title: Post-neonatal mortality by rurality and Indigenous status in Queensland.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare post-neonatal mortality among urban and rural Indigenous babies in Queensland.
  
  
  METHODS
  Registrations of deaths at ages 28 days to 12 months were linked to routine data from the Queensland Perinatal Data Collection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Indigenous babies were 2.52 times more likely to die during the post-neonatal period than non-Indigenous babies (95% confidence interval: 1.99, 3.20). The differential remained when urban and rural areas were examined separately: the differential was 2.53 (1.81, 3.54) in urban areas and 2.26 (1.58, 3.23) in rural areas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The key demographic variable that determines post-neonatal mortality in Queensland is Indigenous status, not rurality. This has important policy implications because it means that interventions to reduce the disparity in mortality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous babies should be delivered in urban as well as rural areas. Better routine data are needed and in particular clinical classification of deaths, so that interventions can be monitored and avoidable factors identified.
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston, and Mater Mothers Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. m.coory@sph.uq.edu.au
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coory
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hockey
authors.forename: Vicki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Flenady
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Woodgate
mesh_terms: D002423:Cause of Death; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011793:Queensland; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population