Children aged 5–14
Figure 1: Contribution of disease groups to total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden, First Nations children aged 5–14, 2022
Stacked bar chart showing proportions of burden by disease group. For this age group, most YLL comes from injuries, while most YLD comes from mental health conditions and substance use disorders.
Most of the burden (84% or 13,690 YLD) among First Nations children aged 5–14 was due to living with disease or injury (non-fatal burden) (figures 2 and 5). Mental health conditions & substance use disorders contributed half of the non-fatal burden in this age group (50%), followed by respiratory diseases (11%) and hearing & vision disorders (8.7%) (Figure 1).
The remaining burden (16% or 2,704 YLL) was due to premature death (fatal burden) (figures 2 and 5), with injuries contributing half of the fatal burden in this age group (50%) (Figure 1).
Among First Nations children aged 5–14, the contribution of fatal burden and non-fatal burden to total burden differed for each disease group (Figure 2). Among the highest burden disease groups:
- The burden from mental health conditions & substance use disorders, respiratory diseases, and hearing & vision disorders was almost all non-fatal.
- The burden from injuries was mostly fatal.
- The burden from infectious diseases was mostly non-fatal.
Figure 2: Fatal (YLL) and non-fatal (YLD) burden as a proportion (%) of total burden (DALY), leading 6 disease groups, First Nations children aged 5–14, 2022
Source: AIHW First Nations Burden of Disease Database
How does burden differ by sex?
Among First Nations children aged 5–14, males experienced a higher proportion of the total burden (58% compared with 42%), fatal burden (61% compared with 39%) and non-fatal burden (57% compared with 43%) than females.
In this age group, mental health conditions & substance use disorders was the leading disease group contributor to total and non-fatal burden for both First Nations males and females. Injuries was the leading disease group contributor to fatal burden for both males and females, though all fatal burden estimates in this age group were based on a relatively small number of deaths (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Contribution of disease groups to total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden, by sex, First Nations children aged 5-14, 2022
Stacked bar chart showing proportional burden splits by sex. For both males and females, mental health conditions and substance use disorders was the largest contributor to the total burden.
Figure 4: Top 5 specific causes of total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden, First Nations children aged 5–14, 2022
Tile map showing the top specific causes by sex and burden type. For males, conduct disorders was the largest contributing individual cause, while for females, it was anxiety disorders.
To further explore the top specific causes across all stages of life, see the following interactive data visualisation:
- Dashboard 8: Top specific causes across the stages of life: This visualisation provides the top 5 causes contributing to burden for each age group, by sex.
Changes over time
Overall, there was no substantial change in the health of First Nations children aged 5–14 over the period 2011 to 2022 (Figure 5).
There was no substantial change in the age-specific rate of total burden between 2011 and 2022 among First Nations people aged 5–14. There was a 19% decline in the rate of fatal burden over this period, but this was offset by an 5.8% increase in non-fatal burden (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Change between 2011 and 2022 in the age-specific total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden rates (per 1,000 people), First Nations children aged 5–14
Source: AIHW First Nations Burden of Disease Database
Changes by disease group
Over the period 2011 to 2022, among First Nations children aged 5–14, there was a decrease in the age-specific total burden rate from injuries (a decrease of 2.4 DALY per 1,000 people, or 23%).
There were increases in the age-specific total burden rate from:
- mental health conditions & substance use disorders – an increase of 6.3 DALY per 1,000, or 26%
- infectious diseases, where the rate more than doubled (an increase of 2.2 DALY per 1,000), with most of this increase due to the emergence of COVID-19.
Changes by specific causes
In both 2011 and 2022, the same 3 diseases were the leading causes of burden among First Nations children aged 5–14, although there were changes in the rankings and age-specific burden rates among these causes (Figure 6):
- There was a decrease in the rate and ranking for asthma (13% decrease in rate).
- There was an increase in the rate, but the ranking stayed for the same for conduct disorder (7.1% increase in rate). Note, however, that estimates for this cause are based on less reliable methods than for other causes and should be interpreted with caution.
- There was an increase in the rate and ranking for anxiety disorders (21% increase in rate).
Figure 6: Changes in ranking and age-specific DALY rate (DALY per 1,000 people), leading specific causes of burden, First Nations children aged 5–14, 2011 and 2022
Notes
- First Nations estimates for conduct disorder should be interpreted with caution as they are based on indirect modelling methods that are less reliable than for some other causes.
- An increase in rank over time does not always mean the disease or injury has increased in the population, and vice versa. Therefore, changes in ranking of causes of deaths and disease burden over time should be interpreted with caution.
- Causes are presented in descending order, from highest age-specific rate to lowest age-specific rate, with arrows indicating either an increase (orange) or decrease (blue) in the age-specific rate over time.
- Cause rankings exclude ‘other‘ residual conditions from each disease group; for example, ‘other musculoskeletal conditions’.
- For information on colours used for each specific cause, see disease group colours for FNBDS 2022 colour legend.
Source: AIHW First Nations Burden of Disease Database
How big is the gap, and what causes it?
First Nations children aged 5–14 experienced disease burden at 1.6 times the rate for non-Indigenous children of this age in 2022 (72 compared with 45 per 1,000 people).
For children aged 5–14, mental health conditions & substance use disorders was the greatest disease group contributor to the gap (representing 44% of the gap among children aged 5–14). Hearing & vision disorders and injuries were also important contributors to the gap in this age group (representing 18% and 16% of the gap, respectively) (see Figure 5 in Gap in disease burden section).