Measure (1a): Mortality rates for children aged less than five years, by Indigenous status
Measure (1b): Excess deaths for Indigenous children aged less than five years.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data for this indicator is for perinatal mortality, infant mortality, child 1-4 years mortality and child 0-4 years mortality.
Rationale:
High level of public interest. Key measure for the 'Closing the Gap' indicator of halving the gap in mortality rates for children under 5.
Part A: Number, rate, rate ratio and rate difference
Part B: Excess deaths: Observed number of Indigenous deaths among perinatals, infants, children aged 1–4 years and children aged 0–4 years less expected number of deaths among Indigenous children of the corresponding age group if the age specific rate of the non-Indigenous population was applied to the Indigenous population.
Computation:
Part A: Perinatal and infant mortality rates: 1000 x (Numerator ÷ Denominator)
Children 1-4 and 0-4 mortality rates: 100,000 x (Numerator ÷ Denominator)
Part B: Excess deaths: Observed number of Indigenous deaths among children aged 0-4 years less expected number of deaths among Indigenous children aged 0-4 years if the age specific rate of the non-Indigenous population was applied to the Indigenous population.
Numerator:
Perinatal: Number of perinatal deaths (foetal and neo-natal)
Infant: Number of deaths among children aged 0-1 years
Children 1-4: Number of deaths among children aged 1-4 years
Children 0-4: Number of deaths among children 0 to 4 years
Numerator data elements:
Denominator:
Perinatal: Number of all live births and stillbirths
Infant: Number of live births
Children 1-4: Population aged 1-4 years
Children 0-4: Population aged 0-4 years
Denominator data elements:
Disaggregation data elements:
Comments:
Disaggregation: National and selected state/territories by Indigenous status
Most recent data available for 2010 CRC baseline report: 2007
At this stage, only data from selected state/territories are considered of acceptable quality for reporting mortality of Indigenous persons (NSW, Qld, WA, SA and NT).
Due to small number of Indigenous deaths reported each year, 5 year combined data will be reported.
The statistical agencies and state/territory governments are currently working with Registrars and funeral directors and doctors to improve the quality of Indigenous status information on death notification forms and death certificates.
Indigenous identification needs improvement in deaths data.
Other issues caveats:
Indigenous child mortality data is subject to high variability due to small numbers of deaths among children 0 to 4 years.
