OBJECTIVE To describe the natural history and risk of early chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Indigenous Australian populations. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A prospective cohort of 2266 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children enrolled from primary schools throughout New South Wales from February 2002 to June 2004 and followed for 4 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Urinalysis, height, weight, ...

A crucial objective of the Australian Government's Closing the Gap program is to improve Aboriginal health, and to achieve morbidity and mortality rates similar to those for non-Indigenous Australians. Reducing public health risks due to drinking water of unknown quality will help to close the gap. Factors such as hardness, taste, colour and odour of water may influence perceptions of risk and ...

Propinquity between Australian Indigenous communities’ social structures and ICT purposed for cultural preservation is a modern area of research; hindered by the ‘digital divide’ thus limiting plentiful literature in this field in theoretical or practical applications. Consequently, community consultations become mandatory for deriving empirical and effective processes and outcomes in successfu...

BACKGROUND Australian Aboriginal children experience a disproportionate burden of social and health disadvantage. Avoidable hospitalizations present a potentially modifiable health gap that can be targeted and monitored using population data. This study quantifies inequalities in pediatric avoidable hospitalizations between Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. METHODS This state...

INTRODUCTION Tobacco smoking has a range of known and predictable adverse outcomes, and across the world sustained smoking reduction campaigns are targeted towards reducing individual and public risk and harm. Conversely, more than 87 million women, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, use smokeless tobacco, yet the research examining the effect of this form of tobacco exposure on women ...

Physical inactivity is the third leading cause of the burden of disease for Australian Aboriginal adults. The neighborhood environment and social support are known to influence physical activity (PA) participation. This study examined these factors in relation to achieving PA recommendations in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Cross-sectional data from the 2010 Social, Economic, and E...

OBJECTIVES The need to improve access to good health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been the subject of policy debate for decades, but progress is hampered by complex policy and administrative arrangements and lack of clarity about the responsibilities of governments. This study aimed to identify the current legal basis of those responsibilities and define options ava...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether the presence of Machado-Joseph disease (MJD, also spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 [SCA3]) among Australian aborigines was caused by a new mutational event or by the introduction of expanded alleles from other populations. DESIGN We sequenced a region of 4 kilobases (kb), encompassing the CAG repeat within the ATXN3 gene, in 2 affected Australian aboriginal familie...