Hb Nguyen

The Socio-Economic and Physical Contributors to Food Insecurity in a Rural Community

Australia is considered a highly food-secure nation; however, this is not always the case for every individual, household, and community. This article examines the physical and financial access to food of the population of Dorset, a rural municipality in North East Tasmania (Australia); the impact that socio-economic factors have on their food security; and the coping strategies they use when food shortages occur. A mixed-methods approach was used: Quantitative data were collected through the Tasmanian Household Food Security Survey and qualitative data through nine community focus groups conducted throughout the Dorset municipality. A total of 364 respondents (response rate 63%) completed the survey. Two main themes were identified within the data: food availability and food access. Food availability considered food origin, sustainability, and food production, whereas food access considered physical access, financial access, and other access issues such as awareness, skills, cultural preferences, and social support. The data revealed the wide-ranging effects of the importation of cheaper food alternatives, which had long-term implications not only on individuals’ health but also on the economic health of the community. A number of respondents indicated they were at times unable to buy nutritious foods due to limited finances, which led some to go without food or use other strategies to feed themselves. This study highlights the inappropriateness of the continuation of individual behavior change as a policy focus, as many of the problems facing communities are beyond individual abilities. Thus, the implications for policy from this study are centered on providing further support for strategies that focus on ensuring equity and food security for all, particularly the rural inhabitants of many food-secure nations.

Moving forward with dignity: Exploring health awareness in an isolated Deaf community of Australia

BACKGROUND Those within the Deaf community are disadvantaged in a number of aspects of day-to-day life including their access to health care. At times, they may encounter barriers to health care even before they reach the consultation room. As a consequence, they may receive insufficient and inappropriate health care which may lead to poorer health outcomes. OBJECTIVE A study was conducted to explore health awareness and access to health information and services of Deaf people living in Tasmania, Australia and identify ways of enhancing the interaction between the Deaf and the wider community. METHODS A questionnaire was administered, including a number of demographic, health awareness and health service usage questions. In addition, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with service providers and the Deaf community between March and August 2014. An interpreter was present to translate the questions into Auslan and who then translated the Deaf participants discussion into English for the researcher. Data were then analyzed using research software SPSS v20.0 and NVivo 10.0. RESULTS Health as a concept was poorly understood, including mental health, sexual health and health concerning alcohol and drug abuse. Regarding health care resources, due to a sense of security, trust and confidence, the family physician or general practitioner was the single most important health care provider among the Deaf. CONCLUSIONS The Deaf remain underserved by the current health care system; however, through resourcefulness and life experiences, the Deaf have developed coping and management strategies to move forward with dignity in education, meaningful employment and health access.

Quantifying and visualizing access to healthy food in a rural area of Australia: A spatial analysis

A Geographical Information System (GIS) using ArcGIS tools was adopted to implement three types of spatial analysis: coverage, density and proximity, to evaluate the geographical access to healthy food of the populations in Dorset Municipality, Tasmania, Australia. Data on food outlets, the aggregated socioeconomic disadvantage index, locations, income and population were collected using the Tasmanian Food Outlet Audit and Tasmanian Healthy Food Basket tools. Spatial autocorrelation was conducted where appropriate to examine the relationship between locations and food access. Healthy food outlets were concentrated in the central areas, areas in proximity to the national road and areas of dense population. Their locations also favored the more socio-economically deprived or disadvantaged areas (Moran’s Index = 0.924, z-score = 5.187, p-value = 0.00 < 0.05). Spatial identification of food deserts in Dorset has been a pioneering attempt to visualize areas with the highest demand for improvement in healthy food access and may be applicable to other areas with similar characteristics.