Think of Aboriginal health and you’ll probably recall messages of large gaps in life expectancy, increasing rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease and asthma. Or that the last ten years…
Rather than reinventing the wheel, we need to examine what programs are valued by Indigenous Australians.
aia web team
Despite efforts to close the gap, Indigenous Australians continue to suffer two-and-a-half times the burden of disease than the total Australian population, with most of the health gap caused by preventable…
People living in the remote communities face system failures in health care, disability services, housing and infrastructure.
Flickr/publik
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) presents an overwhelming opportunity to revolutionise the care and support given to Indigenous people. But the equity of the scheme is already at risk, with…
Australian Aboriginals are at most risk of bad physical and mental health and they have the worst health services in the country.
publik16/Flickr
Aboriginal people living in remote communities have much worse health status and longevity than other Australians. And this imbalance will not be remedied until governments work with Aboriginal leaders…
“Sprinkles” - sachets of nutrient powder - were distributed across remote Indigenous communities as part of a broader study addressing childhood nutrition.
Fred Hollows Foundation
Young children living in remote Indigenous communities have long been known to suffer from iron deficiency and anaemia at many times the rates found among other Australian children. Now a new report shows…
Koori women are the fastest-growing group in the Victorian prison population.
Image from shutterstock.com
Every two years, the Productivity Commission releases a report on the level of Indigenous disadvantage in Australia. These reports make for fairly bleak reading: most indicators show no change, and in…
Children who had experienced stressful events had poorer physical health and more parental concern about behavioural issues than those who had not, the article said.
AAP Image/Marianna Day Massey
High stress among Indigenous children in urban areas is linked to poorer physical health and more parental concern about behavioural issues, a new study has found. Of 344 participating children, 51% had…
Providing a subsidised fruit and vegetable box to Indigenous families improved child health outcomes, the study showed.
AAP Image/Tara Ravens
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Zoe Ferguson, The Conversation
Providing subsidised fruit and vegetable scheme to low-income Indigenous families in northern New South Wales improves children’s health and significantly reduces antibiotic use, a new study has found…
Older Aboriginal Australians are more than 15 times more likely to die of kidney disease than non-Aboriginal Australians.
Helen Taylor
The recent death of the lead singer of Yothu Yindi, is a high-profile example of an event all too common in Aboriginal Australia. Older Aboriginal Australians (40 to 60 years old) are more than 15 times…
We don’t know if anti-smoking campaigns have worked, or if they’re causing more harm than good.
Rusty Stewart
How can anti-smoking campaigns be targeted more effectively at Australia’s Indigenous youth? It’s a good question, and one that, as yet, has proven difficult to answer. Almost half of all Aboriginal and…
Incorporating food prescriptions into the primary health care system would help highlight the importance of a healthy diet.
Rusty Stewart
Doctors should be able to provide subsidised “prescriptions” for healthy food to people in remote Aboriginal communities, says an Indigenous nutrition expert. Professor Kerin O'Dea, Professor of Nutrition…
Diabetes rates in Australia are high but its prevalence in the Indigenous population is between three and four times higher than the rest of the population. And we are fast running out of time to stop…
The rate of heavy smoking among Indigenous people is on the decline, the study found.
AAP/Dave Hunt
The number of Indigenous heavy smokers fell from 17.3% in 1994 to 9.4% in 2008, a relative drop of 45%, a study has found. The study, conducted by the Menzies School of Health Research and published today…
A sign outside an Aboriginal community near Darwin, noting the ban on consuming alcohol in the area.
AAP/Xavier La Canna
The newly elected conservative governments in Queensland and the Northern Territory have opened the way to relaxing laws restricting access to alcohol in Aboriginal communities. In Queensland, a number…
We’ve long known that rates of suicide in Indigenous communities are higher than the wider Australian population. But we’re much less clear about why this is the case. Each life lost to suicide reminds…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne