Why we do it

Good health underpins the wellbeing of all Australians. It is a critical enabler determining a person’s capacity to lead an active and productive life.

We know that an individual’s knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about health influence their health behaviours, and consequently their present and future health status. The likelihood of an individual being motivated to adopt health-enhancing behaviours—rather than behaviours which are not conducive to health—is in part a function of the level of knowledge, attitudes and skills which the person has in relation to health risks³.

Our organisation was founded in the late 1970’s because of heightened concerns about the misuse of drugs and alcohol amongst young people, and the immediate, sometimes tragic consequences of such poor health behaviours. The short term risks associated with the misuse of drugs, in particular alcohol, are still prevalent today. Not only are a large number of teenagers drinking regularly – but they are drinking excessively when they do drink -

• 25% of 16-17 year olds were at risk of alcohol-related harm in the short term, at least once a month.⁴
• 45% of 18-19 year olds risked alcohol-related harm in the short term, at least once a month.

What has also emerged over the last 30 years is a better understanding of the long term health risks associated with a broader range of poor health behaviours. Chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes today account for most of the disease burden in Australia. These diseases not only result in death and incapacity, they are also a massive economic burden on the community and the health system. The emergence of many chronic diseases is influenced by potentially modifiable risky behaviours such as tobacco use, alcohol misuse and the use of illicit drugs as well as poor diet, physical inactivity and excess weight.

• While having fallen from its level of 30% in 1999, in 2005 17% of students aged 16-17 years had smoked in the past week ⁵.
• The percentage of children aged 7-15 that are overweight or obese has increased from 11.5% in 1985 to 25.5% in 2007 ⁶

Major changes in the way we behave as individuals, as families, as communities and as a population are required if we are to improve the immediate and long term health and wellbeing of our population. Initiatives to educate and empower individuals, enabling them to make the healthiest choices they can, form a critical component of the comprehensive and integrated ‘whole-of-community’ preventive approach necessary to generate sufficient behavioural change at the population level.

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³ See Australia’s Health 2008. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Canberra. Chapter 4. Health Determinants : the keys to prevention. Section 4 (page 129) regarding the relevance of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs.

⁴ 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey. What makes these figures even more concerning is that since this survey, the National Health and Medical Research Council has reset its guidelines for alcohol consumption. Applying these revised guidelines, the above indicated mentioned statistics would have been worse still.

⁵ Drug Strategy Branch, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. 2006.

⁶ National Heart Foundation, using data from the National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey 2007.