Notes on the data: Aboriginal premature mortality by selected cause

Deaths from external causes, Aboriginal people aged 0 to 54, 0 to 64 and 0 to 74 years, 2018 to 2022

Policy context: Deaths from external causes, commonly described as deaths from accidents and injury, are deaths caused by environmental events and circumstances that are external to the body. External causes of death can be classified as 'unintentional', such as transport accidents, falls, and accidental drowning or poisoning; 'intentional', such as suicides and homicides; and those which occur due to the complications of medical and surgical care (commonly referred to as 'adverse events') [1].

In 2017, deaths from external causes (for example injury and suicide) accounted for 15% of deaths of Aboriginal people living in the combined areas of NSW, Qld, WA, SA and the NT) [1].

Some 17.5% of all deaths of Aboriginal people occurring before 75 years of age were due to external causes (largely road traffic injuries and suicide and self-inflected injuries); this was the third largest cause of premature death.

The data show that, for 2018 to 2022 almost all (96.2%) deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from external causes occurred before 75 years of age (one and a half times the proportion for non-Indigenous Australians), 92.1% before 65 years and 83.7% before 55 years – details here. This was over one and a half times the proportion for the total population at ages 0 to 74 years (96.2% c.f. 61.1%).

Reference

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). 1.23 Leading causes of mortality. Available from https://www.indigenoushpf.gov.au/measures/1-23-leading-causes-mortality last accessed 28 March 2022.

Notes: International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes: V01-Y98

Deaths data

For deaths data released since 2007, the ABS has applied a staged approach to the coding of cause of death which affects the number of records available for release at any date. In general, the latest year’s data is preliminary, the second latest is revised and the data for the remaining years is final. For further information about the ABS revisions process see the following and related sites: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3303.0Explanatory+Notes12012.

However, data published here are from the following releases: 2018, 2019 and 2020 final; and 2021 and 2022 preliminary.

Data quality

Almost all deaths in Australia are registered. However, Indigenous status is not always recorded, or recorded correctly. The incompleteness of Indigenous identification (referred to as completeness of coverage) means that the number of deaths registered as Indigenous is an underestimate of the actual number of deaths which occur in the Indigenous population. It should also be noted that completeness of coverage is likely to vary between geographical areas.

While there is incomplete coverage of Indigenous deaths in all state and territory registration systems, some jurisdictions have been assessed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) as having a sufficient level of coverage to enable statistics on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mortality to be produced. Those jurisdictions are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Geography: Data available by Indigenous Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic outcomes (based on IRSEO) and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Aboriginal deaths from external causes at ages 0 to 54, 0 to 64 and 0 to 74 years

Denominator: Aboriginal population aged 0 to 54, 0 to 64 and 0 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate per 100,000 Aboriginal population (aged 0 to 54, 0 to 64 and 0 to 74 years); and/or indirectly age-standardised ratio, based on the Australian standard

Source: Data compiled by PHIDU from deaths data based on the 2018 to 2022 Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System. ABS estimated resident population (produced as a consultancy for PHIDU), 30 June 2021.