Indigenous health in Australia

Indigenous Australian health and wellbeing statistics indicate Aboriginal Australians are much less healthy than the rest of the Australian community. In 2010–11 the most common cause of hospital admissions for Indigenous Australians in mainland Australia was for kidney dialysis treatment. A 2007 study found that the 11 largest preventable contributions to the indigenous burden of disease in Australia were tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, high body mass, inadequate physical activity, low intake of fruit and vegetables, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, unsafe sex, child sexual abuse and intimate partner violence. The 26% of Indigenous Australians living in remote areas experience 40% of the health gap of Indigenous Australians overall.

Indigenous Australians go to hospital at a higher rate than non-Indigenous Australians. In 2010-11, Indigenous Australians used hospitals 2.5 times more frequently than non-Indigenous people. This rate comes from an age-standardised separation rate (hospital check-out) of 911 per 1,000 for Indigenous people.

The 2010-11 age-standardised separation rate for Indigenous people living in the NT was 1,704 per 1,000, 7.9 times the rate for non-Indigenous people. About 80% of the difference between these rates was due to higher separations for Indigenous people admitted for renal dialysis.

In 2005, the Social Justice Report reported a seventeen-year gap between the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians. This prompted health and human rights activists to establish the 'Close the Gap' campaign, which focused on health equality for Indigenous Australians.

As of 2010, life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men was estimated to be 11.5 years less than that of non-Indigenous men - 67.2 years and 78.7 years respectively. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, the 20100 figures show a difference of 9.7 years - 72.9 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and 82.6 years for non-Indigenous women. Indigenous Australians are more likely to die at a younger age than their non-indigenous counterparts due to being un-healthy.

In 2007/08, the Australian government focused mainly on decreasing 'overcrowding' within remote indigenous communities in endeavours to improve health in rural populations. The Implementation of Australian Rural Accommodation (ARIA) Programme was granted $293.6 Million over four years to induce a significant level of housing reform.

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