Trends in the annual prevalence of hospitalisation for remote Indigenous communities in Queensland, 1997/98 to 2004/05

Objective: To describe trends in the annual prevalence of hospitalisation in remote Indigenous communities in Queensland, 1997/98 to 2004/05. Methods: Descriptive analysis of computerised discharge abstracts that were linked using probabilistic matching to obtain person-based data. Results: Over the eight years studied, the age-stanclardised annual prevalence of hospitalisation decreased by 4.5% per year (95% Cl-4.8% - -4.1%). The decrease was largest at younger ages (e.g. 0-4 years: -6.0%; 70+ years: -1.9%). There were large decreases for infections (-6.1%; 95% Cl -6.8% - -5.4%) and for injury (-7.3%; 95% Cl -8.1% - -6.5%). However, there were increases for chronic diseases such as ischaernic heart disease (2.5%; 95% Cl 0.2%-4.9%), diabetes (2.5%; 95% Cl 0.5%- 4.5%) and renal failure (6.8%, 95% Cl 3.3%-10.4%). Conclusions: Indigenous health appears to be improving in the remote communities in Queensland, especially for infections and injury, but it appears that little progress has been made for chronic disease.