Health promotion, prevention and advocacy: HSC Health and Movement Science Focus Area 1

A 6-mark distinguish needs each tier defined and an example correctly classified.

Primary prevention

Stops disease before it occurs (e.g. childhood immunisation or tobacco excise).

Secondary prevention

Detects disease early when more treatable (e.g. BreastScreen Australia or the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program).

Tertiary prevention

Reduces harm and complications of established disease (e.g. cardiac rehabilitation or diabetes self-management education).

Markers reward (1) each tier defined, (2) a correctly classified example for each (screening is secondary, not primary), (3) the contrast across the three tiers.

An 8-mark analyse needs each action area mapped to a named intervention plus a judgement on the combined effect.

Map the action areas

Healthy public policy (excise, 2012 plain packaging, advertising bans), supportive environments (smoke-free legislation), community action (Tackling Indigenous Smoking), personal skills (Quitline, school programs, graphic warnings) and reorient health services (GP brief intervention, PBS-subsidised cessation aids).

Add advocacy

Cancer Council and Heart Foundation policy-change advocacy was central to the legislative gains.

Judgement

Smoking fell from over $30\%$ of adults in the 1980s to around $10$ to $11\%$ because all five action areas operated together over time; no single intervention would have achieved it.

Markers reward (1) named interventions per action area, (2) the role of advocacy, (3) a judgement that multi-action-area work over time drove the reduction.

Award 1 mark per action area correctly named WITH a fitting Australian example. A correct area with no example, or an example with no area, scores half.

Build healthy public policy (1 mark)

Legislation, tax, regulation. Example: tobacco excise increases, or plain packaging legislation (2012).

Create supportive environments (1 mark)

Shape the physical/social/economic surroundings. Example: smoke-free pubs, clubs and outdoor dining areas under state legislation.

Strengthen community action (1 mark)

Communities set and act on their own priorities. Example: the Aboriginal-led Tackling Indigenous Smoking program.

Develop personal skills (1 mark)

Build health literacy and behavioural skills. Example: Quitline, school HMS/PDHPE programs, graphic health warnings.

Reorient health services (1 mark)

Shift the system toward prevention and primary care. Example: GP brief intervention and PBS-subsidised cessation medications.

Full marks need all five areas with a specifically AUSTRALIAN example, not a generic one.

A 4-mark "distinguish and explain" rewards a clear contrast across the three tiers plus the reason all three are needed.

Primary (about 1 mark)

Stops disease before it occurs by reducing exposure to risk or boosting protective factors (e.g. childhood immunisation, tobacco excise, sun-protection campaigns).

Secondary (about 1 mark)

Detects disease early when it is more treatable (e.g. BreastScreen Australia, the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program). Screening is secondary, NOT primary.

Tertiary (about 1 mark)

Reduces harm and complications of established disease (e.g. cardiac rehabilitation, diabetes self-management education).

Why all three (about 1 mark)

Each tier catches a different stage; over-reliance on tertiary care treats disease after it occurs, which is more expensive and less equitable than preventing it. A balanced system invests across the three.

A 5-mark "describe and explain" rewards (i) an accurate reading of the trend with figures, and (ii) a health-promotion explanation, not just a restatement.

Describe the trend (about 2 marks). Adult daily smoking prevalence fell steadily over roughly four decades, from about 30% in the mid-1980s to about 10% in 2022 - a fall of about two thirds (about 20 percentage points), declining at every time point with no reversal. Quote at least the two endpoints and the direction.

Explain with the framework (about 3 marks). The sustained decline reflects all five Ottawa Charter action areas operating together over time: healthy public policy (excise increases, advertising bans, plain packaging in 2012), supportive environments (smoke-free legislation), community action (Tackling Indigenous Smoking), personal skills (Quitline, graphic warnings, school programs) and reorienting health services (GP brief intervention, PBS-subsidised cessation aids), reinforced by Cancer Council and Heart Foundation advocacy.

Marking spine: accurate trend with figures and direction (2), action areas named and linked to the decline (2), explicit point that no single intervention would have achieved it - the combination over time did (1). A pure description with no framework, or a framework list that never refers to the data, caps at 3. (Figures are an ExamExplained dataset modelled on the published AIHW/ABS adult daily-smoking trend; treat as illustrative.)

A 6-mark "explain... uses" needs a named campaign and a causal link from each action area to the health goal across at least three areas - not three separate lists.

Choose Australian skin-cancer prevention (the SunSmart / 'Slip, Slop, Slap' lineage; the slogan dates to 1981 and was extended to 'Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide').

Build healthy public policy (about 2 marks)

Shade requirements and sun-protection policies in schools and workplaces, plus regulation of solariums (commercial solaria were banned across most of Australia from 2015), reduce UV exposure structurally.

Create supportive environments (about 2 marks)

Built shade over playgrounds and pools, free or low-cost sunscreen in schools, and hat-required canteen/play rules make the protective choice the default.

Develop personal skills (about 1-2 marks)

The mass-media SunSmart messaging and school education build the knowledge and habit of covering up, seeking shade and checking skin.

Tie it together

The areas reinforce one another - policy mandates shade, the environment provides it, and education makes people use it - which is why Australian melanoma prevention is a textbook multi-action-area case.

Marking spine: a named campaign (implicit), at least three areas each linked to the health GOAL (4-5), and an explicit statement that the areas combine/reinforce (1). Listing areas with no link to the goal, or "tell people to wear sunscreen" with no framework, stays mid-band.

A 5-mark "distinguish and explain" rewards a clear contrast plus the reason policy-change advocacy matters most for population outcomes.

Policy-change advocacy (about 2 marks)

Targets decision-makers (governments, regulators, employers) to change laws, regulation or environments - e.g. Cancer Council and Heart Foundation work on tobacco plain packaging (2012), excise and advertising restrictions.

Awareness-raising advocacy (about 1 mark)

Targets public opinion and individual behaviour - e.g. R U OK? Day for mental-health conversations, or social-media vaccination campaigns.

Why policy-change usually drives population change (about 2 marks)

Awareness shifts knowledge but not always the conditions people live in; population-level outcomes usually require the choice architecture itself to change (price, availability, environment), which only policy can do at scale. The Australian tobacco story shows decades of policy-change advocacy, not awareness alone, drove the population decline; awareness without policy rarely shifts the curve.

Marking spine: both types defined with the decision-maker vs public-opinion distinction (3), and the point that structural/policy change is what moves population outcomes (2).

A 12-mark "analyse the extent" extended response needs a sustained, judged argument that shows HOW the action areas and advocacy combined to produce the decline - with named interventions, named advocates and dated data - not a list of the five areas or a single-intervention story.

Band 6 PLAN.

Thesis: Australia's reduction in tobacco-related harm is to a large extent explained by the Ottawa Charter framework working as an integrated whole: no single action area was sufficient, but healthy public policy, supportive environments, community action, personal skills and reoriented services, sustained over four decades and driven by policy-change advocacy, together moved adult daily smoking from about 30% in the 1980s to about 10% in 2022.

Argument 1 - healthy public policy is the spine. Evidence: tobacco excise increases, advertising bans and the world-first plain packaging legislation (2012). Mechanism: price and de-marketing change the choice architecture, not just attitudes, so they reach whole populations including disadvantaged groups.

Argument 2 - the other action areas were necessary multipliers. Evidence: smoke-free legislation (supportive environments), Tackling Indigenous Smoking (community action), Quitline and graphic warnings (personal skills), GP brief intervention and PBS-subsidised cessation aids (reorient services). Mechanism: these convert policy into changed daily behaviour and denormalise smoking; policy alone, without a quit pathway or smoke-free norm, would have under-delivered.

Argument 3 - advocacy enabled the policy gains. Evidence: Cancer Council Australia and the Heart Foundation built the evidence base and campaigned for plain packaging, excise and advertising restrictions. Mechanism: legislative change is politically hard; sustained NGO policy-change advocacy created the conditions for governments to act.

Counter-weight / judgement: the success is large but not total - daily smoking persists at roughly 8 to 10% of adults (NDSHS 2022-23: about 8.3%) and remains far higher in disadvantaged and some priority populations, and new challenges (vaping/e-cigarette uptake among youth) show the work is unfinished. To a LARGE extent the framework plus advocacy explains the gain, but the residual gradient shows that the determinants and equity dimensions still bite.

Model paragraph (Argument 1). The clearest driver of Australia's falling smoking rate is healthy public policy, because it changes the conditions in which people choose rather than relying on willpower. Successive excise increases made cigarettes among the most expensive in the world; advertising and sponsorship bans removed the cues that normalised smoking; and in 2012 Australia became the first country to mandate plain packaging, stripping tobacco of its last marketing surface. These are not awareness measures - they alter price and availability, the choice architecture itself, which is why they reach entire populations including groups that education campaigns struggle to move. The result is visible in the trend: adult daily smoking fell from about 30% in the mid-1980s to about 10% by 2022 (AIHW/ABS), a fall of roughly two thirds. Policy did not act alone - it was made politically possible by sustained advocacy from Cancer Council Australia and the Heart Foundation, and it only translated into quitting because supportive environments (smoke-free laws) and personal-skills supports (Quitline, PBS-subsidised aids) gave smokers somewhere to go. But policy is the spine of the story: without the structural levers, the other action areas would have pushed against a tide of price and marketing that favoured the habit.

Marker's note: markers reward a sustained thesis that ANALYSES extent (judges HOW MUCH the framework plus advocacy explains the gain, with a calibrated "large but not total" verdict) rather than listing the five areas; explicit, correct use of named action areas mapped to named interventions; named advocates (Cancer Council, Heart Foundation); CURRENT data carrying a year or period (the ~30% to ~10% decline, 1980s to 2022; plain packaging 2012); an explicit combination/interaction point (no single area sufficient); and a counter-weight (residual gradient, vaping) that earns the top band. A five-paragraph "list the action areas" answer, a single-intervention story, or data with no year cannot reach the top band.