Glossary

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander: People who identified themselves, or were identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. See also Indigenous.

admitted patient: A patient who undergoes a hospital’s admission process to receive treatment and/or care. This treatment and/or care can occur in hospital and/or in the person’s home (for hospital-in-the-home patients). METeOR identifier: 268957.

age-standardisation: A set of statistical techniques used to remove, as far as possible, the effects of differences in age when comparing 2 or more populations.

Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRGs): An Australian system of diagnosis related groups (DRGs). DRGs provide a clinically meaningful way of relating the number and type of patients treated in a hospital (that is, its casemix) to the resources required by the hospital. Each AR-DRG represents a class of patients with similar clinical conditions requiring similar hospital services.

cataract: A mostly degenerative condition in which the lens of the eye clouds over, obstructing the passage of light to the retina and causing vision impairment and, potentially, blindness.

blindness: presenting visual acuity of <6/60 in the better eye.

diabetic retinopathy: A complication of diabetes and refers to damage to the blood vessels in the retina which can result in blindness, so early diagnosis is important. At any stage of severity, it can be associated with diabetic macular edema, a swelling of the macular area of the retina, that impacts on vision.

hospitalisation (separation): An episode of care for an admitted patient that can be a total hospital stay (from admission to discharge, transfer or death), or a portion of a hospital stay beginning or ending in a change of care type (for example, from acute care to palliative care).

Indigenous: Used interchangeably with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in this report.

non-Indigenous: People who indicated they are not of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. Compare with other Australians.

other Australians: Includes people who did not identify as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin, and people for whom information on their Indigenous status was not available. Compare with non-Indigenous.

principal diagnosis: The diagnosis established, after study, to be chiefly responsible for occasioning an episode of admitted patient care, an episode of residential care or an attendance at the health-care establishment. METeOR identifier: 514273.

procedure: A clinical intervention that is surgical in nature, carries a procedural risk, carries an anaesthetic risk, requires specialised training and/or requires special facilities or equipment available only in an acute care setting. METeOR identifier: 514040.

rate difference: The literal, or absolute, gap between 2 population rates; for this report, it was calculated as the rate for Indigenous Australians minus the rate for non-Indigenous Australians.

rate ratio: The relative difference between populations taking scale into account; for this report, it was calculated as the rate for Indigenous Australians divided by the rate for non‑Indigenous Australians, and is interpreted as follows:

  1. a rate ratio of 1 indicates there is no difference between the rates
  2. a ratio less than 1 indicates the rate is lower in the Indigenous population
  3. a ratio greater than 1 indicates the rate is higher in the Indigenous population.

refractive error: Problems with the focusing of light and occurs when the shape of the eye prevents light from focusing directly on the retina. It causes long- or short sightedness.

separation: See hospitalisation.

vision loss: Vision impairment plus blindness.

trachoma: An infectious disease of the eye caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. If left untreated, it can result in scarring, in-turned eyelashes (trichiasis) and blindness.

trichiasis: In-turned or in-grown eyelashes often caused by untreated eye infections (such as trachoma). Severe cases can result in scarring and vision loss.

vision impairment: Presenting distance visual acuity of <6/12 in the better eye.