Aboriginal Disadvantages

Socioeconomically disadvantaged people are a population who lack sufficient income to obtain adequate health, food, housing and clothing that the rest of society can afford, find it difficult to ensure an adequate standard of living or are often unemployed and rely on social security and services. Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders (ATSI) fall into this category and make up a large amount of the people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. A study by the ‘United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ in 1998 found that unemployment rates for Indigenous Australians is 23% while for non-Indigenous Australians it’s 9%. These high unemployment rates and therefore low income rates have caused this to be an inequality
due to a lack of attention in these areas by governments and seclusion of these people.

Whilst a non-indigenous male born in 1997-1999 can expect to live for 77 years, an Indigenous Australian male born in the same period can expect to live only 56 years, a difference of 21 years. This is equivalent to a non indigenous Australian male born over 100 years ago. A non-indigenous female born in 1997-1999 can expect to live for 83 years, whilst an indigenous Australian female born in the same period can expect to live only 63 years.
This is equivalent to a non-indigenous Australian female born in the 1920s. This reduced life expectancy can be down to the fact that living conditions in these areas are extremely poor and there also isn’t adequate access to healthcare facilities such as a general practitioner or a hospital. In the 2004-05 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, Indigenous Australians living in the most disadvantaged areas were 1.4 times more likely to report their health as fair or poor compared with non-Indigenous Australians living in the most disadvantaged areas. Alternatively, of those living in the most disadvantaged areas Indigenous Australians were around half (0.6) as likely to assess their health as excellent compared with non-Indigenous Australians. This is an alarming statistic that shows that living standards are not up to scratch in these socioeconomically disadvantaged
areas.

According to a report released by the former Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott, mortality rates for males in these socioeconomically challenged groups narrowed from 230 to 163 deaths per 100,000 population between 1985-1987, and 1998-2000, and for females the difference fell from 95 to 70 deaths per 100,000 population.
This is a positive trend but nonetheless mortality rates still continue to exist and this can be put down to the influx of disease amongst these groups such as coronary heart disease and stroke. A health policy inequalities research document stated that Indigenous Australians under the age of 65 were 8 times more likely to die of coronary heart disease, 6 times more likely to die from stroke, 22 times more likely to die from diabetes, 8 times more likely to die from lung disease and more than twice as likely to die from intentional self-harm. This has a major effect on infant mortality as the report stated that in these socioeconomically challenged areas, the population was 6 times more likely to die as an infant. This could be because living conditions are unhygienic, unsanitary and not in any way safe for an
infant.
Reports by the Medical Journal of Australia show that there is a high respiratory morbidity after hospitalisation for acute pneumonia in this population. Respiratory illness in childhood is a risk factor for chronic respiratory morbidity and will almost certainly lead to pulmonary disfunction in adulthood. Respiratory problems were the main hospitalisations for socioeconomically disadvantaged people as 14 of the 22 children with any respiratory morbidity at follow-up had a pre-discharge chest radiograph and still showed signs of bad respiratory problems. If these scans are completed on the child, the following method would be an x-ray then medication would follow and these adequate health precautions are used to decrease the risk of the morbid disease to become deadly.
There are some positive trends such as the mortality rate one previously mentioned and this can put down to the fact that government funding has relieved a lot of pressure off the socioeconomically disadvantaged population and allowed them to seek help for themselves and attempt to find employment for a steady income. With additional care for these people such as ATSI, we can hopefully see a rise in the life expectancy and a decrease in the infant mortality rates which is decreasing noticeably since 1991.