Health statistics and Aboriginal health | |
The health of Indigenous Australians. Neil Thomson (editor). Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2003 (xxxi + 519 pp). ISBN 0 19 551220 0. |
IN MY WORK I am actively involved in Indigenous health, particularly in the area of clinical service delivery and teaching. This book is of considerable interest because all the chapters have been written by experts in their fields. Professor Thomson has a distinguished reputation in Indigenous health statistics and is the author of many peer-reviewed articles addressing Indigenous public health issues. He was instrumental in the development of the highly utilised website on Indigenous health, the HealthInfoNet (http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/). All the authors have researched and published widely in this area. Chapter 1, The need for Indigenous health information, focuses on the mortality and morbidity of specific diseases and this is an excellent introduction to subsequent chapters. It also provides an explanation as to why we need accurate Indigenous health information, especially the monitoring and surveillance of population health status, determinants of health, and the planning and development of policies and services at all levels from national to local communities. The book also discusses the limitations of mortality and morbidity data. It is clear to me after reading this book that government should invest more resources in Indigenous health information. The only reliable data are from Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, which means that national mortality and morbidity data are calculated from these three states alone. They only represent about one third of the total Indigenous population. Accurate Indigenous health data are vital for monitoring health trends. All chapters utilise up-to-date references and, when data are tabulated, footnotes are used to document the data source and data limitations. This book will be an excellent resource for medical students learning about Indigenous health statistics. Noel E Hayman
|