Overview
The impact of socio-economic disadvantage, as well as daily stresses of living and connectivity with the social and cultural environment, on the health of Indigenous Australians health is explored in this page. Compared with other Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are disadvantaged with regard to a range of socio-economic indicators, including education, employment, income and housing, and are therefore at greater risk of ill health.
On this page
The relationship between socio-economic status and health
The relationship between socio-economic status and health is well established, with people at the lowest socio-economic levels experiencing the highest rates of illnesses and death (Lynch & Kaplan in Berkman and Kawachi [eds], 2000). As socio-economic position improves, health status also improves. This gradient from poorest to wealthiest has been observed for most of the major causes of death (Turrell et al. 1999).
Results from the 2002 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) found that behavioural and environmental risk factors were reported in higher levels among Indigenous people who reported lower socio-economic status, including low levels of educational attainment, unemployment and below-average income.
Indigenous Australians were also found to be twice as likely to rate their 'self-assessed health status' as being 'fair or poor' compared to non-Indigenous Australians, and Indigenous Australians with lower average income and lower educational attainment were more likely than other Indigenous people to rate their health status as 'fair or poor'.
The social environment and health
Socio-economic status alone does not explain the variations in health status that exist between groups in society. Health risk behaviours (e.g. smoking, alcohol misuse) and other health risk factors (e.g. poor housing, exposure to violence) are also important determinants of health but even these do not fully explain the differential burden of disease between population groups.
Research suggests that at least a partial explanation for the remaining differences lies in other determinants of health such as aspects of the social environment. These include the neighbourhood in which one lives, one's position in the workplace relative to others, the quality of one's social connections with friends, family and the community, and the degree to which one feels included or excluded by society (Wilkinson, 1999, Shaw et al. 1999). A lack of control, whether actual or perceived, over aspects of one's life, may also contribute to poor health (Marmot et al. in Marmot & Wilkinson 1999 and Lantz 1998). A qualitative analysis of the health of the Yolgnu people of north-east Arnhem Land extends these hypotheses to the Indigenous population. Trudgen (2000) has identified loss of control among the Yolgnu as leading to hopelessness, the loss of the will to live and, ultimately to high levels of sickness and mortality.
The 2002 NATSISS found that Indigenous people who had been removed from their natural family had higher rates of 'fair or poor' self assessed health status than other Indigenous people. The difference was greater for females than males.