Notes on the data: Aboriginal potential years of life lost, by age and sex

Potential years of life lost by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males/ females/ persons from deaths at ages 0 to 54, 0 to 64 and 0 to 74 years, by sex, 2016 to 2020

Policy context: As noted for premature mortality, above, over the years 2016 to 2020, almost four in five (77.7%) deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people occurred before 75 years of age, over twice (2.36 times) the proportion for non-Indigenous Australians, of 33.0%: details here.

However, depending on the age at which a person dies, the number of years of life lost had they lived until, say, 74 years of age will vary. Potential years of life lost (PYLL) is a measure of the sum of the potential years of life lost from deaths at 15 years (60 years), 45 years (30 years) and so on, assuming they had all lived to 74 years of age.

Note that in this Atlas we have also included data for deaths before 55 years and 65 years of age.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare note that, on this measure, a particular PYLL value will be higher if mortality among children or young people is high; chronic diseases causing death among the elderly, on the other hand, have little effect on these values [1].

There were 62,625 PYLL by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on average over the five years 2016 to 2020 in the five jurisdictions (combined) for which data are available – New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Of the PYLLS in these jurisdictions, 59.7 per cent of which were for males and 40.3 per cent were for females [2].

Some notable variations shown by the data among those aged 0 to 74 years for the five years 2016 to 2020 [2] are:

the range between the states and territories was from 62.3 PYLLs per 1,000 population in New South Wales, to 116.8 PYLLs per 1,000 population in Western Australia and 134.7 PYLLs per 1,000 population in the Northern Territory;
similarly, the capital cities in these jurisdictions had the highest and lowest rates;
in all but the Northern Territory, rates for males were around 40 to 60 per cent higher those for females – in the Northern Territory overall, the rate for males was only 20 per cent above the female rate;
the rate of PYLL for those living in the most disadvantaged areas was over twice (2.27) times that in the least disadvantaged areas across Australia – in South Australia this inequality gap was 2.43 and in Queensland, with the smallest gap, it was still 1.40 times; and
for those living in the Very Remote areas in the combined jurisdictions, PYLL rates were almost twice (1.91 times) those in the Major Cities areas – the variation in rates between the Major Cities and Very Remote areas of New South Wales was the largest, at 1.94 times, and that in Queensland, the smallest, at 1.20 times.

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Deaths in Australia. Available from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/web/152/deaths/deaths-in-australia/contents/age-at-death; last accessed 3 February 2020.
PHIDU, based on 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; 2016 to 2020.

Notes:

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: 2016 and 2017, final; 2018, revised; and 2019 and 2020, 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: The sum of the number of years between the actual age at death and 75 years of age for all deaths of each of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males, females, persons; also calculated for deaths before age 55 years and 65 years

Denominator: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males, females, persons aged 0 to 54, 0 to 64 and 0 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate of potential years of life lost per 1,000 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 2016 to 2020 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. The population is the proportional estimated resident population (erp), developed by PHIDU, 2016 to 2020 average: click here for more details.