Australians were currently vaccinated against pneumococcal. (AIHW catalogue number (PHE135))

Time Trends and Geographical Variations in Re-admission for Asthma in Australia

Re-admissions for asthma can be considered an indicator of health system performance in relation to the management of patients with asthma. This bulletin, "Time trends and geographical variation for re-admissions for asthma in Australia", examines the overall rate of re-admissions for asthmas in Australian and investigates time trends in re-admissions for asthmas as well as differences according to age, sex, socioeconomic status and remoteness of residence. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare catalogue number (ACM21))

Dental Health of Indigenous Children in the Northern Territory

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a report "The dental health of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory: findings from the Closing the Gap program". This report presents findings from the dental follow-up data collection that was established as part of the Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory National Partnership Agreement (NPA) between the Australian and Northern Territory governments to monitor dental services in communities in prescribed areas of the Northern Territory. These findings can be used to support public accountability for the delivery of dental services provided through the NPA.

The report provides information on the following aspects of dental services delivered from August 2007 to June 2010, including the:
* amount and types of dental services provided;
* extent of follow-up care provided to children with dental referrals;
* oral health status of children who received dental services.

(AIHW catalogue number (IHW41)

At Risk Youth: a Transitory State?

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) released a report in March 2011 "At risk youth: a transitory state?". This briefing paper draws on existing research on 'at risk' youth and some primary data analysis to consider whether being at risk is a permanent or transitory state. Generally, those considered to be at risk fall into three categories: those who disengaged from full-time education or full-time employment, those who are unemployed, and those who did not complete their senior secondary education. This paper suggests that rather than counting the numbers of young people at risk, we should instead turn our attention to young people who remain detached from work, study or meaningful activities for extended periods. (FROM: NCVER newsletter) (You will need to register at the NCVER website to access this report - registration is free)

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Forum in Cancer Forum

The March 2011 issue of the journal Cancer Forum, published by the Cancer Council Australia, contains a FORUM on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in oncology. It includes various articles on integrating CAM with conventional medicines, patients' perceptions of CAM, psychology and educating about CAM. The issue begins with an overview of the topic.

Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a report - "The use of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs for the management of rheumatoid arthritis". Disease and modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are now considered first-line treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). When initiated early, they have been shown to alter the disease course and reduce joint erosion, reducing or preventing disability and improving quality of life. (AIHW catalogue number (PHE138) - 31 March 2011)

e-Atlas of Global Development

The World Bank launched the e-Atlas of Global Development in April 2011. It is a free, interactive tool, which maps and graphs more than 175 indicators from the World Bank's development database including various health related themes. A print edition has also been released. Both atlases draw on a global database compiled from the work of the World Bank, other international agencies, and national statistical offices of World Bank member countries.

Developed in collaboration with HarperCollins, the e-atlas allows users to easily and quickly map and chart economic and social indicators and compare country outcomes. Users can export customised, professional quality, full colour maps and graphs. Other features include scalable maps, timeline graphing, ranking tables, and import and export functions for sharing data and graphics. Critical issues such as poverty, food production, population growth, climate change, international trade, and foreign direct investment are covered.

Rural Adolescents Reluctant to Seek Help For Emotional Problems

A new study of almost 800 high school students from the Riverina region of New South Wales has shown that rural adolescents do not believe they would benefit from seeking professional help if they were experiencing emotional problems. The trial was conducted by way of a self-report questionnaire completed by 373 males and 404 females attending seven high schools in several rural towns. The ages of those tested ranged from 13 to 18.

The study was designed to measure the help-seeking intentions in the event that any one of the participants was to experience emotional problems or psychological distress symptoms, and to learn more about factors that might influence their decision on whether or not to find assistance. "Most participants did not believe they would benefit from seeking professional help if they were experiencing emotional problems. A caveat with this finding is that it comes from a sample of adolescents who were not experiencing high levels of psychological distress," Ms Rughani said. "It is possible that adolescents who are experiencing clinical levels of psychological distress may have a different relationship with health professions and display different help-seeking behaviours."

A subscription is required to access this article "Rural adolescents' help-seeking behaviour for emotional problems : The influence of perceived benefits and stoicism" which was published in the April issue of the Australian Journal of Rural Health pages 64-69 (available on CIAP for NSW Health personnel)

Home Versus Hospital-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation

"Home versus hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation: a systematic review". This article recently published in the journal Rural and Remote Health asks the question - Home-based or hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation? The evidence reported in this systematic review may benefit rural and remote cardiac patients.

Home-based cardiac rehabilitation offers greater accessibility to cardiac rehabilitation and has the potential to increase uptake. While there have been fewer studies of home-based cardiac rehabilitation, the available data suggest that it has comparable results to hospital-based programs.

Culture Shock and Healthcare Workers in Remote Indigenous Communities

"Culture shock and healthcare workers in remote Indigenous communities of Australia: what do we know and how can we measure it?"
Does incomplete cultural adaptation among non-Indigenous health professionals working in Indigenous communities contribute to rural workforce shortages? This comprehensive review of the international literature offers evidence about the impact of culture shock in remote Australia, with potential application to other world regions. It has recently been published in the journal 'Rural and Remote Health'.

Pharmacists in Inland Australia - Pilot Study

The journal Rural and Remote Health has recently published an article by Mary Madden and Patrick Ball titled "The decision-making processes of pharmacists in inland Australia - A pilot study". In this wide-ranging pilot study, the rural Australian participant pharmacists broached many themes and issues, including privacy concerns, the unique nature of each dispensing environment, the usefulness (or not) of technology, compliance with regulations and staff's embrace of the safety culture. Essential reading for all who have an interest in the safe supply of medicines.

A snapshot of osteoporosis in Australia 2011

Osteoporosis causes bones to become weak, and increase the likelihood of fracture. This new AIHW report updates the key figures and facts about osteoporosis in Australia.

Taking medication: The most important dosage forms

Sugar-coated tablet, granulate or chewable capsule – some drugs are already absorbed by the body in your mouth. For others, this starts to happen only in the stomach or bowel. For medications to reach their target in the body, they are available in different dosage forms. Informed Health Online has put together a list of the most important dosage forms of oral medications. Download the list here.

Mandatory folic acid and iodine

AIHW has published a new report "Mandatory folic acid and iodine fortification in Australia and New Zealand: baseline report for monitoring." This report presents key baseline data for monitoring mandatory folic acid and iodine fortification in Australia and New Zealand. Data are presented for each component of the fortification monitoring frameworks as follows: food composition; folic acid and iodine intake; folic acid and iodine status of the populations; and health outcomes.

Australian Family Relationship Clearinghouse bibliography collection

The Australian Family Relationships Clearinghouse now provides real-time searches for bibliographies on a range of topics related to family, family relationships and issues that affect Australian families.
All bibliographies are sourced from the library database of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and related to international and Australian research on family wellbeing in Australia.
Where available, links to online documents are provided.
Search the bibliographies at: http://www.aifs.gov.au/afrc/bibs/bib.html

Dementia among aged care residents:

The Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) is a new tool to appraise the care needs of permanent residents in residential aged care facilities. The ACFI appraisal was used to identify more than 104,400 permanent residents in 2008-09 who had a diagnosis of dementia. This equates to 53% of all residents with an ACFI appraisal in this financial year. Seventy per cent of residents with a dementia diagnosis were female reflecting their overall proportion in residential care. Approximately 79% of all residents with dementia were aged 70 years and over.

This new AIHW report, presenting data for 2008–09, is the first to examine the characteristics and care requirements of Australian aged care residents with a diagnosis of dementia. It will be useful for informing the allocation of future aged care funding and the development of aged care facilities to meet the needs of the ageing Australian population.

Questions and answers in Indigenous health

The latest issue of the Medical Journal of Australia (May 16, 2011) focuses on indigenous health in Australia. It covers two major sections on policy and Closing the Gap.

The Dr Ross Ingram Memorial Competition Winning Essay entitled "Mental illness or spiritual illness: what should we call it?" by Lindy L Moffatt is featured along with "Alfie the tooth fairy (an animation) - Winning Artwork; The importance of keeping tooth fairies healthy by Alison Dimer, and other winning entries.

Those staff in NSW Health can access the fulltext articles via CIAP.

NLM Resource: Chemical Structure Images

The National Library of Medicine Division of Specialized Information Services (SIS) has added chemical structure images from the NLM ChemIDplus® database to Hazardous Substances Databank (HSDB®) records. HSDB is a comprehensive, peer-reviewed toxicology data for about 5,000 chemicals.
The chemical structures can be viewed in the HSDB record header with the chemical name and registry number. Users can save the chemical structure as a ".png" file.

Open Poster Repository for Biology & Medicine

An open access repository from Facultyof 1000 (developed by the founders of open access), called F1000 Posters (http://posters.f1000.com), covers posters from the leading biology and medicine conferences. Since its launch in June 2010, it has grown quite considerably, and now includes posters from over 180 international meetings, with some posters receiving 400-850 views in a month. This new tool may be of interest to all people working in the health industry.
By keeping the work visible long after a meeting has ended it maximises the time, effort and cost invested in creating each poster.

Reflux Diseases Topic Resource Center

The Reflux Diseases Topic Resource Center was created to help clinicians stay up-to-date with advances in the diagnosis and management of reflux diseases.

Interventions for improving mobility after hip fracture surgery in adults

The aim of care after surgery for hip fracture is to get people safely back on their feet and walking again. Initially, people may be asked to rest in bed and restrict weight bearing. Then various strategies to improve mobility, including gait retraining and exercise programmes, are used during hospital stay and often after discharge from hospital.
The authors of a recent Cochrane Review set out to determine what are the best strategies for adults. The meta-analysis used data from 19 trials involving 1,589 participants, generally aged over 65 years. There was no pooling of data because no two trials were sufficiently alike.

Patient Blood Management Guidelines

NHMRC recently approved this guideline developed by the National Blood Authority (NBA) for use by health care professionals in managing patients with critical bleeding requiring massive transfusion.
The NBA Patient Blood Management Guidelines Module 1 - Critical Bleeding/Massive Transfusion is the first of six patient blood management modules being developed to replace the NHMRC/Australasian Society of Blood Transfusion (ASBT) Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Use of Blood Components (2001). Future modules under development by NBA will address peri-operative, medical, critical care, obstetric and paediatric patient blood management.
The guideline and accompanying documents can be accessed from the NBA and also from the NHMRC Clinical Practice Guidelines Portal .

Australian Infection Control Guidelines

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recently released the Australian Infection Control Guidelines: preventing and managing infection in healthcare (the Guidelines) on behalf of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. The Guidelines will inform clinicians, ancillary staff and administrators about the core principles of infection control in health care delivery. These guidelines provide recommendations that outline the critical aspects of infection prevention and control. The recommendations were developed using the best available evidence and consensus methods by the Infection Control Steering Committee. They have been prioritised as key areas to prevent and control infection in a healthcare facility.

The Living End

Hospitals, as much as relatives and friends, can find it very hard to let go, writes intensive care specialist Ken Hillman. Ken Hillman is professor of intensive care at the University of New South Wales and has written an essay on the topic for Inside Story.