Overview: Indigenous Health
From PhilanthropyWiki
Contents |
Overview: Indigenous Health
After adjusting for age, Indigenous Australians show a higher rate of most types of health conditions than non-Indigenous people. The difference is especially pronounced for arthritis, asthma, diabetes and endocrine/metabolic/nutritional disorders.
Major indicators of Indigenous health and wellbeing are recorded in the ABS publication The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, 2005, which is where the majority of statistics and issues in this section are drawn from unless otherwise noted.
Life Expectancy
Current life expectancy for Indigenous Australians is estimated at 59 years for males and 65 years for females; this is substantially lower than the total population levels of 77 years for males and 82 years for females.
Diseases and Conditions
- Indigenous Australians are between two and four times more likely to suffer from diabetes than non-Indigenous Australians
- Rates of kidney disease are much higher for Indigenous people; death rates from kidney disease are eight times higher than for non-Indigenous people and rates of end-stage renal disease are 30 times higher for Indigenous people in remote regions than for non-Indigenous people.
- Notification rates for new cancer cases have been lower for Indigenous people than for non-Indigenous people in recent years, but in Queensland, WA and the NT, death rates for people with cancer are higher for Indigenous people than for non-Indigenous people. [1]
- In 2002, 36% of Indigenous people aged 15 years or over had a disability or long-term health condition, and 8% had a severe activity limitation, meaning that they sometimes or always needed assistance with normal activities such as mobility and communication.
Health risk factors
Because Indigenous Australians experience a higher level of relative socioeconomic disadvantage than non-Indigenous people, they are at greater risk of exposure to enivonments or behaviours which place them at health risk.
- 9% of Indigenous households are overcrowded, which can stress facilities as well as contribute to the spread of infectious disease
- In 2002, 49% of the Indigenous population aged over 15 smoked on a daily basis
- 15% of Indigenous people reported consuming alcohol at risky levels in the last 12 months
- 24% of Indigenous people living in non-remote areas reported having used illicit substances in the past 12 months
- Indigenous people who had been removed from their natural families as children have poorer health than those who were not removed from their families.
- Indigenous people are more likely to die from transport accidents, intentional self-harm and assault than other Australians
Access to health services
One factor influencing Indigenous people's access to health services is distance. 26% of Indigenous Australians live in areas classified as remote or very remote, compared to 2% of non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians are therefore more likely to live at a greater distance from health services. In 2001, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimated that 78% of discrete Indigenous communities were located more than 50km from the nearest hospital, and 50% were located more than 25km from the nearest community health centre [2].
This lack of access is further compounded by access to transport. In remote areas, only 48% of Indigenous people have access to a vehicle.
The relative economic disadvantage of Indigenous Australians also affect their access to health services. Non-Indigenous Australians are three times more likely to have private health insurance as Indigenous Australians [3]. This impacts their access to services which are not covered by Medicare, such as dentistry and physiotherapy.
Cultural factors are also likely to form a barrier to access to health services. Indigenous Australians are more likely to access health services if Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander staff are employed at the service, especially in situations where the patient has a limited proficiency in written and spoken English. Approximately one-fifth of Indigenous people living in remote areas report difficulty in understanding or making themselves understood by service providers, and around half did not have a working telephone. Gender of health care professionals and staff, and community control of services, also have an effect. Indigenous Australians are more likely to travel longer distances to access culturally appropriate services than to access a less appropriate but geographically closer service.