Urban Indigenous Population Health and Wellbeing

Stuart Leske, The University of Queensland

The disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people generally increase with remoteness. However, focusing on this can overlook that 37% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lived in capital cities in 2021, and thus contributed a large share to health outcomes. Therefore, this paper provides a snapshot of urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in Australian capital cities. Mixed-methods environmental scan of previously routinely collected and once-off data collections. The studies reviewed included national health surveys, annual patient satisfaction surveys of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health Services (ATSICCHS), and aggregated electronic medical record data of these services. The outcome measures reported in this paper include demographic measures (population growth, age and sex), homelessness, suicide and self-inflicted injuries, hospital admissions for intentional self-harm, median age at death, patient experiences, proportions of clients that are transient, potentially preventable hospitalisations, and cost-benefit and cost-effective analyses. The absolute and relative population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is growing rapidly in capital cities. They have a different profile to their counterparts in the rest of the state or territory area, in terms of homelessness, suicide and self-inflicted injuries, hospital admissions for intentional self-harm, and median age at death. This presentation has more readily conveyed the benefits of disaggregated data for each capital city. Closing the gap in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians can be facilitated by closing data disaggregation gaps, which will inform community-level service planning and acknowledge geographical diversity.

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  Presented in Session 132. Urban Indigenous Population and Health