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The poorest Australians are twice as likely to die before age 75 as the richest, and the gap is widening https://theconversation.com/the-poorest-australians-are-twice-as-likely-to-die-before-age-75-as-the-richest-and-the-gap-is-widening-139201?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton via @ConversationEDU (1/n)
Important new study by researchers @unimelb published today. Using deaths data, they explore recent trends (2006-2016) in premature mortality in Australia: overall, by area-based deprivation, and by remoteness. (2/n)
This sparked my interest for 2 reasons:
1. My former team @scotpho is doing a lot of work to understand recent mortality trends in Scotland
2. My surprise at the lack of info I could find on health inequality trends in Oz before moving here (noted by the authors) (3/n)
1. My former team @scotpho is doing a lot of work to understand recent mortality trends in Scotland
2. My surprise at the lack of info I could find on health inequality trends in Oz before moving here (noted by the authors) (3/n)
Key finding: Improvements in overall mortality rates have slowed in recent years. In Australia's most deprived communities rates have stagnated, while they have continued to improve elsewhere (albeit at a slower rate. This = a clear widening in mortality inequalities. (4/n)
Note that the apparent breakpoint in 2010/11 is due to a change in the measure of deprivation; it’s not a data-driven breakpoint as per the Scottish analysis by @FentonLynda @gerrymccartney1 @JonMinton @colinfi @GMAWyper @juliemramsay in @BMJ_Open
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/10/e029936 (6/n)
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/10/e029936 (6/n)
In separate analysis, mortality rates outside major cities were found to have stagnated in recent years and inequalities compared with major cities widened. (5/n)
What’s causing these trends?
@gerrymccartney1 provides a convincing argument that in Scotland the 'stalling' is likely related to economic factors ()
I was therefore a tad disappointed by the initial interpretation & recommendations in this paper. (7/n)
@gerrymccartney1 provides a convincing argument that in Scotland the 'stalling' is likely related to economic factors ()
I was therefore a tad disappointed by the initial interpretation & recommendations in this paper. (7/n)
Thankfully, though, a more balanced interpretation was provided in the conclusion that followed. (8/n)
So it’s still early days in terms of describing, understanding and communicating these trends in Australia, but there’s certainly lots that can be learned on how to go about doing that based on the work of @scotPHO (9/9)
