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Early mortality from external causes in Aboriginal mothers: a retrospective cohort study Fairthorne, Jenny; Walker, Roz; de Klerk, Nick; Shepherd, Carrington

Abstract

Background: Maternal loss can have a deep-rooted impact on families. Whilst a disproportionate number of Aboriginal women die from potentially preventable causes, no research has investigated mortality in Aboriginal mothers. We aimed to examine the elevated mortality risk in Aboriginal mothers with a focus on external causes. Methods: We linked data from four state administrative datasets to identify all women who had a child from 1983 to 2010 in Western Australia and ascertained their Aboriginality, socio-demographic details, and their dates and causes of death prior to 2011. Comparing Aboriginal mothers with other mothers, we estimated the hazard ratios (HRs) for death by any external cause and each of the sub-categories of accident, suicide, and homicide, and the corresponding age of their youngest child. Results: Compared to non-Aboriginal mothers and after adjustment for parity, socio-economic status and remoteness, Aboriginal mothers were more likely to die from accidents [HR = 6.43 (95 % CI: 4.9, 8.4)], suicide [HR = 3.46 (95 % CI: 2.2, 5.4)], homicide [HR = 17.46 (95 % CI: 10.4, 29.2)] or any external cause [HR = 6.61 (95 % CI: 5.4, 8.1)]. For mothers experiencing death, the median age of their youngest child was 4.8 years. Conclusion: During the study period, Aboriginal mothers were much more likely to die than other mothers and they usually left more and younger children. These increased rates were only partly explained by socio-demographic circumstances. Further research is required to examine the risk factors associated with these potentially preventable deaths and to enable the development of informed health promotion to increase the life chances of Aboriginal mothers and their children.

Item Metadata

Title
Early mortality from external causes in Aboriginal mothers: a retrospective cohort study
Creator
Fairthorne, Jenny; Walker, Roz; de Klerk, Nick; Shepherd, Carrington
Contributor
Child and Family Research Institute
Publisher
BioMed Central
Date Issued
2016-06-01
Description
Background: Maternal loss can have a deep-rooted impact on families. Whilst a disproportionate number of Aboriginal women die from potentially preventable causes, no research has investigated mortality in Aboriginal mothers. We aimed to examine the elevated mortality risk in Aboriginal mothers with a focus on external causes. Methods: We linked data from four state administrative datasets to identify all women who had a child from 1983 to 2010 in Western Australia and ascertained their Aboriginality, socio-demographic details, and their dates and causes of death prior to 2011. Comparing Aboriginal mothers with other mothers, we estimated the hazard ratios (HRs) for death by any external cause and each of the sub-categories of accident, suicide, and homicide, and the corresponding age of their youngest child. Results: Compared to non-Aboriginal mothers and after adjustment for parity, socio-economic status and remoteness, Aboriginal mothers were more likely to die from accidents [HR = 6.43 (95 % CI: 4.9, 8.4)], suicide [HR = 3.46 (95 % CI: 2.2, 5.4)], homicide [HR = 17.46 (95 % CI: 10.4, 29.2)] or any external cause [HR = 6.61 (95 % CI: 5.4, 8.1)]. For mothers experiencing death, the median age of their youngest child was 4.8 years. Conclusion: During the study period, Aboriginal mothers were much more likely to die than other mothers and they usually left more and younger children. These increased rates were only partly explained by socio-demographic circumstances. Further research is required to examine the risk factors associated with these potentially preventable deaths and to enable the development of informed health promotion to increase the life chances of Aboriginal mothers and their children.
Subject
Aboriginal; Mother; Death; Linked data; Homicide; Suicide; Accident
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2018-05-24
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
DOI
10.14288/1.0367005
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66059
Affiliation
Medicine, Faculty of; Other UBC; Non UBC; Pediatrics, Department of
Citation
BMC Public Health. 2016 Jun 01;16(1):461
Publisher DOI
10.1186/s12889-016-3101-2
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Copyright Holder
Fairthorne et al.
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)