The Health Status of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians

34 Pages Posted: 21 Mar 2005

See all articles by Alison L. Booth

Alison L. Booth

Australian National University (ANU) - Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Nick Carroll

Australian National University; Government of Western Australia - Labour Market Strategies Group

Date Written: March 2005

Abstract

We use unique survey data to examine the determinants of self-assessed health of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We explore the degree to which differences in health are due to differences in socio-economic factors, and examine the sensitivity of our results to the inclusion of "objective" health measures. Our results reveal that there is a significant gap in the health status of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, with the former characterised by significantly worse health. These findings are robust to alternative estimation methods and measures of health. Although between one third and one half of the health gap can be explained by differences in socio-economic status - such as income, employment status and education - there remains a large unexplained component. These findings have important policy implications. They suggest that, in order to reduce the gap in health status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, it is important to address disparities in socio-economic factors such as education. The findings also suggest that there are disparities in access to health services and in health behaviour. These issues need to be tackled before Australia can truly claim to have 100% health-care coverage and high levels of health and life expectancy for all of its population.

Keywords: self-assessed health, Indigenous health

JEL Classification: I1, I12

Suggested Citation

Booth, Alison L. and Carroll, Nick, The Health Status of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians (March 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=690150 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.690150

Alison L. Booth (Contact Author)

Australian National University (ANU) - Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS) ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200
Australia
+61 2 6125 3285 (Phone)
+61 2 6125 0182 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Nick Carroll

Australian National University ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Australia

Government of Western Australia - Labour Market Strategies Group ( email )

Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
GPO Box 9879
Canberra, ACT 2601
Australia

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
2,316
Abstract Views
7,775
Rank
11,822
PlumX Metrics