Health
Children have a right to the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities
for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation.
Generally, most Australian children have good health outcomes and access to
health care. Australia is ranked in the top third of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries for life expectancy at birth, low
youth smoking rates and low rates of young people drinking alcohol at risky
levels.4 Infant mortality rates decreased between 2006 and 2016, and injury
deaths of children decreased between 2004 and 2016.5
However, some children are at greater risk of poorer health outcomes due to
factors including geography, health literacy, culture, social and economic
circumstances, and individual characteristics.6 There are also areas where
Australia could do better to improve children’s health. For example:
•
It is difficult to gain a clear picture of the prevalence of disability among
children because of inconsistent definitions of disability across different
contexts and jurisdictions and the current incapacity to report reliably on
specific sub-population groups.7
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