Analysis of Health Disparities in the Indigenous Community

This essay examines the critical health disparities faced by indigenous communities globally, with a specific focus on the Amata community in South Australia. It highlights the significant inequalities in health outcomes, life expectancy, and access to healthcare services. The paper delves into the social determinants of health, including socioeconomic status, racism, lack of adequate housing, and limited health education, as key factors contributing to these disparities. The essay emphasizes the need for addressing these social factors, promoting health education, and improving income equality to reduce the health inequality gap and improve the overall well-being of indigenous populations. It references relevant literature and statistics to support its arguments, advocating for systemic changes to improve health systems and support indigenous communities worldwide.

Running head: HEALTH DISPARITY
Health Disparities in the Indigenous Community
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
One of the longstanding health challenges globally is improving the health status of
the indigenous community, who are facing critical health disparities despite gaining global
attention on their poor health condition. The lower standards of health infrastructure
determined for the indigenous community limits the access of such individuals to quality
primary health care services, thus increasing their risk to poor health outcome and patient
safety. The following sections of the paper will address the inconsistencies between the
health practices that are leading to increasing disparities for the indigenous communities. In
addition to this, the paper will highlight the social factors concluding the health determinants
in context to a specific group from the indigenous population all across the globe.
Discussion
Inequality in opportunities is one of the leading causes that is continuously increasing
the gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous global community. The statistics which
are evident to this includes the fact that the indigenous Australians over the age of 65 years
have twice the age-specific death rate for the same age group in the non-indigenous
population and the gap of the life-expectancy is around 17 years between the non-indigenous
and indigenous communities, where the latter stands at the disadvantaged side of the statistic.
According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, very little progress has been ensured
by the concerned authorities to reduce the inequality gap, including the significant difference
in the life-expectancies of the two groups.
Amata, an indigenous community in South Australia is socio-economically
disadvantaged and are living in such conditions, which are not at all supportive of their good
health. The unmet basic health infrastructure, including healthy housing, sewerage systems,
and safe drinking water and the lack of access to primary health care services are increasing

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the effective rate of health disparities for the community, making them more vulnerable to
health hazards.
According to a bulletin by the World Health Organization, Aboriginals are Australia’s
most disadvantaged group and constitute up to 2.5% of the country’s total population which
includes the Amata living in South Australia. Lower access to health services, inaccessibility
of mainstream services, the inadequate endowment of health infrastructure and lack of
primary services can be collectively grouped as the highlights evident to the increasing health
disparities amongst the indigenous communities all across the globe (Melody et al., 2016).
Socio-economic status has been found to be one of the greatest influencers of health
and is one of the major social determinants acting as health indicators. Systemic
discrimination has been linked with inequality of health status (Lafontaine, 2018). One of the
most important social factor in context to the indigenous community that is impacting their
health is racism. This social factor has been reported to affect both physical and mental health
(Bastos, Harnois & Paradies, 2018). Research studies have reported an increased prevalence
of high blood pressure in individuals from the Amata community who have been exposed to
high incidences of racism (Paradies, 2018).
Social factors highly limit individual’s choices, which refrains them from improving
their health even when intended. Majority of the members from the Amata community in
South Australia are devoid of family ownership or quality housing, which is acting as a vital
psycho-social factor increasing the health disparity in the community. The current need to
reduce health disparity requires recognition of the colonization process as contemporary
reality to get a better insight on the social factors that are influencing the health disparities.
Other social factors include inequalities in income opportunities and lack of health
education. The unemployment rate in the Amata community is significantly higher than those
from the non-indigenous community. Furthermore, according to the Australian Bureau of

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Statistics, an average household income of the Aboriginal community is up to 55% lower
than that of the normal Australian household, indicating huge disparities in income, which
links to increased health disparities.
The lack of health education is another social determinant of health which is acting as
the primary indicator of the health status of the indigenous community. The lack of
knowledge regarding health education is limiting the Amata community in indulging with
adequate activities to improve their health.
Other factors, such as increased incidence of substance abuse and infant mortality, are
increasing the health inequality gap, thus effectively increasing the overall health of the
Australian Aboriginals and the Amata community.
Conclusion
The health systems across the globe should emphasize on working on the indigenous
community to reduce the increasing health disparities. The social determinants of health, such
as health education, income equality and health infrastructures, need to be addressed and
improved by the concerned authorities to improve the indigenous health communities, such
as Amata Community.

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References
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2020). Australian Government.Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 11
March 2020, from https://www.abs.gov.au/
Bastos, J. L., Harnois, C. E., & Paradies, Y. C. (2018). Health care barriers, racism, and
intersectionality in Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 199, 209-218.
Lafontaine, A. (2018). Indigenous health disparities: a challenge and an
opportunity. Canadian Journal of Surgery, 61(5), 300.
Melody, S. M., Bennett, E., Clifford, H. D., Johnston, F. H., Shepherd, C. C. J., Alach, Z., ...
& Zosky, G. R. (2016). A cross-sectional survey of environmental health in remote
Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. International journal of environmental
health research, 26(5-6), 525-535.
Paradies, Y. (2018). Racism and indigenous health. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Global Public Health.
WHO (2020). Australia’s disturbing health disparities set Aboriginals apart. Who.int.
Retrieved 11 March 2020, from https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/4/08-
020408/en/