SELF-ASSESSED HEALTH STATUS

Self-assessed health status is a commonly used measure of overall health. While it may not always be equivalent to health status as measured by a medical professional, it does reflect a person's perception of his or her own health at a given point in time.

UPDATED RESULTS FROM 2012–13

In 2012–13, around two in five (39%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over assessed their health as excellent or very good (13% and 27%, respectively). A further 37% reported good health and 24% rated their health as fair or poor (17% and 7%, respectively).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males were more likely than females to have reported excellent or very good health (42% compared with 37%) and were less likely to have rated their health as good (35% compared with 38%). Similar proportions of males and females rated their health as fair or poor (23% and 25%, respectively) in 2012–13.

In 2012–13, similar proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in non-remote and remote areas reported excellent or very good health (40% and 38%, respectively). However, people in non-remote areas were less likely than those in remote areas to have rated their health as good (35% compared with 42%), and were more likely to have reported fair or poor health (25% compared with 20%).


CHANGE OVER TIME

Between 2001 and 2012–13, there were no statistically significant changes at the national level in the proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who rated their health as excellent/very good (from 40% to 39%), or fair/poor (from 26% to 24%). However, a significantly larger proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people reported good health, up from 33% in 2001 to 37% in 2012–13.

HOW DO THESE RATES COMPARE WITH THE RATES FOR NON-INDIGENOUS PEOPLE?

After adjusting for differences in the age structure of the two populations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over were around half as likely as non-Indigenous people to have reported excellent or very good health (rate ratio of 0.6). Conversely, the proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with fair or poor health were twice as high as the comparable rates for non-Indigenous people (rate ratios of 2.0 and 2.3, respectively).