The changing demographics of the orthotist/prosthetist workforce in Australia: 2007, 2012 and 2019

Table 2 Median (and mean) orthotist/prosthetist age, proportion of workforce who were female, number and proportion who worked in a regional/remote location, and practitioner prevalence according to service location

State	Age				Gender				Service location
	Median (mean) practitioner age			Post -hoc	Proportion (%) female			Post -hoc	Number (proportion; %) of practitioners in a regional/remote location			Practitioner prevalence i.e., number of practitioners per 100,000 population
	2007	2012	2019		2007	2012	2019		2007	2012	2019	2007		2012		2019
	2007	2012	2019		2007	2012	2019		2007	2012	2019	Metro	Regional/ remote	Metro	Regional/ remote	Metro	Regional/ remote
ACT	43 (43)	27 (33)	32 (35)		0	0	29		0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0.58	0.00	0.80	0.00	1.64	0.00
NSW	49 (47)	48 (45)	34 (37)	^ca, c	17	23	39	^ca, b, c	2 (4)	2 (4)	7 (10)	0.91	0.11	0.85	0.11	1.18	0.40
NT^a,b	–	37 (37)	52.5 (53)		–	0	0		–	2 (100^a)	2 (100^a)	–	–	N/A	0.85	N/A	0.81
QLD	44 (44)	34.5 (42)	33 (37)		22	18	42	^c	4 (17)	3 (11)	9 (15)	0.75	0.25	0.88	0.17	1.52	0.50
SA	32 (38)	33 (36)	27 (33)		45	50	71		2 (10)	2 (10)	3 (10)	1.57	0.47	1.48	0.45	2.17	0.65
TAS^a	34.5 (39)	45 (44)	45 (44)		40	33	62		5 (100^a)	9 (100^a)	13 (100^a)	N/A	1.01	N/A	1.76	N/A	2.43
VIC	38 (39)	34 (37)	37 (39)		36	49	53	^ca	10 (14)	21 (17)	24 (13)	1.54	0.80	2.38	1.59	3.18	1.66
WA	42 (42)	47 (46)	34.5 (38)		45	31	47		1 (9)	1 (8)	0 (0)	0.62	0.20	0.64	0.18	1.46	0.00
Australia	41.5 (42)	37 (39)	35 (38)	^ca	30	38	49	^ca, c	13	16	14	1.06	0.38	1.29	0.60	1.92	0.84

Metro. metropolitan service location, ACT Australian Capital Territory, NSW New South Wales, NT Northern Territory, QLD Queensland, SA South Australia, TAS Tasmania, VIC Victoria, WA Western Australia
^aAll of the Northern Territory and Tasmania is considered regional/remote
^bThere were no AOPA members in the Northern Territory in 2007
^cSignificant main effect in the Kruskal Wallis H test or Pearson Chi Square test. Results of post-hoc testing: a = statistically significant difference between 2007 and 2019; b = statistically significant difference between 2007 and 2012; c = statistically significant difference between 2012 and 2019

ISSN: 1478-4491