The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare looks at the number of healthy years of life lost through disease and injury in Indigenous populations.
The report's author, Dr Fadwa Al-Yaman, says it is a unique study.
"So, basically, some diseases are more likely to kill us, like, for example, cancer, cardiovascular disease ... especially among Indigenous Australians. But some diseases and conditions make us live with ill-health and disability. Like mental health, for example, it doesn't kill us directly, but we have a lot of ill-health as a result of it. So what this study does is it allows you to compare and contrast the impact of different conditions that have different impact on health, and we're able to rank them from highest to lowest. And that's, really, the beauty of this kind of analysis, because it doesn't just look at what kills you, it looks at what kills you and what disables you and adds them together."
Dr Al-Yaman says the burden of premature mortality plus the burden of living with ill-health means Indigenous Australians lose 2.3 healthy years compared with other Australians.
"Basically, we've seen a 5 per cent reduction in the disease burden, and that's mostly driven by a reduction in the fatal burden, so we've seen around an 11 per cent reduction in the fatal burden. And that's mainly driven by a reduction in cardiovascular diseases and mortality. And we've seen, also, a reduction in some risk factors that are also drivers for cardiovascular disease, such as tobacco smoking, physical inactivity and high blood pressure and cholesterol. But on the same hand, we've seen an increase in the non-fatal burden, in living with ill-health, by about 4 per cent. It's not very high, but what that really suggests is that less people are dying prematurely but (they're) living longer with ill-health."
Reconciliation Australia chief executive Justin Mohamed says, while lifestyle choices do factor into the gaps identified by the study, intergenerational trauma is also one.
"It goes back a long way, and we can't dismiss the wrongs of the past. And I'm talking not only about this generation but a couple of centuries that we've lived in, it's accumulating to this position that we find ourselves in now. And it's one thing looking at how to fix the current situation and promote healthier lifestyles and safer communities and getting your medical checks regularly, but there also is a lot of pain and hurt which has come over generations, which contribute to the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people which has to be recognised and also put into the equation as we look for better solutions for the future."
He says more needs to be done to reduce the health gap.
"Facilities in remote areas and service in remote areas is very, very important. Part of that is, if we want to see this life-expectancy gap close, the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do live on the south-east seaboards of Australia or the capital cities and urban and big regional areas, so that also should not be forgotten about. And we need to have services right across. And, finally, putting services in the remote areas can have its challenges, but I think we have, within the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector, a very good structure with 40 years of experience and expertise which, I think, the government could utilise more than it has been thus far to combat those areas."
