The latest statistics on the health of Indigenous Australians continue to question when will we learn as a nation to do better? Aboriginal children born these past few years are in for a tougher, sicker, shorter life than other Australians, Keith McEwan writes.
Statistics ask: When will we learn?
The Summary of Australian Indigenous Health 2010 by The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet* evokes emotional responses such as “When will we ever learn?” and “What is to be done?”
The raw statistics, although not new or surprising, are painful. And they are current: these figures are for now and the future – they are not historical.
Numbering around 563,700, Indigenous people comprise 2.6% of the total Australian population. The life expectancy for Indigenous men is 67.2 years and for Indigenous women 72.9 years, compared with the non-Indigenous 78.7 years for men and 82.6 years for women. This means Indigenous Australians born early this century (2005-2007) will die on average 11.5 years younger for men, and 10 years younger for women, than other Australians.
One of the main causes of death is diabetes, which is about 3.5 times more common for Indigenous than non-Indigenous people.
Death rates for intentional self-harm is generally 2 to 3 times higher for Indigenous people than for their non-Indigenous counterparts. Young Indigenous people, up to their mid-30s, are particularly vulnerable.
Blindness in Indigenous adults is 6.2 times the rate of non-Indigenous adults and the level of ear disease and hearing loss among Indigenous people is much higher than that of the general Australian population.
While Indigenous people are more likely to not drink alcohol at all (23% compared with 17% in the general population), those who do drink are more likely to consume alcohol at high risk levels for harm, leading to early deaths.
The prevalence of smoking is higher among Indigenous people – 50% are smokers compared to 19% of the non- Indigenous population.
The summary clearly reveals that Indigenous people generally experience more risk factors for ill health than do other Australians. Contributing to this poor health status are social factors (such as dispossession, dislocation and discrimination); poor levels of schooling; low incomes and high unemployment; and inadequate housing. Such disadvantages underlie specific health risk factors such as alcohol and other drug misuse, which are major causes of Indigenous health problems.
The summary concludes with the telling statement :
Unless the recent “closing the gap” commitments by Australian governments concentrates on reducing the overall disadvantages experienced by Indigenous people, even fully committed approaches within the health sector will have a limited impact of achieving major improvements in Indigenous health status.
For the sake of Indigenous Australians – young and old – all of us must demonstrate that we are up to the task of ensuring that adequate resources are allocated for such a major transformation in the life of the First Australians and that Indigenous people are fully consulted and engaged in every aspect of such basic human rights measures to create a united, reconciled and healthy nation.
* Source: http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/overviews
Note: In 1788, the health of Indigenous Australians was better than that of Europeans, according to several sources: See The historical context –http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/overviews/the-context-of-indigenous-health
– Keith McEwan, CLA member, 16 Oct 2010