Age-standardisation controls for the effect of age, to allow comparisons of summary rates between two populations that have different age structures. Age-standardisation is used throughout this report when comparing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with non-Indigenous Australians for a range of variables where age is a factor e.g., health-related measures. The main disadvantages with age-standardisation are that the resulting rates are not the real or 'reported' rates for the population. Age-standardised rates are therefore only meaningful as a means of comparison. Lastly, for age-standardisation to be effective, the relationship between age and the variable needs to be approximately consistent between the two populations.
Age-standardised rates are generally derived for all age groups. However, in some cases in the Health Performance Framework report, the age-standardised rates were calculated for a particular age range in order to support study of a specific population group (for instance, the age-standardised data for some mortality indicators were derived for the age range 0–74).