This report into the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples worldwide was commissioned by The Lancet from Australia’s Lowitja Institute. The report focusses on the health and wellbeing of more than 154 million Indigenous and tribal peoples from 28 populations across 23 countries. Experts in Indigenous health were identified for each country, which provided data on basic population, life expectancy at birth, infant mortality, low and high birthweight, maternal mortality, nutritional status, educational attainment, poverty and economic status. The report states that these data demonstrate poorer health and social outcomes for Indigenous peoples than for non-Indigenous populations. These poorer outcomes include: life expectancy at birth for 16 of 18 populations with a difference greater than 1 year in 15 populations; infant mortality rate for 18 of 19 populations with a rate difference greater than 1 per 1,000 livebirths in 16 populations; maternal mortality in 10 populations; low birthweight with the rate difference greater than 2% in 3 populations; high birthweight with the rate difference greater than 2% in 1 population; child malnutrition for 10 of 16 populations with a difference greater than 10% in 5 populations; child obesity for 8 of 12 populations with a difference greater than 5% in 4 populations; adult obesity for 7 of 13 populations with a difference greater than 10% in 4 populations; educational attainment for 26 of 27 populations with a difference greater than 1% in 24 populations; and economic status for 15 of 18 populations with a difference greater than 1% in 14 populations. The report advises that national governments need to develop targeted policy responses to Indigenous health, improving access to health services, and Indigenous data within national surveillance systems.
