Aboriginal Disadvantages

Socioeconomically disadvantaged people are a population who lack sufficient income to obtain adequate health, food, housing and clothing that the rest of society can afford, find it difficult to ensure an adequate standard of living or are often unemployed and rely on social security and services. Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders (ATSI) fall into this category and make up a large amount of the people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. A study by the ‘United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ in 1998 found that unemployment rates for Indigenous Australians is 23% while for non-Indigenous Australians it’s 9%. These high unemployment rates and therefore low income rates have caused this to be an inequality
This is equivalent to a non-indigenous Australian female born in the 1920s. This reduced life expectancy can be down to the fact that living conditions in these areas are extremely poor and there also isn’t adequate access to healthcare facilities such as a general practitioner or a hospital. In the 2004-05 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, Indigenous Australians living in the most disadvantaged areas were 1.4 times more likely to report their health as fair or poor compared with non-Indigenous Australians living in the most disadvantaged areas. Alternatively, of those living in the most disadvantaged areas Indigenous Australians were around half (0.6) as likely to assess their health as excellent compared with non-Indigenous Australians. This is an alarming statistic that shows that living standards are not up to scratch in these socioeconomically disadvantaged
This is a positive trend but nonetheless mortality rates still continue to exist and this can be put down to the influx of disease amongst these groups such as coronary heart disease and stroke. A health policy inequalities research document stated that Indigenous Australians under the age of 65 were 8 times more likely to die of coronary heart disease, 6 times more likely to die from stroke, 22 times more likely to die from diabetes, 8 times more likely to die from lung disease and more than twice as likely to die from intentional self-harm. This has a major effect on infant mortality as the report stated that in these socioeconomically challenged areas, the population was 6 times more likely to die as an infant. This could be because living conditions are unhygienic, unsanitary and not in any way safe for an