Diabetes Type 2 Essay Among Indigenous People In Port Adelaide Enfield, South Australia.

Identification and Analysis of the Health Problem

The issue of diabetes type 2 is a major health concern around the world and it is equally affecting the indigenous community people of Australia as well. Rather it can be stated that the indigenous people of Australia are affected more compared to the non-indigenous counter part of the country. The current report assesses the issue of diabetes type 2 disease among the indigenous people living in the city of Port Adelaide Enfield located in South Australia. In this context, it can be reported that the prevalence of the diabetes type 2 is high among the residents of the city of port Adelaide Enfield (Government of South Australia, 2019).

Considering the prevalence of the disease condition among the indigenous and non-indigenous community people, it can be reported that the disease prevalence was among the aboriginal community people compared to the non-indigenous Australians. The higher prevalence of the disease among the Aboriginal community people compared to the non-indigenous people living in the South Australia including the city of Port Adelaide Enfield has highlighted the importance of the issue in this particular city.

The prevalence of the disease is very high in Australia across the different states and territories. According to the report of Australian Government (), it was reported that approximately 1.2 million people of the country that was approximately 4.9 per cent of the total population, had were diagnosed with diabetes type 2 in the year of 2017-18. Based on the self-reported data furnished by the government, it was reported that the prevalence of the disease was greater for males along with 5 per cent of all cases and in case of females the prevalence was only 3.8 per cent (Government of Australia, 2021). The prevalence rate enhanced along with the increasing age of the population and it was reported that the people under the age group of 65-74 years had the three times higher disease prevalence compared to the people under the age group of 45 years to 54 years. In case of the aboriginal community people of the country, it can be reported that, in the year of 2017 to 18 approximately 7.9 per cent of the indigenous Australians had the diabetes type2 disease and the here the issue of disparities in terms of the indigenous and non-indigenous people comes in to play. It was reported that the indigenous community people had the disease prevalence of 12.6 per cent and it was almost 3 times greater compared to their non-indigenous counterpart having the disease prevalence of only 4.3 per cent (Government of Australia, 2021).

While considering the target group for addressing the issue of diabetes type 2 among the indigenous community people, it can be reported that the Aboriginal people living in the city of Port Adelaide Enfield located in the SA is the target group. The data reported by the Government of South Australia revealed that the diabetes type 2 was reported among the 12.8 per cent of indigenous South Australian including the people living in city of Port Adelaide Enfield and on the other hand only 5.1 per cent of the non-indigenous Australian had the disease living in the same region (Government of South Australia, 2019). The report of the South Australian Government also stated that the disease condition was mostly reported among the indigenous female compared to the males having the prevalence of 15 per cent among the females and 9.1 per cent among the indigenous males. However, the opposite trend was reported among the non-indigenous people where male population had the prevalence rate compared to the females (5.9 per cent among the males vs 4.2 per cent among the females) (Government of South Australia, 2019).

Location of the Health Problem

As a part of the different life style factors associated with the issue of remoteness is associated with the onset of the disease among the indigenous Australians living in the city of Port Adelaide Enfield and it was reported that those people had higher risks developing the disease compared to the people living in the non-remote areas. Along with this, the problem of the lower socioeconomic conditions of the people living in the city of Port Adelaide Enfield is also associated with the development of the disease (Government of South Australia, 2019). In the study of Eick et al. (2019), it is reported that the lower socioeconomic conditions can contribute to the development of the disease condition as the lower socioeconomic condition restricts the individuals to exercise the healthy habits associated with avoidance of the disease conditions. Moreover, the presence of socioeconomic condition can also restrict the people to access different healthy behaviours such as fruits and vegetable consumption, healthy lifestyle including the exercises.

Considering the indigenous population group of city of Port Adelaide Enfield, it can be reported that the overall diabetes type 2 prevalence in the city of Port Adelaide Enfield was 5 per cent which was higher than the Metropolitan Adelaide (4.3 per cent) and the lowest socioeconomic group people living in the city of Port Adelaide Enfield had the two times higher prevalence. Moreover, due to the poor accessibility to the fresh fruits and vegetables can also enhance the risks of developing the disease and it was reported that in case of the city of Port Adelaide Enfield, only 47.7 per cent of the people met the daily requirement of the fruit consumption and it was less than that of the level in Metropolitan Adelaide overall 49.0 per cent (Government of South Australia, 2019).

As a part of the different factors such as social factors, economic and environmental factors for the development of the disease conditions, it can be reported that the accessibility to the health care services living in the city of Port Adelaide Enfield can be considered as the social factor of disease development in the region. As a part of the economic factors of the disease development, the poor socioeconomic condition due to the poor income can be mentioned. In case of the environmental factors, the absence of physical activity performance culture among the people of city of Port Adelaide can be reported (Government of South Australia, 2019).

Approximately 1.6 per cent of the people under the age group of 18 years or more had problems in accessing the health care services and thus those people are more vulnerable for the disease in the city. In the particular region, approximately 39.8 per cent of the indigenous people were dependent on the government support which indicated the poor economic condition of the people which enhanced the chances of developing diabetes type 2. Among the indigenous people of the city, 70.1 per cent of the people do not engage in any type of physical activities compared to the level in Metropolitan Adelaide (67.0 per cent) (Government of South Australia, 2019).

Population

In case of the poor accessibility to the health care issues, it can be reported that the lack of knowledge about the support services can restrict them to access the services required to improve the diabetes type 2 conditions as well. According to the study of Nazar et al. (2016) the researchers reported that the lack of knowledge among the indigenous people was associated with the higher disease prevalence among the indigenous community people. Keet et al. (2017) also supported the lack of knowledge about the diabetes support services and related complications which can lead to the development of the diabetic retinopathy conditions among the Australian indigenous community people. Du and Haines (2017) also supported the fact that the indigenous Australians in spite of using the internet services lack the knowledge about the preventive measures for managing the diabetes type 2 disease and this lack of knowledge among them enhanced the prevalence of the disease among the indigenous community people of the country.

For providing better care to the indigenous community people of the region, the registered nurse or RN can collaborate with the following organizations-

• Diabetes South Australia
• Consumer Medicines Information (CMI) and Product Information (PI)
• Healthinsite
• Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) for Health Care Professionals
• Diabetes Counselling Online (sa.gov.au, 2022)

It is essential to collaborate with multiple people while delivering care to the diabetes patients as being a chronic and complex disease the disease can promote the development of different disease conditions like cardiovascular disease, kidney disease. Therefore, providing the complete care to the patients of diabetes it is essential to provide multidisciplinary care. Along with this, as it is also reported that the lack of service accessibility is associated with the disease and thus the collaborating with multiple groups or organization can enhance the chances of service accessibility by the patients as well (Harris, Tompkins & TeHiwi, 2017).

Therefore, it can be reported that the indigenous people specifically the male population living in the city of the city of Port Adelaide Enfield had the higher prevalence of the disease and they also had the poor culture regarding the physical activities and thus their health conditions should be prioritized.

References

Du, J. T., & Haines, J. (2017). Indigenous Australians' information behaviour and Internet use in everyday life: an exploratory study. Information Research: An International Electronic Journal, 22(1), n1. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1138638

Eick, S. M., Ferreccio, C., Acevedo, J., Castriota, F., Cordero, J. F., Roh, T., ... & Steinmaus, C. (2019). Socioeconomic status and the association between arsenic exposure and type 2 diabetes. Environmental research, 172, 578-585. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935119301410

Government of Australia (2021). Diabetes. Government of Australia. https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/5020b399-3e7e-4762-852e-21d99769c8be/diabetes.pdf.aspx?inline=true

Government of South Australia (2019). Population Health Services: City of Port Adelaide Enfield. Government of South Australia. https://atlasesaustralia.com.au/LGASA/Profiles/Port_Adelaide_Enfield.pdf

Harris, S. B., Tompkins, J. W., & TeHiwi, B. (2017). Call to action: a new path for improving diabetes care for indigenous peoples, a global review. Diabetes research and clinical practice, 123, 120-133. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168822716302467

Keel, S., Xie, J., Foreman, J., Van Wijngaarden, P., Taylor, H. R., & Dirani, M. (2017). The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in Australian adults with self-reported diabetes: the National eye health survey. Ophthalmology, 124(7), 977-984. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161642016322564

Nazar, C. M. J., Bojerenu, M. M., Safdar, M., & Marwat, J. (2016). Effectiveness of diabetes education and awareness of diabetes mellitus in combating diabetes in the United Kigdom; a literature review. Journal of Nephropharmacology, 5(2), 110.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5297564/

Sahealth.sa.gov.au (2022). Useful links on diabetes. Government of South Australia. Sahealth.sa.gov.au. https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/conditions/diabetes/useful+links+on+diabetes