Injury death rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Australians are much higher than for other Australians, according
to the latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare (AIHW).
Reported Injury Mortality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples in Australia, 1997-2000 reports the injury
death rate as being 2.8 times higher* for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people than for other Australians, after allowance
is made for the younger age distribution of the Indigenous
population compared with the rest of the population.
Co-author Yvonne Helps, of the AIHW's National Injury
Surveillance Unit (NISU), said that as for all Australians, suicide
and transport crashes were the most common causes of injury death
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
'However, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide rate
was nearly twice as high, and the transport injury death rate was
almost three times as high as for other Australians.'
Fatal assault (homicide) was not as common a cause of injury
death among Indigenous Australians, but rates were still high in
comparison to those for the rest of the population. The rate for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males was over 7 times higher
than for other males, with the rate for females more than 11 times
higher than that for other females.
The higher injury death rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people were partly attributable to the fact that they were
more likely to live in remote areas than other Australians, and
injury rates are generally higher for residents of more remote
areas.
Mrs Helps warned that some caution was needed in interpreting
the report's findings.
'Due to differences between the States and Territories in the
quality of death and population data for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people, the report draws predominantly on data from
the four jurisdictions in which such data are thought to be
relatively complete - Western Australia, South Australia,
Queensland and the Northern Territory.
'Further work is needed to make the statistics more reliable
nationally. But the data we do have are certainly sufficient to
show very clearly that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Australians experience much higher rates of injury mortality than
the rest of the population.'
*NB All data reported in this media release covers the four
jurisdictions of Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and
the Northern Territory (called Region A in the report).
1 December 2004
Further information: Yvonne Helps, NISU, tel.
08 8201 7623, mobile 0403 782 132.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of Reported Injury Mortality of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Australia,
1997-2000, December 2004.