Indigenous eye health measures 2018

Measure 3.4: The number of hospital separations with a procedure for cataract surgery, per 1,000,000 Indigenous population.

Hospitalisations reflect both the occurrence in the population of eye conditions which are serious enough to require hospitalisation, as well as access to and use of hospitals services. The cataract surgery rate is calculated per million to align with international standards.

• In 2015–17, there were 5,131 hospitalisations for Indigenous Australians for cataract surgery—a rate of 3,443 per 1,000,000 population. The number of hospitalisations over the 2 year period 2015–17 was below the estimated annual number of Indigenous people needing cataract surgery (7,581).
• Hospitalisation rates for Indigenous Australians for cataract surgery increased with age and were highest for those aged 75–84 in 2015–17.
• Between 2007–09 and 2015–17, the age-standardised hospitalisation rate for cataract surgery for Indigenous Australians increased from 5,743 to 8,105 per 1,000,000, while the rate for non-Indigenous Australians increased from 8,247 to 8,559 per 1,000,000.
• The rate of hospitalisations for cataract surgery were higher for Indigenous Australians aged 45–54 and 55–64 than for non-Indigenous Australians of the same age.