Diet plays a key role in health and wellbeing and provides the energy and nutrients that the body needs to support tissue maintenance, repair and growth as well as overall health. If diet is poor, energy and nutritional intake can be insufficient or excessive and result in ill health.
Health conditions that are often affected by diet include overweight and obesity, coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, some forms of cancer and type 2 diabetes.
A range of external factors, including, for example, availability and affordability, may affect levels of fruit and vegetable consumption. In 2018–19, based on estimates from self-reported survey data:
- 97% (522,100) of Indigenous Australians aged 15 and over had inadequate daily fruit and vegetable consumption, with males more likely to have inadequate consumption than females (99% or 256,500 compared with 96% or 265,800, respectively)
- similar proportions of Indigenous Australians aged 15 and over in Remote (98% or 100,300) and Non‑remote areas (97% or 421,700) had inadequate daily intake of fruit and vegetables
- for Indigenous children aged 2–14, 94% (224,000) had inadequate daily intake of fruit and vegetables
- The age-standardised proportion is not significantly different between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (97.2% compared with 94.8%, respectively) (ABS 2019).
See Diet for more information.
Regular physical activity provides many benefits for physical and mental health and is an important factor in maintaining a healthy weight. Insufficient physical activity is a key contributor to disease burden in Australia. In 2018–19, based on self-reported data in Non-remote areas:
- most Indigenous Australians aged 15 and over (89% or 385,900) did not meet the physical activity guidelines
- there was no significant difference between the proportions of females (90% or 202,100) and males (87% or 183,200) who did not meet the physical activity guidelines (ABS 2019).
See Insufficient physical activity for more information.
Excess weight is a major risk factor for many diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some musculoskeletal conditions and cancers. There are differences in weight status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and these begin in childhood.
A healthy diet, physical activity and accessibility to support from general practitioners and other health services may all result in lower rates of overweight and obesity.
See Indigenous Australians’ use of health services for more information.
Based on Body Mass Index (BMI) (derived from measured height and weight), in 2018-19 around 3.5% (17,000) of Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over were underweight, 22% (108,600) were within normal weight, 29% (141,100) were overweight and 45% (219,500) were obese. Similar proportions of Indigenous males (74% or 172,200) and females (75% or 189,100) were overweight or obese.
In 2018–19, the majority of Indigenous children aged 2–14 were within normal weight (54% or 129,100). Indigenous girls were slightly more likely to be overweight or obese (40% or 46,400) than boys (34% or 42,000) while Indigenous females aged 15–17 were 4 times as likely to be underweight than males of the same age group (14% or 3,300, compared with 3.1% or 800) (Figure 2) (ABS 2019).