Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 1 920801 09 X
Year 2004

Price: $19.95

  
Indigenous Health

Volume 200, Issues in Society
On average Aborigines die 20 years earlier than other Australians, despite successive government and community efforts to improve the distressing state of indigenous health. This book provides a concise overview of the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with a particular focus on mortality rates; health expenditure; hospitalisation; selected health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, trachoma and kidney disease; mental health; substance abuse, and exposure to violence.


Chapter 1: The Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
– Lifespan of blacks still 20 years less; Selected health conditions; National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health; Indigenous health; Indigenous health expenditure; National to-do list on black distress; A step towards fighting black disadvantage; Indigenous health faces bleak future; Mortality among indigenous people; Hospitals fail needs of black patients; Facts about the hospitalisation of indigenous people; Preventable cancers hit Aborigines the hardest; Diet link to indigenous heart disease; Our desert blind spot; Sick at heart; Indigenous mental health and wellbeing; Indigenous substance abuse; Petrol sniffing in Aboriginal communities; Healing body, mind and spirit – it’s about time we took a stand; Indigenous exposure to violence; Forget excuses, we need a plan to reduce indigenous violence

Glossary; Facts and Figures; Further Links and Resources; Index.
 

Facts & Figures

• Death rates among 25 to 54-year-old Aborigines are up to five times higher than the total population.

• Indigenous people are hospitalised at twice the rate of other Australians. One-third of Indigenous admissions are for dialysis treatment for diabetes.

• While most Australians will live to 77 or more, male Aborigines will live, on average, to only 56 and female Aborigines to 63.

• In Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, three-quarters of Indigenous men and two-thirds of Indigenous women will die before they reach 65 – most frequently from the consequences of diabetes, but also because of infectious diseases, heart disease, injuries and assaults, and cancer.

• Aboriginal babies were more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday, and those who survived were twice as likely to have a low birth weight.

• Deaths from circulatory diseases, injury and trauma and cancer occurred at three times the rate of non-Indigenous people.

• Aboriginal males were about twice as likely to be hospitalised for injury or poisonings than non-Aborigines – with most of the excess attributable to assault.

• In 2002 cardiovascular disease (also known as ‘diseases of the circulatory system’) was the leading cause of death for Indigenous people, accounting for 28% of deaths registered as Indigenous (including ischaemic heart disease 16% and cerebrovascular disease (stroke) 5%).

• In 2002 deaths from diseases of the respiratory system accounted for 9% of all deaths registered as Indigenous.

• In 2002 deaths due to external causes of morbidity and mortality accounted for almost 16% of deaths in Australia reported as Indigenous compared with 5.6% of those not identified as Indigenous. Indigenous deaths due to external causes included transport accidents 4.1% (1.4% non-Indigenous), intentional self-harm 5.4% (1.7% non-Indigenous), assault 1.8% (0.2% non-Indigenous) and other external causes 4.4% (2.4% non-Indigenous).

• The overall prevalence of diabetes among Indigenous people was between 10-30% (2 to 4 times that among non-Indigenous people). In 2001-2002 deaths due to diabetes accounted for 7.6% of total Indigenous deaths compared with 2.4% of total non-Indigenous deaths.

• Notifications of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are much higher for Indigenous people than they are for non-Indigenous people across most of the country, but rates are particularly high in remote areas – up to 30 times higher than the total national incidence.

• Contributing factors to the lower health profile of Indigenous people include: lower socio-economic status (low incomes, high unemployment, poor educational attainment); specific health risk factors (higher alcohol and tobacco misuse rates, and poorer nutrition); location and environmental factors (remoteness from services, poor quality housing and facilities, overcrowding); and historical factors.

• Nearly a third of deaths among Indigenous people is from circulatory diseases (stroke, heart disease), and another one-third from injury, respiratory diseases, and cancer. In addition, the death rate from diabetes for Indigenous people is about eight times the national rate.

• Estimated total expenditure by Australian governments and the private sector on health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the 1998-1999 financial year was $1,245 million. This is equivalent to $3,065 per person compared with $2,518 per person for non-Indigenous people – a ratio of 1.22:1.

• Suicide rates in the Aboriginal community, at 35.5 per 100,000, were nearly three times as high as for non-Indigenous Australians. (p.13)
• Murder rates, at 2.1% of total deaths, are tenfold higher for Aborigines than for other Australians.

• Indigenous adults were twice as likely as non-Indigenous people to smoke – 51% compared to 24% – while 61% were overweight or obese, compared to 48% of non-Indigenous adults.

• Smoking had risen slightly and the incidence of obesity among adults was up from 24% in 1995 to 3%.

• The 61,000 Indigenous children aged under seven were significantly less likely than the 1.6 million non-Indigenous children to be immunised for all diseases except hepatitis B.

• Indigenous Australians scored positively on alcohol use, with 42% saying they had consumed alcohol in the previous week compared to 62% of non-Indigenous people.

• For deaths identified as Indigenous in 2002, cardiovascular disease (also known as ‘diseases of the circulatory system’) (including heart disease and stroke) was the leading cause of death, being responsible for 28.3% of deaths. The next most frequent causes of death were injuries (including transport accidents, intentional self-harm and assault) (15.6% of deaths), malignant neoplasms (cancers) (15.1%), diseases of the respiratory system (9.1%), and diabetes (7.6%).

• Australia is the only developed country among OECD nations where blinding trachoma still exists.