Eye Health Measures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People 2024
On World Sight Day, 10 October 2024, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released the 2024 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health measures report. This is the eighth annual report to update the Eye health measures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – the series of reports now extends back to 2017.
Eye diseases and vision problems are the most common long-term health conditions reported by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people. The measures reported cover the prevalence of eye health conditions, diagnosis and treatment services, the eye health workforce and outreach services. The report provides an evidence base for monitoring changes in eye health amongst First Nations people over time, their access and use of eye health services, and for identifying gaps in service delivery. This report includes the latest available data against each measure where possible.
The main report is part of a suite of products. The other products are:
Eye health measures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2024 (annual report)
Eye health measures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2024: Interactive data
Highlights of the 2024 reports include:
The first release of jurisdictional eye health measure reports by AIHW. All eight jurisdictions have a bespoke, individual report presenting jurisdictional information against national and other jurisdictional data.
Improvements are noted from the 2023 report (released in December 2023) for 7 measures (or sub-measures) out of the 37 reported including
- Trachoma prevalence (reduced)
- Annual health assessments (increased)
- Cataract surgery rate (increased)
Waiting times for cataract surgery have worsened since the last report.
Link to Cosmos article regarding the 2024 AIHW report featuring Shaun Tatipata and Mitchell Anjou