From treatment to prevention in rural and remote Australia: Practical considerations for health professionals to move practice "upstream".

Abstract

[extract] Most Australians face few challenges when accessing health care. Life expectancy in Australia is amongst the highest in the world and death rates have declined. However, improvements in health outcomes have not been shared equally across groups. When compared to their respective non‐Indigenous and urban counterparts, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Australians living in rural and remote locations have lower life expectancy, more health risk factors and poorer access to, and use of health services. These disparities are underpinned by multifaceted social, political and environmental determinants of health and in the case of Indigenous Australians, complex cultural factors, systemic racism and intergenerational trauma.