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Currently, there is no mechanism with which to accurately compare the rates and causes of infant and child mortality between Indigenous communities of colonised countries. Despite wide acknowledgment of significant disparities in health outcomes specific, consistent and comparable data describing Indigenous births and deaths are lacking nationally and internationally.
This session will consider these issues in the context of the results of an International Indigenous Infant Mortality Collaboration (IIIMC) which builds on previous work presented in Istanbul in 2009. The IIIMC will utilize complete and accurate data describing cause-specific mortality of Indigenous infants and children from communities selected from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America.
The session will describe results of analyses undertaken by the IIIMC and discuss how these data are being translated into meaningful policy and practice as we strive to improve health and well being of our infants and children. It was also facilitate the generation of new networks and encourage collaborations.
The results of this project will address for the first time the question of why genetically diverse and geographically disperse Indigenous groups suffer from similar health outcomes despite little medical reason. The results will also allow us to accurately measure and compare these disparities within the context of each of the environments. Such information will provide an opportunity to reflect on and share, health interventions, health policy and clinical and community practices that have resulted in improved infant and child health outcomes.
Learning Objectives: 1. Bring together a group of epidemiologist and demographers who are experts in working with data that describe Indigenous populations, particularly those living in colonized countries 2. Consider the impact of the under registration of Indigenous births and deaths and in some cases exclusion of entire groups of Indigenous peoples from statutory and administrative data sets in the context of results from an international consortium of epidemiologist who have considered Indigenous infant and child mortality within an international context. 3. Highlight the importance of the collection of accurate and complete data and the ability to determine the integrity of the data, that describe Indigenous infant and child mortality and morbidity. 4. Describe the powerful evidence that is being collected and linked, and describe how these data could be translated into policy and practice as we strive to improve the health and wellbeing of Indigenous infants and children and prevent avoidable mortality and morbidity 5. Facilitate the generation of new networks, encourage collaborations and generate a report to capture the discussions and recommendation that emerge from this session.