National summary of the 2001 and 2002 jurisdictional reports against the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance indicators
Notes on Data quality
The National Summary of the 2001 and 2002 jurisdictional reports against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance indicators is the first report against the refined set of indicators endorsed by the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council (AHMAC) in 2000, and the fourth time that all jurisdictions have reported against a set of national performance indicators for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. The indicators cover a wide range of areas including government input, social equity, access to services, risk behaviours and outcomes for people. AHMAC produces this report in order to inform policy makers and senior government officials on aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. The Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (SCATSIH) advises AHMAC on the policy context and implications of the report. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare compiled this report for the Statistical Information Management Group on behalf of AHMAC.
The report identifies continuing deficiencies in the quality of data relating to the health and welfare of Indigenous people. In particular, problems continue with Indigenous identification in births and deaths registration, hospital separation statistics, perinatal datasets, notifiable disease registries and workforce surveys. The collection and reporting of the indicator data vary between the states and territories. These quality concerns mean that any jurisdictional comparisons of the data must be undertaken with care and that it is not possible to provide reliable measures of change over time for most indicators.
AHMAC, through SCATSIH and the National Advisory Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Information and Data (NAGATSIHID), is actively supporting data development work to improve the quality of key health performance indicators. Constructive communication has also been instituted between jurisdictions, the Australian Government, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and AIHW which will contribute to improving data quality. Work is also underway on improving the monitoring of health system performance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
While the National Summary of the 2001 and 2002 jurisdictional reports against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance indicators represents a work in progress in relation to a set of indicators relevant to the health of Indigenous Australians, the Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 2003 is a more comprehensive report which draws on the latest data from the ABS national Health survey, the Indigenous survey program and the Census of Population and Housing. It incorporates the best administrative data available to provide a current statistical overview of the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians. Every two years, since 1997, the AIHW and Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have published national information on the health and welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.