ABSTRACT
Health policy and strategy gained momentum on the national health agenda in the 1980s and 1990s, thanks to a buoyant political commitment. An analysis of trends in mortality illustrates the gains made in the overall health status of Australians. The strategies contained within Immunise Australia’s Seven Point Plan were primarily targeted at parents of children aged up to six years, with immunisation providers being the main secondary target group. Population health is the analysis and evaluation of health and disease in defined populations rather than individuals. The high standard of health enjoyed by the majority of the Australian population is a recent development; however, concurrent with the improvements in health have come differing levels of health for different sections of the population. The process of advancing the health of the population over the past twenty years has shifted from behavioural and lifestyle change towards structural and environmental change.
