Often my students ask me: “do I need to know statistics for Health Priorities in Australia?” The answer is NO! The HSC PDHPE syllabus is very clear that students do not need to know statistics on Australia’s health. Under the critical question “How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified?” there is what is known as a “Teacher Note”.
Teacher notes are there to guide the teacher to know what to teach about the content covered just above the note.
You do not NEED to know the latest statistics for Health Priorities! It says this very clearly. What you do need is to understand the trends around the prevalence of leading causes of disease. Are these statistics for Health Priorities showing that the prevalence is increasing, decreasing or stable?
What this means for your study is that you should not spend time trying to remember specific numbers. You don’t need to and you will not be asked to reproduce the statistics for How are priority issues for Australia’s health identified?
You will, however, be asked about the prevalence of the leading causes of disease and illness. These are your high levels of preventable chronic disease, injury and mental health problems:
- cardiovascular disease (CVD)
- cancer (skin, breast, lung)
- diabetes
- respiratory disease
- injury
- mental health problems and illnesses
You need to make sure you are familiar with the prevalence. Remember prevalence is the number of cases of the disease, injury or health problem in the population. Is the number of cases of CVD increasing, decreasing or stable? You should know this for all six (6) of the conditions listed above.
Having said all this, if you know statistics it can help you in an extended response question (maximum 6 marks for Health Priorities in Australia) to show a depth of knowledge and critical thought.
So, NO, you do NOT NEED to know statistics in Health Priorities, BUT you do NEED to know the current trends in the leading diseases, injuries and mental health problems.
