The Impact of COVID-19 on First Nations People Health Assessments in Australia
The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic has the potential to worsen existing health inequalities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on First Nations people health assessments using an interrupted time series mod...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/10105395211011012 2023-05-15T16:14:35+02:00 The Impact of COVID-19 on First Nations People Health Assessments in Australia Robertson, Ross Mian, Mustafa Sreedharan, Subhashaan Lau, Phyllis 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10105395211011012 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10105395211011012 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/10105395211011012 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health volume 33, issue 5, page 595-597 ISSN 1010-5395 1941-2479 Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health journal-article 2021 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/10105395211011012 2022-09-21T19:49:11Z The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic has the potential to worsen existing health inequalities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on First Nations people health assessments using an interrupted time series model utilizing data extracted from the Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule database. Additive triple exponential smoothing was used to model health assessments undertaken between January 2017 and December 2019. The model was used to predict health assessments between January 2020 and June 2020 with 95% confidence ( P < .05). There was no significant difference between observed and predicted First Nations people health assessments in January, February, and June 2020. However, we found a statistically significant decrease in health assessments in March (16.5%), April (23.1%), and May (17.2%) 2020. The proportion of total health assessments delivered via telehealth was 0.5%, 23.6%, 17.6%, and 10.0% for March, April, May, and June 2020, respectively. The decrease in total First Nations people health assessments compounds the risk of poorer health outcomes in this population already vulnerable due to a high burden of chronic disease and considerable social, economic, and health inequalities. Strategies to improve the delivery of telehealth for First Nations people must be considered. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health 101053952110110 |
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Open Polar |
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SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crsagepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health |
spellingShingle |
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Robertson, Ross Mian, Mustafa Sreedharan, Subhashaan Lau, Phyllis The Impact of COVID-19 on First Nations People Health Assessments in Australia |
topic_facet |
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health |
description |
The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic has the potential to worsen existing health inequalities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on First Nations people health assessments using an interrupted time series model utilizing data extracted from the Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule database. Additive triple exponential smoothing was used to model health assessments undertaken between January 2017 and December 2019. The model was used to predict health assessments between January 2020 and June 2020 with 95% confidence ( P < .05). There was no significant difference between observed and predicted First Nations people health assessments in January, February, and June 2020. However, we found a statistically significant decrease in health assessments in March (16.5%), April (23.1%), and May (17.2%) 2020. The proportion of total health assessments delivered via telehealth was 0.5%, 23.6%, 17.6%, and 10.0% for March, April, May, and June 2020, respectively. The decrease in total First Nations people health assessments compounds the risk of poorer health outcomes in this population already vulnerable due to a high burden of chronic disease and considerable social, economic, and health inequalities. Strategies to improve the delivery of telehealth for First Nations people must be considered. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Robertson, Ross Mian, Mustafa Sreedharan, Subhashaan Lau, Phyllis |
author_facet |
Robertson, Ross Mian, Mustafa Sreedharan, Subhashaan Lau, Phyllis |
author_sort |
Robertson, Ross |
title |
The Impact of COVID-19 on First Nations People Health Assessments in Australia |
title_short |
The Impact of COVID-19 on First Nations People Health Assessments in Australia |
title_full |
The Impact of COVID-19 on First Nations People Health Assessments in Australia |
title_fullStr |
The Impact of COVID-19 on First Nations People Health Assessments in Australia |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Impact of COVID-19 on First Nations People Health Assessments in Australia |
title_sort |
impact of covid-19 on first nations people health assessments in australia |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10105395211011012 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10105395211011012 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/10105395211011012 |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health volume 33, issue 5, page 595-597 ISSN 1010-5395 1941-2479 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/10105395211011012 |
container_title |
Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health |
container_start_page |
101053952110110 |
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1766000372845903872 |