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Questions: 1.Why is a policy cycle an appropriate tool for developing a new policy? 2.How is a health policy different to a government policy document? 3.What are key sociological issues and how do they determine a persons state of health? 4.What is meant by the term power in policy development and change? 5.What policy considerations should be included in a national obesity health campaign? Answers: 1.In order for health care to be efficient and equal for each and every socio-economic group, health policies are an irreplaceable tool. According to Harold lasswell,policy making can be defined as the process of identification, agenda setting, adoption, implementation, appraisal and policy evolution. And the policy cycle is a heuristic tool that serves as a organizing device for the authority to design and implement health policies. There are various strengths that the policy cycle provides to the entire construct, first and foremost, it has to be mentioned, the cycle in the policy cycle conveys a movement in the process of ideas and resources in the iteration of the policy making. According to the Buse, Mays and Walt (2012), the policy cycle provides a routine for the policy makers to follow that does not finish with just a decision but It follows through to implementation and evaluation of the entire process. On a more elaborative note, it has to be mentioned that the policy cycle provides a set of normative values that simplifies the complex procedure of policy making into different steps, so that acute emphasis is given to the each and every area of need in the policy procedure (Buse, Mays Walt, 2012). Along with that, it has to be mentioned as well that the process of the public health policy making is the exploration of a variety of information and resources regarding the needs of different demographics and patient population. The policy cycle provides the policy making authority with the opportunity to synthesize the existing knowledge and exploring resources so that the policy addresses each and every public health priorities and the areas of the need. Hence, it has to be mentioned that the concept of the policy cycle provides a reasonable and simplified step by step procedure or framework that defines the activities following which a successful procedure of designing and implementing a public health policy (Hannigan Coffey, 2011). 2.A health policy can be significantly different from the regular government laws and policy documents. First and foremost, it has to be mentioned in this context that the health care can be easily considered one of the greatest public service needs in the society. It has to be mentioned that in many nations, health sector can be considered a very important part of the economy. According to the Solar and Irwin (2010), health policy in case of many developing nations is serves as a sponge that demands and absorbs a large amount of national resources than any other government of tax funded sector of public service. On the other hand there are other schools of thoughts regards the public health policy are the drivers of the economy, the health policies invest in innovative new biomedical technologies and different infrastructures, improving the health of the population which in turn improves the life expectancy and credibility of the society. Hence, the most important difference between the health policy and government policy document is the priority funding that both of the sectors receive. A government policy document on the other hand provides the details regarding the policy commitments of the government and all the required initiatives that is needed to be taken in order for the nation to reach all the ICT or developmental goals. A regular government policy document emphasizes on all of the developmental and socio-economic growth goals instead of focusing on just the health care needs of the nation. Hence a government policy document can be in health, but it can also be in environment, education or trade as well. On a simpler note, a government policy is generally a public policy related to any of the area of need of the general public, on which the government will decide and commit what it will do and will not do (McConnell, 2010). 3.There are various inequities and disparities that has a profound effect on the health status of the different social groups, both the accessibility and the health status generally varies across the social gradient. First and foremost, the life expectancy lowers further down the social ladder, with lower financial strength and employment status as well. It has to be understood in this context that the impact of occupational class is very high in health throughout the life. According to the research, there is almost twice the risk of severe health adversities as the occupational status lowers across the social gradient. Poor occupational status has a significant impact on the lifestyle as well, which in turn imparts the detrimental impact on the health status and the poor nutrition increases the vulnerability to various diseases. Stress is the second most important sociological issues that has a major impact on health outcomes, according to Marmot et al. (2012), long term stress can give rise to health concerns like anxiety, hypertension, insecurity, paranoia and can even lead to other impactful sociological issues like low self esteem and social isolation. This psychosocial issue deteriorates the mental health and leads to reduced life expectancy by facilitating diabetes and cardiac diseases. Early life is the fourth social issue, where the poor maternal or child health and nutritional status affects the life expectancy and health of the children on a long term basis. The fifth issue is social exclusion, and coupled with poverty there are various health adversities that can even lead to fatal consequences like premature death without support. The sixth social issue professional stress and work life relations can also have a detrimental impact on health causing anxiety, hypertension and cardiac diseases. On the other hand, simultaneously with extreme workload and professional stress, unemployment can also lead to anxiety and depression and can cause health risks (Althaus, Bridgman Davis, 2013). The lack of social support has been found to have a significant impact on the health outcomes as well, lower the standards of the community care and social support services, worse is the health outcomes of the concerned community. Addiction is another severely impactful social issu e that has a huge impact on the health outcomes of a community and enhances risk of various health concerns like respiratory disorders, cancer, cardiac problems and substance induced psychosis as well. Lastly, the food and transport are also social issue with great impact on the health outcomes, it has to be mentioned that with diminished nutritional status and lack of cycling, walking and public transports in a nation can indirectly pave way for many non-communicable health risks (Braveman Gottlieb, 2014). 4.Power can be considered as the significant construct that moves each and every sector of a human society, and the health policy sector is not an exception to that rule either. There is a distinct role of power manifestation in the policy making procedure; both in design and implementation. According to the policy cycle, there are several steps to the construct of a policy and power plays a profound role in all of the different steps of the policy making procedure. It has to be understood that a policy making can be considered as a process that involves different groups competing with each other depending on their individual interests, hence the manifestation of the concept of power is extremely crucial for the final verdict to be made (Wildavsky, 2017). In case of a government policy, the greatest decisive power is with the government authority without any doubt, and the government body has the total controlling power over the entire procedure as well. On the other hand, there is n on-decisive power in the policy making scenario as well, it is attributed to the ability of any powerful group to keep threatening issues below policy radar for personal gain as well. Along with that, power can also be exerted in this scenario by any influential group of social activists to exercise thought control over a huge population involved with a policy making or implementation. Hence, it can be mentioned that power is a multidimensional construct on the context of policy making and implementation and there are different sets of impact on the policy design and implementation procedure of the different domains of power in this scenario (Geyer Rihani, 2012). 5.Obesity can be considered easily as one of the greatest health concerns of the developing nations and considering the Australian health demographics, obesity is a rising concern. According to the report by the Australian institute of health and welfare the obesity statistics in the Australian demographics is 2 in every 3 people, and hence there has been a 5 to 10 % hike in the burden of different non communicable diseases that are linked to obesity. Hence a national health campaign for obesity in Australian context should consider a number of different related topics. First and foremost, the prevalence and incidence rate of obesity in the nation will needed to be included in the process, along with that the risk and vulnerability of the obese and the people in the obesity threshold to different cardiac and renal co-mortifies will need be calculated and considered in the obesity campaigning (Grantham et al., 2013). Lifestyle patterns play a very important role in the obesity statist ics of the Australian people, the natives with a more or less sedentary lifestyle and lack of obesity awareness, are far more at risk to obesity. Hence the lifestyle patterns and screen time of the target population will also need to be included in the campaigning procedure. The diet speaks volumes regarding the health status of a particular community and hence the diet pattern and consumption junk food is the next consideration for the campaigning. Lastly, awareness and literacy about obesity prevention and healthy lifestyle will needed to be considered in the policy consideration for the campaigning. The accessibility and reach of the obesity prevention and health promotional campaigning across different disadvantaged groups will determine the success of the campaign hence the policy must ensure maximum inclusion for all socio-economic groups (Magnusson, 2010) References: Althaus, C., Bridgman, P., Davis, G. (2013).The Australian policy handbook. Allen Unwin. Baggott, R. (2010).Public health: policy and politics. Palgrave Macmillan. Braveman, P., Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the causes of the causes.Public health reports,129(1_suppl2), 19-31. Buse, K., Mays, N., Walt, G. (2012).Making health policy. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Geyer, R., Rihani, S. (2012).Complexity and public policy: A new approach to 21st century politics, policy and society. Routledge. Grantham, N. M., Magliano, D. J., Hodge, A., Jowett, J., Meikle, P., Shaw, J. E. (2013). The association between dairy food intake and the incidence of diabetes in Australia: the Australian Diabetes Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab).Public health nutrition,16(2), 339-345. Hannigan, B., Coffey, M. (2011). Where the wicked problems are: the case of mental health.Health Policy,101(3), 220-227. Magnusson, R. S. (2010). Obesity prevention and personal responsibility: the case of front-of-pack food labelling in Australia.BMC Public Health,10(1), 662. Marmot, M., Allen, J., Bell, R., Bloomer, E., Goldblatt, P. (2012). WHO European review of social determinants of health and the health divide.The Lancet,380(9846), 1011-1029. McConnell, A. (2010). Policy success, policy failure and grey areas in-between.Journal of Public Policy,30(3), 345-362. Solar, O., Irwin, A. (2010). A conceptual framework for action on the social determinants of health. Wildavsky, A. (2017).Speaking truth to power: Art and craft of policy analysis. Routledge