The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet has recently released a new report, the Overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status 2017. In producing the report, HealthInfoNet searched through over 350 publications in order to provide health professionals with one document which summarises the current health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
In addition to providing an overview of a number of factors that contribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, the report summarises 12 health conditions, one of which is injury. Highlighted injury health indicators include:
- Injury was responsible for 15% of the total burden of disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in 2011.
- The reported rate of having a long-term condition caused by injury was 1.2 times higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people than for non-Indigenous people in 2012-13.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were hospitalised for injury at almost twice the rate of injury than non-Indigenous people, in 2015-16. The leading causes of these hospitalisations were falls (20%), assaults (19%) and exposure to mechanical forces (17%).
- The leading causes of injury deaths in 2016 were intentional self-harm (162 deaths), land transport accidents (80 deaths) and accidental poisoning (75 deaths).