Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are born healthy and strong.

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a health birthweight to 91%.

Proportion of mothers who smoke during pregnancy (any time, or after 20 weeks) by age groups.

There are two measures for this indicator.

Measure 1 is the proportion of mothers who smoke any time during pregnancy defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers who smoke any time during pregnancy, by age group (aged under 20 years, 20–24 years, 25–29 years, 30–34 years, 35–39 years, aged 40 years or over)

Denominator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth, by age group (aged under 20 years, 20–24 years, 25–29 years, 30–34 years, 35–39 years, aged 40 years or over)

and is presented as a percentage.

Measure 2 is the proportion of mothers who smoke after 20 weeks during pregnancy defined as:

Numerator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers who smoke after 20 weeks during pregnancy

Denominator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who gave birth

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

31 July 2024

Driver

For both measures, a low or decreasing proportion is desirable.

Name: AIHW National Perinatal Data Collection (NPDC)

Frequency: Annual

Documentation (link): https://www.aihw.gov.au/about-our-data/our-data-collections/national-perinatal-data-collection

Provider name: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

Provider area: Perinatal

2017

2021

Measure 1:

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

Australia, by Indigenous status, by age group.

Measure 2:

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100.

• Age-standardised rates are provided to allow for comparisons between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people. Age‑standardised rates are calculated using the direct method of age standardisation. See How to interpret the data.

Counting rules

Both measures

The data relates to women who gave birth. Mother’s tobacco smoking status during pregnancy is self-reported.

The data is by state and territory of the usual residence of the mother.

Excludes (numerator and denominator) (Both measures)

• Women whose Indigenous status was not stated. (Data on the number of births where the Indigenous status was not stated is provided for context.)
• Women whose smoking status was ‘Not stated’.
• Australian non-residents, residents of external territories and records where state/territory of residence was not stated.

Both measures

In the NPDC, Indigenous status is a measure of whether a person identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. All jurisdictions have a data item to record Indigenous status of the mother and Indigenous status of the baby on their perinatal form, although there are some differences among the jurisdictions. See https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothers-babies/contents/technical-notes/data-quality-and-availability

Because of differences in definitions and methods used for data collection, care must be taken when comparing across states/territories.

For Western Australia, gestational age at first antenatal visit is reported by birth hospital; therefore, data may not be available for women who attend their first antenatal visit outside the birth hospital.

For the Australian Capital Territory, the first antenatal visit is often the first hospital antenatal clinic visit. In many cases, earlier antenatal care provided by the woman’s general practitioner is not reported.

For Tasmania, a change in the collection method was implemented in 2018. Data for Tasmania from 2018 is therefore not comparable with previous years.

AIHW has suppressed numbers less than five (reported as np) and selected surrounding cells to prevent back-calculation (consequential suppression). This is in line with guidelines for protecting the privacy of individuals. Exceptions to this are small numbers in ‘Other’ and ‘Not stated’ categories. All suppressed numbers have been included in the totals.

For selected states and territories, age standardised data has been suppressed due to insufficient sample in selected age groups.

Future reporting will seek to include the following additional disaggregations:

• remoteness areas
• socio‑economic status of the locality
• disability status of mother.