Report warns of growing health gap between advantaged, disadvantaged communities in Australia

Sydney, Oct 30
Australians living in the nation's poorest areas are up to three times more likely to suffer from preventable chronic diseases than those from advantaged communities, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The report by researchers from Victoria University said the health gap between advantaged and disadvantaged communities in Australia is growing.

It found that over 125,000 Australians aged between 30 and 70 died from preventable diseases between 2017 and 2021. Of those, 71 per cent were living in the country's most disadvantaged communities and were more likely to be in regional or rural areas.

Over 10 million Australians live in the 40 per cent of communities with the highest levels of disadvantage, and face a significantly higher risk of poor health and preventable chronic disease, the report said.

In those communities cancer rates are almost twice compared to the least disadvantaged areas while the incidence of diabetes is almost three times higher. Australians living in the most disadvantaged areas are twice as likely to suffer from heart disease or stroke than those in the least disadvantaged areas.

"This situation is getting worse and we must do something about it," Rosemary Calder, director of the Australian Health Policy Collaboration at the university and lead author of the report, said.

"The health and wellbeing of people living within disadvantaged communities is adversely affected by many social and economic factors, such as lower income, lower education, limited employment conditions, low housing quality and poorer access to resources necessary for a good quality of life," she said, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the one-fifth of Australian regions rated the most disadvantaged, the suicide rate was 1.6 times higher than in those rated the least disadvantaged between 2017 and 2021.

The report called for the establishment of a national framework and fund to coordinate place-based healthcare initiatives as well as long-term funding for community organizations and service providers and local health and wellbeing plans in all states and territories.