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Aboriginal health ills still bleak

By Amanda James

9 December 2002 - There was little or no improvement in Aboriginals' health between 1990 and 2000, according to a report in today's Medical Journal of Australia.

The Australian Medical Association study found that death rates for Aboriginals were three times higher than the rest of the population.

It compared the health status of Aboriginals to indigenous people in similar countries.

Report author Ian Ring said that despite significant improvements in some areas of health, the median age at death for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders had not improved over the 10 years.

Indigenous people lived to a median age of 51 in Australia, 59 in New Zealand, 63 in the United States and 65 in Canada.

"In the same period, the median age at death for the total Australian population increased by three years, so that the gap between indigenous Australians and the rest of the population has now increased to a staggering 26 years," Dr Ring said.

The report also found that treatable and preventable diseases claimed far more indigenous than non-indigenous lives in Australia.

Diabetes death rates were eight times as high, respiratory deaths nearly four times and circulatory conditions nearly three times.

Despite significant improvements in the indigenous infant mortality rate, it was still nearly three times that of the general Australian population, twice that of the Maori population, and 50 per cent higher than for indigenous infants in the US.

Dr Ring said apathy surrounding the implementation of public health policies for indigenous Australians was to blame.

"The Commonwealth Government, through programs under its direct control, still spends less per capita on indigenous people than it does on the rest of the Australian population - 74¢ on indigenous Australians for every dollar spent on the rest of the population," he said.

"Indigenous Australians can achieve the major gains experienced by indigenous populations in other countries, and achievements that equal and exceed those gains, should be Australia's aim."

Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service chief executive Marian Kickett said better access and a greater collaboration between health services were needed to provide appropriate health care to Aboriginals.

Aboriginals also had to play a greater role in managing their own health.

"There has got to be some responsibility taken by Aboriginal people themselves because a lot of the diseases they get are preventable and treatable," Ms Kickett said.

Source: West Australian

NT indigenous malnutrition growing

23 November 2002 - There are some shocking new figures this morning that show that the number of indigenous children in the Northern Territory who are malnourished is growing.

Figures released by the Royal Darwin Hospital show a 25 per cent increase in the number of children diagnosed with malnutrition and diarrhoea in the past three years.

Health professionals say poverty is the underlying factor in malnutrition, but even increasing health funds and medical services is no guarantee the problem can be solved in the foreseeable future.

Anne Barker reports.

ANNE BARKER: In a country where obesity is such a serious and growing health problem, it's hard to contemplate children who are literally wasting away. But as the number of overweight Australians reaches record levels, there are also growing number of malnourished children, among the Northern Territory's indigenous population.

DAVID BREWSTER: We divide up malnutrition in terms of acute wasting and chronic stunting. Acute wasting means that they are thin for their age and stunting means they're short and that they haven't grown in height, and that's due to more chronic factors.

ANNE BARKER: Professor David Brewster is Clinical Dean at the Royal Darwin Hospital's department of paediatrics. Recent hospital figures show an increase of up to 25% in the number of indigenous children diagnosed with malnutrition since 1999.

DAVID BREWSTER: Now unexpectedly about 12% of children under 5 are thin, that is have acute malnutrition at any point in time. Whereas chronic stunting increases with age, but the rates are also quite high.

ANNE BARKER: How do explain such a high rate?

DAVID BREWSTER: Well I think it can be explained by environmental factors of remoteness, and that these are not very much to do with delivery of health care services, they're much more to do with living standards. They relate to factors like improving hygiene, living standards, housing, sanitation, factors such as childcare - rather than purely health factors.

ANNE BARKER: The Northern Territory President of the Australian Medical Association Paul Bauert says poverty is the root cause of malnutrition and the solution lies in better infrastructure in traditional communities.

PAUL BAUERT: And by infrastructure I'm talking about adequate numbers of health workers, whether they be Aboriginal health workers, whether they be nurse practitioners or whether they be doctors.

ANNE BARKER: Why has there been a jump though in malnutrition rates in the Territory?

PAUL BAUERT: I think it relates to the fact that the infrastructure in these remote communities is probably getting worse rather than better over the last 10 years. I feel that not enough has been done to get the infrastructure right - not only in the area of health, but also in the area of education, in the area of the environment.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: Dr Paul Bauert from the Australian Medical Association.

Source:ABC

Life much shorter for indigenous population

By Chris Jones

15 November 2002 - Indigenous Queenslanders will die more than 20 years before non-indigenous people, and the median indigenous income is only 71 per cent of the state's overall population.

Figures tabled in State Parliament yesterday also reveal that indigenous Queenslanders are 14 times more likely to be jailed than people who are not from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

The figures, in the annual report of the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, confirm the massive discrepancy between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Queensland on a range of social measures.

Despite recent improvements in indigenous unemployment rates, educational standards and death rates at birth, the report showed indigenous Queenslanders remain far behind on most social indicators.

On the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders behind bars, the report revealed the rate of imprisonment per 100,000 indigenous adults increased from 1622 in 2000 to 1724 in 2001 ­ 13.8 times higher than the non-indigenous rate.

The average number of indigenous youths in detention each day dropped from 69 in 2000 to 59 in 2001, but the youth detention rate for indigenous Queenslanders was still more than 20 times higher than the non-indigenous rate.

Health Department statistics cited in the report showed the median age at death for indigenous people last year was 54 years for men and 61 years for women, a slight rise on recent years but still more than 20 years younger than other Queenslanders.

The indigenous perinatal death rate decreased from 24.6 per 100,000 births in 1995 to 18.8 in 2000 while the non-indigenous rate remained stable at about 10.3 per 100,000 births.

On wages, the median indigenous weekly income declined from 77 per cent of the overall statewide figure in 1996 to 71 per cent last year.

Indigenous people earned an average of $256 per week last year, compared with $360 for all Queenslanders.

The indigenous unemployment rate dropped by almost 5 per cent in recent years, while the proportion of indigenous people with university qualifications increased to 1.4 per cent.

The proportion of indigenous students staying in school until Year 12 has stabilised at about 48 per cent since 1999, up from 39.9 per cent in 1995.

Source: The Courier Mail

Life expectancy of Aborigines a national disgrace: Phelps

9 November 2002 - The president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) says the short life expectancy of Aboriginal Australians is a national disgrace.

Kerryn Phelps has been travelling through the Northern Territory this week, spending time at remote communities outside Katherine.

Dr Phelps says Australian governments need to commit both the will and the finances to redress Aboriginal disadvantage.

"I met a very rare individual and that was an Aboriginal man aged 82... he would have to be probably one of the oldest indigenous Australians," she said.

"It's to me a national disgrace that we have a group of Australians who can only expect to live 55 years and that their health during those 55 years is worse than any other group of Australians."

Source:ABC

Indigenous life expectancy failing to improve

15 October 2002 - The life expectancy of Aboriginal men and women is failing to improve, despite a better overall health report card for the people of New South Wales.

The NSW Government has released the report of the chief health officer, Greg Stewart, which shows Aborigines still live on average 20 years less than the general population.

Coronary heart disease remains the biggest killer in the wider society, with 26 deaths in the state every day, but the rate has more than halved since 1980.

Cancer cases have risen by almost 25 per cent during the past 20 years and the report reveals an epidemic of diabetes.

Dr Stewart says the good news is more people are quitting smoking and general life expectancy continues to increase.

"By all measures the health of the people of NSW is improving...there are some areas where we need to do better, but we are improving across all measures...life expectancy, [the] neonatal death rate, any measure you pick we are improving," he said.

Source: ABC

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