health of indigenous Australians

Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 978 1 921507 19 9
Year 2010

Price: $20.95

  

The Health of Indigenous Australians
Volume 308, Issues in Society

According to new data, the life expectancy of indigenous men is 11.5 years lower than for non-indigenous men, while for women it is 9.7 years lower. The indigenous burden of disease is estimated to be 2.5 times greater than that of the total population. Indigenous people experience more risk factors for ill health than other Australians. Social, educational, economic and environmental disadvantages underlie specific health risk factors (such as alcohol and other drug misuse, smoking, nutrition, obesity and physical inactivity), which often contribute to lack of access to quality health care. There has been some recent progress to improve indigenous living standards, but as this book reveals with the latest figures, much more needs to be done to ‘close the gap’ between the health status of indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians.

Glossary; Fast Facts; Web Links; Index



fast facts
FAST FACTS from this volume
  • There has been some progress in recent years to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous living standards, including: a steady decline in indigenous child mortality over past decade; the literacy gap narrowed slightly for children in Years 3, 5 and 7 but increased slightly for those in Year 9; the retention rate for indigenous students was up by 6.4% between 2006 and 2008 while the rate for non-indigenous students dropped by 0.4%; indigenous mortality rates are decreasing but obesity rates sill increasing; between 2002 and 2008, indigenous employment rose from 48% to 53.8%, still well below the non-indigenous employment rate.
  • According to figures collected from 2005-2007, the life expect-ancy of indigenous men is 11.5 years lower than for non-indigenous men, while life expectancy of indigenous women is 9.7 years lower than for non-indigenous women.
  • As the primary indicator of wellbeing and social equity, life expectancy remains the focus of efforts to reduce inequality between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. A complex interplay of health, economic and social factors means there are no simple answers to the problems of indigenous life expectancy.
  • The five leading causes of increased indigenous mortality rates account for 71% of the overall gap (circulatory diseases, injury and poisoning, diabetes, respiratory diseases and cancer). Most of the gap is due to various chronic diseases, while injury and poisoning is also a significant cause of excess deaths (16%).
  • Tobacco, obesity and physical inactivity are the leading risk factors driving the indigenous health gap. Together, they account for an estimated 45% of the total health gap.
  • While smoking rates among indigenous people have fallen from 52% in 1994 to 47% in 2008, rates of overweight and obesity have steadily increased for indigenous Australians in the last decade from 51 to 60%. Indigenous Australians are nearly twice as likely to be obese as non-indigenous Australians. Also, the proportion of indigenous Australians who reported being sedentary increased from 37% in 2001 to 47% in 2004/05.
  • The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates indicate that an indigenous male born in the period 2005-2007 could be expected to live to 66.9 years, almost 12 less than a non-indigenous male at that time (who could expect to live 78.7 years). In the same period, an indigenous female could be expected to live to 72.6 years, which is 10 years less than a non-indigenous woman (82.6 years).
  • The leading causes of death in 2007 for indigenous people living in Australia were: cardiovascular disease (including heart disease and strokes); external causes (including transport accidents, and self-harm); and cancer.
  • In the 2004-2005 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, almost 1 in 8 indigenous people reported having a long-term heart or related condition. Heart and related conditions are around 1.3 times more common for indigenous than for non-indigenous people, with high blood pressure, the most commonly reported condition being 1.5 times more common.
  • The fact that indigenous people are more likely than non-indigenous people to die from cancer could be because the cancers they develop (such as cancers of the lung and liver) are more likely to be fatal, the stage of cancer may be more advanced by the time it is recognised and they are less likely to receive adequate treatment. The patterns of indigenous cancer incidence and cancer-related deaths are largely explained by the higher prevalence of risk factors, most notably tobacco use.
  • Diabetes is a major health problem among indigenous people, but it is difficult to know just how many indigenous people have the disease. Deaths from diabetes were 10 to 15 times more common for indigenous people than for non-indigenous people living in Qld, WA, SA and the NT in 2001-2005. For people aged 35-54 years, deaths from diabetes were 23 times more common for indigenous males than for non-indigenous males, and 37 times more common for indigenous females than for non-indigenous females.
  • End-stage renal disease (ESRD), which occurs when the kidneys are no longer able to function, is much more common for indigenous people than for non-indigenous people across most of the country.
  • Indigenous people are more likely to die from transport accidents, intentional self-harm and assault than other Australians. For indigenous people living in Qld, WA, SA and the NT in 2001-2005, the leading causes of death from injuries for males were intentional self-harm (35%), transport accidents (27%), and assault (8%), and for females they were transport accidents (30%), intentional self-harm (18%) and assault (16%). Injury was the second most common cause of death for indigenous males and the fourth most common cause of death for indigenous females – rates were around three times those of the total Australian population.
  • Indigenous people generally experience more risk factors for ill health than do other Australians. Contributing generally to the poor health status of many indigenous people are: social factors (such as dispossession, dislocation and discrimin-ation); educational factors (such as poor levels of schooling); economic factors (such as income and employment); and physical environmental factors (such as housing). These social, educational, economic and environmental disadvantages underlie specific health risk factors (such as alcohol and other drug misuse, smoking, nutrition, obesity and physical inactivity), and often contribute to lack of access to good quality health care. Alcohol misuse and smoking tobacco are major causes of health problems for indigenous people.
  • The 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that indigenous people were more likely than other Australians to abstain from alcohol consumption, (23% compared with 17%), but were also more likely to consume alcohol at risky or high-risk levels for harm in the short term (27% compared with 20%). Over the five-year period from 2000-2004, 1,145 indigenous Australians died from injury and disease caused by alcohol. The average age of those who died was 35 years.
  • Smoking is responsible for one in five of all indigenous deaths and is the most preventable cause of poor health and early death among indigenous people.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a much higher burden of disease than other Australians. Indigenous death rates for diabetes are 9 times as high as non-indigenous rates, 6 times as high for cervical cancer, 4 times as high for kidney diseases, and 3 times as high for digestive diseases.
  • Indigenous children under the age of five are 3 times more likely to die compared to non-indigenous children. Indigenous infant deaths accounted for one-fifth of all infant deaths in Australia during 2002-2006. The neonatal mortality rate for indigenous newborns is more than double the non-indigenous rate.
  • Estimates suggest that, in some years, the suicide rate for indigenous people in specific communities is as much as 40% higher than that for the Australian population as a whole. Over the past 30 years indigenous suicide has increased, with young indigenous males being the most at risk.