The main purpose of the Overview is to provide a comprehensive summary of the most recent indicators of the health and current health status of Australia’s Indigenous people. It has been prepared by the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet as a part of our contributions to ‘closing the gap’ in health between Indigenous people and other Australians by making relevant, high quality knowledge and information easily accessible to policy makers, health service providers, program managers, clinicians, researchers, students and the general community.
The initial sections of this Overview provide information about the context of Indigenous health, Indigenous population, and various measures of population health status. Most of the subsequent sections about specific health conditions comprise an introduction about the condition and evidence of the current burden of the condition among Indigenous people. Where available and appropriate;information is provided for each state and territory and for demographics such as gender and age.
While it provides a comprehensive review of key indicators across a range of health topics, it is beyond the scope of the Overview to provide detailed information on other aspects, such as the availability and use of services (including barriers to their use) and strategies and policies related to specific health topics. Interested readers should refer to the topic-specific reviews that are available on the HealthInfoNet’s website. Additional, more in depth, information about the topics summarised in this Overview is included in the corresponding sections of the HealthInfoNet’s website (www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au ).
We welcome feedback about the Overview.
