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The Australian Bureau of Statistic's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, Research found that 49 percent of Indigenous people had one or more chronic conditions in 2022-2023, compared to 46 percent in 2018-2019.
“The increase was driven by (a jump) in the proportion of people aged two years and over with mental and behavioral problems – from 24 per cent in 2018-2019 to 29 per cent in 2022-2023,” an agency spokesperson said.
About a third of people (31 percent) aged 18 and over living in cities and regional areas experienced high or very high levels of mental health problems in the four weeks before the survey, compared to 24 percent of people in remote areas .
About a quarter (27 percent) of people aged 15 and over have accessed mental health care in the past 12 months.
The data included a new module on food security, which found that 41 percent of households experienced food insecurity because they did not have enough money for groceries in the 12 months prior to the survey.
In remote areas, 51 percent of households faced food insecurity, compared to 40 percent in regional and urban households.
While renters were twice as likely to be food insecure (55 percent) than renters who owned a home (21 percent).
The number of smokers has fallen, with less than a third of people aged 15 and over smoking daily, compared to 37 per cent in 2018-2019.
“The decline in the number of daily smokers aged 15 and over is driven by a decline in the number of smokers in non-remote areas (from 35 percent to 26 percent),” the agency spokesperson said.
The number of smokers in remote areas remained stable.
“There has also been an increase in the number of people aged 15 and over who have never smoked (from 37 per cent in 2018-2019 to 43 per cent in 2022-2023), suggesting fewer people are taking up smoking.” the spokesperson said.
Eight percent of people aged 15 and over said they used e-cigarettes or vaping.
