A report on the health of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, released by the Australian Health Ministers Conference, has shown a narrowing of the gap for all cause mortality and avoidable mortality, and improvements in some health performance measures.


The third report against Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework (HPF) is designed to measure progress on closing the gap in Indigenous health and to stimulate debate and policy innovation in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.

 

The findings in the report pre-date the roll out of the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) Indigenous health initiatives.

 

The HPF has 71 measures in three groups:

  • health status and outcomes
  • determinants of health, including socioeconomic and behavioural factors
  • health system performance.

 

The third report showed areas of improvement including:

 

  • a narrowing of the gap for all cause mortality and avoidable mortality;
  • a 29 per cent decline in deaths due to circulatory disease, the leading cause of death for Indigenous Australians from 1997-2008 (based on long term data trends identified in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia);
  • a 55 per cent decline in infant mortality rates from 1991-2008 (based on long term data trends identified in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia);
  • a narrowing of the gap for children under five being hospitalised for pneumonia;
  • small improvements in reading and numeracy for children in Year 5;
  • improved immunisation coverage for children;
  • a small but significant decrease in smoking rates;
  • an increase in episodes of care by Indigenous primary healthcare services.

 

Areas of concern include:

  • an increase in the gap for rates of low birthweight;
  • a widening of the gap for deaths related to chronic disease, particularly cancer and kidney disease;
  • the incidence of end-stage renal disease has tripled over the last decade;
  • high rates of smoking during pregnancy (51 per cent);
  • deaths due to injury;
  • a large unmet need for dental care and high rates of ear disease.

 

All Australian Health Ministers are committed to reporting against the performance framework and this report series provides a valuable mechanism for monitoring progress with the COAG Indigenous targets and the factors underpinning these outcomes, including across the health system and determinants of health addressed in other portfolios.

 

Copies of the report, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework document, are available here.