Rheumatic heart disease is responsible for the highest gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians; higher than diabetes or kidney failure.
Trachoma easily spreads from one child to another through infected eye and nose secretions. A person may have up to 40 episodes of reinfection during childhood.
Chair of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine, told Q&A that $30 billion is spent every year on 500,000 Indigenous people in Australia. Is that right?
Around 2.3% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians 15 years and over report using speed or amphetamine in the past year. This is similar to the general population.
We are seeing increasing numbers of young, slim children with type 2 diabetes. This means obesity and lifestyle factors may not be the whole story behind the disease’s rising rates.
A history of displacement and disconnection is still reverberating for Australia’s Indigenous people – and tackling the fall out means looking at the whole picture.
Almost half of pregnant Indigenous women smoke compared to one in eight in the non-Indigenous population. This means 7,000-9,000 Indigenous babies every year are exposed to smoking in the womb.
The NDIS provides an opportunity to address the shortfalls of the former institutionalised service system, some of which uniquely impact Indigenous Australians.
Around 20% of Aboriginal births in Western Australia between 1996 and 2012 weren’t registered, new research shows. This has many social and health ramifications for their future.
Where birthing on country is not offered, women leave their families weeks before birth. Or she can choose to give birth in her community without skilled birth attendants, which is risky.
Indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand, despite the distance separating them and varying histories, have one disturbing issue in common: poor health.
Mainstream family violence services must also become culturally sensitive and responsive so they too can provide services to Indigenous community members.
After years of neglect and a notable absence in last week’s Closing the Gap report, nutrition is finally being recognised as integral to closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage.
The formation of the Close the Gap Campaign in March 2006 has provided ongoing focus and scrutiny on the health inequalities faced by Indigenous Australians.
Parents in three Australian states are being given misleading advice about the dangers of lead to babies and small children – including failing to warn pregnant women about miscarriage risks.
Q&A presenter Tony Jones asked psychologist and research fellow Pat Dudgeon if Indigenous youth suicide rates across the top half of Australia are the highest in the world. We check the research evidence.
On average, all food is 53% more expensive in remote communities, with the price increasing annually by approximately 5%, compared to an annual rise of only about 1% in Darwin supermarkets.
We have an array of prevention agencies, lifeline programs, and public mantras about “being in life”. So why don’t they seem to work in rural and remote communities?
James Ward, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute; Donna B Mak, University of Notre Dame Australia; Johanna Dups, Australian National University, and Nathan Ryder, University of Newcastle
The syphilis outbreak in Central Australia is not about child abuse. But it highlights the urgent need for investment in sexual health services for Aboriginal Australians living in remote areas.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne