The Indigenous Burden of Disease (IBoD) is a comprehensive report of Indigenous disease burden in Australia. These researchers evaluated its potential influence on Australian Indigenous health policy, service expenditure and research funding. A text search of 111 relevant Government and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) policy documents revealed 22 citations to the IBoD. Immediately after the IBoD was published, Australian governments increased Indigenous health spending, notably for community health and public health. Expenditures also increased on Indigenous hospital separations for chronic diseases. While these changes are broadly consistent with IBoD findings on the significance of chronic disease and policy implications, there is no evidence to suggest that the changes were causally connected to the IBoD. Moreover, changes in NHMRC Indigenous research funding showed little consistency with IBoD’s findings.
