South Australian Aboriginal Health Survey

In 2012, SA Health completed its first ever specialised population health survey of Aboriginal people, titled the South Australian Aboriginal Health Survey (PDF 4605KB).

Funding for the survey came from the Closing the Gap National Partnership Agreement.

Objectives

The main objectives of the survey were to:

  • determine the prevalence of chronic disease and risk factors in the South Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population;
  • identify and describe the protective factors for health and wellbeing;
  • identify and describe barriers to accessing health services;
  • gain an understanding of differences in the challenges faced by this population group; and
  • produce reliable population estimates for urban, rural, and remote areas.

Survey

The SA Aboriginal Health Advisory Committee oversaw the running of the survey and provided advice on survey methods and questions, and the content and structure of a report that presented the main results and findings.

The survey received clearance from SA Health’s Human Research Ethics Committee and Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia’s Aboriginal Health Research Ethics Committee.

Final report

The Population Research and Outcome Studies, the University of Adelaide, ran the survey and produced a final report titled South Australian Aboriginal Health Survey (PDF 4605KB). The report presents an epidemiological analysis of the key themes explored in the survey, including the prevalence of chronic disease, the prevalence of risk and protective factors for health, and barriers to accessing health services for Aboriginal adults (aged 15 years and over) in South Australia.

Brochures

A series of concise brochures have been prepared to complement the main report, summarising the results of key topic areas covered in the survey:

  • Aboriginal culture
  • chronic conditions
  • Aboriginal people
  • healthy and unhealthy living
  • smoking.

Two brochures have been developed for each topic (apart from Smoking); one for the state as a whole and another by region (metropolitan, rural and remote).

Links to the brochures are provided below: