Notes on the data: Aboriginal mothers and babies

Low birthweight Aboriginal babies, 2019 to 2021

Policy context: A baby’s birthweight is a key indicator of health status. Low birthweight babies are those weighing less than 2500 grams at birth. An infant may be small when it is born for two reasons: it may be born early (premature), or it may be small for its gestational age (intra-uterine growth restriction). Risk factors include socioeconomic disadvantage; maternal size, age and nutritional status; the number of babies previously born; illness, and alcohol, tobacco and drug use during pregnancy; and duration of the pregnancy. Low birthweight increases the risk of death and disability in infancy and of serious health problems in childhood and possibly later in life.

According to data from the National Perinatal Data Collection, 3.9% of all births in 2011 were to Indigenous mothers. Excluding multiple births, 11.2% of liveborn singleton babies born to Indigenous mothers were of low birthweight — 2.5 times the rate for non-Indigenous mothers (4.6%). Between 2000 and 2011, there was a statistically significant decline in the low birthweight rate among Indigenous mothers, and the gap in birthweight between babies born to Indigenous and non-Indigenous mothers declined significantly over this period [2]

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2020. Australia’s children. Available from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/health/birthweight; last accessed 6 June 2022.
Birthweight of babies born to Indigenous mothers (AIHW). Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-australians/birthweight-of-babies-born-to-indigenous-mothers/summary; last accessed 26 April 2024.

Notes: Data published prior to 2015 to 2017 were collected from each State and Territory health agency and are likely to have excluded people who live in one State/Territory and used a service in another. This data release uses data, provided to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare by each State and Territory, in which residents of another jurisdiction were generally coded to their correct usual address. This change will affect the time series published for quintiles and Remoteness Areas.

Data for many remote areas, particularly in Western Australia and Northern Territory, should be treated with caution, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics rate the quality of the population correspondence from SA2 to LGA in some areas as ‘Poor’.

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

Numerator: All liveborn babies weighing less than 2,500 grams at birth born to Aboriginal women (data over 3 years)

Denominator: Total live births to Aboriginal women (data over 3 years)

Detail of analysis: Per cent

Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, on behalf of the States and Territories.