In 2011 the AIHW published the Chronic Kidney Disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People (AIHW, 2011) report which contained some alarming statistics about the renal health of Indigenous Australians. The report found that Indigenous Australians develop end stage kidney disease (ESKD) at over six times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians and that Indigenous Australians were four [...]
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Sexism is bad for your health
On International Women’s Day 2013, Kristine Olaris, CEO of Women’s Health East, reminds us why sexism is bad for everyone and announces a new anti-sexism campaign….. Far from being a thing of the past, sexism is present in nearly every facet of our lives. Sexism affects us all, both men and women, however women [...]
READ MOREHospital row follows Treasury ‘plot’
The stoush between the Federal Government and Victoria and Queensland over hospital funding has demonstrated the fragility of the health reforms that were meant to eradicate federal-state blame-shifting. Here, a former health administrator, Stephen Duckett, who has held senior positions at both levels of government, examines the dispute that has hit Victoria. [...]
READ MORESilent killer or occasional treat? Settling the debate on sugar
Chris Forbes-Ewan writes: Forty years ago, British nutritionist John Yudkin wrote a book about sugar. Titled Pure, White and Deadly, Yudkin argued that consumption of sugar, not fat, was driving the epidemic of heart disease. But the evidence he put forward was not convincing, so Yudkin’s book (and reputation) fell from favour. Studies conducted in the [...]
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On the power of Twitter: #guncontrol #publichealth and more…
(Update: This post has been corrected due to my mistaken interpretation of Google Scholar search results – thanks to Deborah Lupton for the alert) A Google Scholar search for academic articles published since the start of 2012 mentioning Twitter yields many pages of results. The same search, but for articles relating to Twitter and health, [...]
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Coca-Cola part of the solution to obesity? Yeah right!
According to the the 2011-12 Australian Health Survey 25.3% of children aged 5 – 17 years and 63% of adults are overweight or obese. Now it would appear that Coca-Cola believes it may be part of the solution, in America at least. Darren Powell has a counter proposal. Many thanks to The Conversation for allowing us to [...]
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Book review: 100 things every presenter needs to know about people
Many thanks to Dr Karen Price for reviewing 100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People. By Dr Susan Weinschenk I bought this book on Kindle for the specific presentation I was due to give at Monash University on Womens Leadership. Whilst I knew my topic, the finer points of delivering a better than average [...]
READ MOREMining, fly-in, fly-out workers and the risk of suicide
Samara McPhedran writes: Barely a week passes without media coverage of some aspect of the real or perceived impacts of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) and drive-in drive-out (DIDO) work, especially in the mining sector. We hear about the lack of affordable housing, relationship breakdowns, mental illness, under-resourced and over-stretched local services – the list goes on. [...]
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QUICK Q&A WITH ROB MOODIE ON TOBACCO, OBESITY, CHANGE AND LEADERSHIP
Recently Marie McInerney interviewed Rob Moodie for VCOSS providing insight into what works in public health campaigns. The words “persistence, persistence, persistence” will strike a chord with many. Many thanks to VCOSS for permission to reprint the interview below. Rob Moodie is Professor of Public Health at the Melbourne School of Population Health. He was [...]
READ MOREExtreme weather events in Australia – a new challenge for health care provision.
Extreme weather events have made their presence felt in Australia over the last few years and are expected to become more frequent. Whether it is extreme heat, record flooding or tropical storms, these events share the common element of huge potential impact on morbidity and mortality for thousands of Australians. To date, events such as [...]
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