Aims and Focus Areas

The National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030 (NPHS) provides the principal, long-term approach to health prevention in Australia by building systemic change to ensure the best outcomes for all Australians. The National Obesity Strategy 2022–2032 (NOS) is Australia’s 10-year framework to prevent, reduce and treat overweight and obesity in Australia. The NPHS identifies areas of focus for priority action and outline key measurable targets, some of which are shared by the NOS, that Australia should be striving for by 2030 (for the NPHS) and 2032 (for the NOS). For more information on the strategies, see About the strategies and this report.

The Aims and Focus Area sections use the latest available data to track the progress of the targets in the NPHS and the NOS. Table 1 details the types of assessments used to determine whether improvements have been made against the targets and can be used to interpret the summary tables presented in this chapter (Aims and Focus Areas).

More information on each target, including data by population characteristics and trend data are also presented in the Interactive dashboard.

The data presented are mid-point assessments of the progress of each target. To obtain a thorough understanding of preventive health impacts over the longer term and to see if the targets set out in the strategies can be achieved, ongoing collection and analyses of data is crucial for continual monitoring until the end of the strategies.

Table 1: Key for tracking progress against the targets of the National Preventive Health Strategy
Improving
Regress
No change
Status not known
Used where there is sufficient evidence of improvement in the measure and is moving in the direction that aligns with the target of the Strategy, across 2 or more data points.1

Further monitoring is required to see if improvement is sustained.		Used where there is sufficient evidence of regression in the measure across 2 or more data points, and the measure is not moving in the direction the Strategy wants to see.1

Further monitoring is required to see if the targets set out in the Strategy can be achieved.		Used where there is insufficient evidence of change across 2 or more data points, and the latest data is similar to the baseline value. This can occur even if the comparison change is large.1

Further monitoring is required to see if the targets set out in the Strategy can be achieved.		Used where data is not comparable over time or new data are not available.
  1. This is determined based on considering the following factors:
    • statistically significant change
    • quality and reliability of the data sources used
    • the magnitude of the observed difference in the context of the target.
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