This indicator reports on the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with type 2 diabetes who had a kidney (renal) function test in the previous 12 months and are regular clients attending Indigenous specific primary health care services. The goal for this indicator is 69% by 2023.
Why is it important?
Chronic conditions, including diabetes, are the leading causes of illness, disability and death among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Effective management and monitoring of diabetes, including regular renal function tests, can delay the progression of disease, improve quality of life and increase life expectancy.
What data are available?
In the absence of national data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with type 2 diabetes who have regular renal function tests, this indicator uses data from the Indigenous primary health care national Key Performance Indicators (nKPIs) data collection. These data pertain to Indigenous regular clients. A regular client is defined as a client who has attended the primary health care organisation at least 3 times in the last 2 years.
Impact of COVID-19 on reporting
In acknowledgement of the additional pressures on organisations because of COVID-19, reporting to the nKPI collection was temporarily changed from mandatory to voluntary in June 2020 and December 2020. This resulted in a decrease in the number of organisations that reported on Indigenous regular clients aged 15 and over with type 2 diabetes who had a kidney (renal) function test result recorded within the previous 12 months from 207 in December 2019, to 193 in June 2020 and 194 in December 2020.
In addition, lockdown restrictions due to COVID-19 may also have impacted:
- The rates of delivery of clinical services
- The ability of clients to attend the services
- The way in which services were delivered (for example, greater use of telehealth).
What do the data show?
Progress towards the goal is not able to be assessed.
- In December 2020, the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with type 2 diabetes who had a kidney (renal) function test in the previous 12 months and are regular clients attending Indigenous specific primary health care services was 63%, which was below the trajectory point of 68% required to meet the goal.
- From December 2017, the rates were consistently below the trajectory required to meet the goal in 2023.
Nationally, in December 2020, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander regular clients aged 15 and over with type 2 diabetes:
- 63% had a kidney function test result recorded within the previous 12 months, which was below the trajectory point (68%) required to meet the goal by 2023.
- The proportion who had a kidney function test recorded in the past 12 months was highest in Western Australia (50%) and lowest in the Northern Territory (40%).
Figure 18.4 shows the proportion of services by the percentage of regular clients with type 2 diabetes who had their kidney function test results recorded. For example, in December 2020, 34% of services had 67.8% or more of regular clients with type 2 diabetes who had their kidney function test results recorded within the previous 12 months.
