Patients in poorer suburbs now twice as likely to die prematurely
Growing socioeconomic and geographic inequalities are limiting improvements in life expectancy across Australia, new research suggests
Premature mortality rates in Australia’s bottom 20% socioeconomic areas are now double those in the richest 20%, researchers say.
University of Melbourne researchers say growing socioeconomic and geographical inequalities are limiting improvements in Australia’s life expectancy, arguing it has stagnated since 2013 due to a lack of targeted policy.
The researchers analysed death registration data of Australians aged between 35 and 74 from 2011 to 2016, finding death rates across the country had improved by 1% per year in that time.
But that was mostly driven by improvements in better-off areas, which already had lower mortality rates, the researchers wrote in the journal Australian Population Studies.
