A NEW report has confirmed what many have long suspected - people in rural and remote areas of Australia are dying sooner and have higher rates of suicide, chronic disease and mental health issues than those who live in bigger cities and towns.
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The findings were contained in the Medical Research and Rural Health - Garvan Report 2015 released this week.
The report focused on eight National Health Priority Areas (NHPA), namely asthma, arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions, cancer control, cardiovascular health, diabetes mellitus, mental health and obesity.
The diseases and conditions were chosen because they were major contributors to "the burden of illness and the resulting high social and financial costs imposed on regional, rural and remote communities", according to the report.
However, the report said "through appropriate and focused attention on them, significant gains in the health of the rural population can be achieved".
Factors that potentially negatively affected health outcomes for people in rural and remote communities were lower levels of income, employment and education, higher occupational risks associated with farming and mining, geography and the need for more long-distance travel, and access to fresh foods and health services.
There was a 40 per cent higher death rate in remote areas than in major cities, and life expectancy was 2.5 years lower for males and 1.3 years lower for females for outer regional, remote and very remote areas compared with major cities and inner regional areas.
Five-year relative survival for cancer decreased with increasing remoteness, and diabetes ranked higher as a cause of death among people living in remote and very remote areas compared with regional and major city areas.
The prevalence of asthma was significantly higher in people living in inner regional areas compared with those living in major cities or outer regional and remote areas, while adults living in outer regional and remote areas of Australia were more likely to be overweight or obese (69.5 per cent) compared with adults living in major cities (60.2 per cent).
The suicide rate was 66 per cent higher in country areas than in major cities, and the rate of suicide among Indigenous people aged 15-24 was five times higher than that or non-Indigenous people, the report said.
About 20 per cent of adults, including about 960,000 living in regional, rural and remote areas, had experienced a mental disorder in the previous year, according to the report.
Higher death rates and poorer outcomes outside major cities, especially in remote areas, reflected the higher proportion of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australians living in those areas, the report said, the leading causes of death for whom were cardiovascular diseases, cancer, injury, diabetes and respiratory diseases.