When analysing the health behaviours of any group of people, understanding the constraints and possibilities for individual agency as shaped by the broader societal context is critical. In recent decades, our understanding of the ways in which physical and social environments influence health and health behaviours has expanded greatly. The authors of a recent analysis of Australian Aboriginal h...

OBJECTIVES To determine disparities in rates, length of stay (LOS) and hospital costs of potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPH) for selected chronic conditions among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal South Australians (SA), then examine associations with area-level socioeconomic disadvantage and remoteness. SETTING Period prevalence study using linked, administrative public hospital recor...

Objective : To estimate daily cigarette consumption among residents aged 15+ in five remote central Australian predominantly Aboriginal communities. Methods : Estimation of average daily cigarette consumption derived from a 12-month (2007) complete sales audit of cigarettes in isolated communities where no other tobacco supplies are available, using two assumptions of smoking prevalence (50% an...

BACKGROUND Despite declining smoking rates among the general Australian population, rates among Indigenous Australians remain high, with 47% of the Indigenous population reporting daily smoking - twice that of other Australians. Among women, smoking rates are highest in younger age groups, with more than half of Aboriginal women smoking during pregnancy. A lack of research focused on understand...

OBJECTIVES To report 13-year trends in weight status of Australian Aboriginal children, and to describe weight-related behaviour in children in 2010, by Aboriginality. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Cross-sectional population surveys of children aged 5-16 years (n = 18 983) conducted in New South Wales schools in Term 1 of 1997, 2004 and 2010. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES For trend analysis: bod...

Australian Aboriginal symbols are visual forms of knowledge that express cultural intellect. Being classified by a Western interpretation of “art” devalues thousands of years of generational knowledge systems, where visual information has been respected, appreciated and valued. This article highlights how Aboriginal creativity has little concept of aesthetical value, but is a cultural display o...

In 2001, a publicly funded 7 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (7vPCV) program commenced for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged less than 2 years. This study updates early estimates of 7vPCV coverage in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children using Australian Childhood Immunisation Register data between 31 December 2004 and 30 September 2007. We chose four 3-month bi...

Rose Selwyn (1824–1905) was a first wave Australian feminist and public speaker. The poetry, art, scraps of writing left in her archive allow the reader to piece together an intellectual history, genealogy making self. attained way being through several contemporary influences—the mysticism Tractarianism, concern with death its meanings, interest literary edges world, suffering body, passion fo...