Improving Indigenous health through education.

In 2007, the online publication Crikey (https://www. crikey.com.au) estimated that over 20 such reports had been issued since the above comment was made. While clinicians focus on medical advances to benefit health care, real improvement in Indigenous health will come through attention to factors such as education, gender, power, racism and employment conditions. These daily living factors constitute the social determinants of health, which are responsible formajor health inequities between population groups. It follows that, for different Indigenous population groups, social determinants, rather than biological characteristics, explain the large variances in health status and life expectancy at birth. While these relationships are well recognised, the inertia so repetitively documented describes an inability to operationalise an effective approach. This article describes education attainment as a potent, practical and achievable road to change, which has largely been overlooked as a force for health improvement. We define education attainment as “the formal skills acquired through the western system of compulsory school-based instruction, measured in terms of English literacy and numeracy outcomes, at levels adequate for adept navigation within wider literate and numerate social contexts”.