Report Card on Australian Health

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	Staff Writer articles by this author...
Editing and Researching news and stories about global and local Pharmacy Issues

Despite the negatives published about the health of Australians, we now find ourselves with an average life expectancy almost equal with Japan, the country benchmarked as the best performing country in health.
While lifespan has improved in Australia, life quality has not necessarily kept pace.
Australia looks set to break new ground in public health as an expert panel  deliver a report to the Rudd government.
Nicola Roxon has continually stated that she has a strong leaning towards prevention, so it will be interesting to see how this will develop the potential for improved quality of life for the future.

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Experts to report on Aussie health

A panel of health experts is due to hand its blueprint on how to make Australians healthier to the Rudd government this week.

Compare us with the rest of the world and we are a healthy lot, living longer than any other nation except Japan.

Australians' life expectancy is 81.4 years, compared with 82.2 for the Japanese, according to the World Health Organisation.

Both nations have excelled in different areas of public health. Australia has slashed smoking rates, particularly for men, since the 1940s, but more needs to be done.

Japan has advanced an aggressive health promotion strategy in workplaces to tackle the alarming rate of metabolic syndrome - the combination of high cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugars.

The nation's high life expectancy is often attributed to a diet that traditionally is low in fat and high in soy products.

But National Institute of Health and Nutrition doctor Naomi Aiba says the typical Japanese diet has grown more and more Westernised in the past 50 years.

People consume more pasta, bread and animal protein and less fruit, vegetables and tofu.

"Our diet has shifted from plant to animal food," she told AAP.

In 1975, people devoted one third of their meal expenditure to fresh foods but by 2006 that had plummeted to eight per cent.

Japanese people spend almost two thirds of their food budget on prepared foods and nearly 30 per cent on eating out.

Obesity is on the rise for men but not for women. Almost half of women in their 20s overestimate their weight and think they are obese.

"Women want to be thin, to be beautiful, men accept their body size," Dr Aiba said.

According to the health ministry, 27 million Japanese either have or are at risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which heightens risk of heart attack and diabetes.

In Australia, the National Preventative Health Taskforce has warned life expectancy for today's children will drop by two years if the country's obesity epidemic goes unchecked.

The number of fat adults jumped by a staggering 2.8 million between 1990 and 2005, according to the taskforce's interim report.

About 60 per cent of Australians aged 25 years and over are overweight or obese.

The diets of Australian teenagers are severely lacking in fruit and vegetables, with almost one-quarter of children overweight or obese - up an estimated five per cent from the 1960s.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's 2009 snapshot of the nation's children released this week shows just 60 per cent of children aged four to eight years old and around half of nine- to 13-year-olds eat enough fruit.

Just two per cent of nine- to 13-year-olds eat the recommended daily serve of vegetables.

The smoking rate in Japan is 39.5 per cent for men and 12.9 per cent for women.

The government half owns Japan Tobacco, one of the world's largest tobacco companies.

Last year, the government abandoned plans to increase tobacco taxes after a campaign by Japan Tobacco.

One in five Australians are smokers.

Kate Carnell, who is a member of the National Preventative Health Taskforce, says the group's final report will recommend raising tobacco excise.

"People who smoke probably more than anybody are going to be a greater risk to the health system than people who are obese," she told AAP.

Taskforce chair Rob Moodie said the group had received presentations from the Japanese on their initiatives to cut metabolic syndrome.

One of those initiatives, which began in 2008, is the compulsory fat check program for workers over 40.

Workers who don't measure up are put on special exercise programs.

Professor Moodie said the workplace was the "new frontier" for Australia in health promotion.

"But we would be unlikely to be as interventionist and proscriptive as the Japanese are," he said.

Prof Moodie said businesses and unions were becoming increasingly interested in health promotion initiatives, and singled out WorkHealth in Victoria as leading the way on the issue.

Under the WorkHealth program, employees undergo voluntary health checks, including having waist circumference and blood cholesterol, pressure and sugar measured.

The checks are free for businesses with an annual payroll of less than $10 million. For larger businesses, employers are required to contribute $30 per worker towards the costs of the checks.

The National Preventative Health Taskforce is due to hand its report to Health Minister Nicola Roxon's office next week.