The infant mortality rate is expressed as the number of deaths in the first year per 1,000 births in a population. The ABS concluded in 2001 that no reliable Indigenous infant mortality rate national trend (either for better or worse) was identifiable, largely because of the poor quality of data. [52] In jurisdictions where the data is deemed reliable, for the period 2001 to 2005, approximately two to three times the number of Indigenous infants died before their first birthday, as non-Indigenous infants. [53]
Chronic diseases, and in particular
cardiovascular disease, are the biggest single killers of Indigenous peoples
and an area where the Indigenous and non-Indigenous health equality gap is most
apparent.
The rates of death from the five
main groups of chronic diseases compared to the non-Indigenous population over
2001-05 is set out in Table 2 as a Standardised Mortality Rate (SMR). The SMR
is calculated by dividing recorded Indigenous deaths by expected Indigenous
deaths (with the latter based on the age, sex and cause specific rates for
non-Indigenous Australians). [54]
Table 2: Indigenous Deaths,
main causes, 2001-05 - Standardised Mortality Rate. [55]
Males SMR
Females SMR
Diseases of the circulatory system
3.2
2.7
Neoplasms (including cancer)
1.5
1.6
Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases
7.5
10.1