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Articles on Indigenous health

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Australian Aboriginals are at most risk of bad physical and mental health and they have the worst health services in the country. publik16/Flickr

Improving Aboriginal health and well-being: a view from the north

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

Anaemia and poor nutrition running high among young Indigenous children

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

Unfinished business: reducing Indigenous incarceration

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 linked to poor health among Indigenous kids

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

Indigenous child health improves when fruit and veg are cheap: study

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

Kidney disease in Aboriginal Australians perpetuates poverty

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

Anti-smoking campaigns failing Indigenous youth

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

Prescription for healthy food in remote Indigenous communities

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…
Many people die while waiting for dialysis, or after finding the daily visits to a dialysis unit impossible to manage. Michael Coghlan

Diabetes among Indigenous Australians at crisis point

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

Number of Indigenous heavy smokers down 45%

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

New singers, old songs: alcohol bans in Aboriginal communities

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…
Better efforts are needed to address avoidable risk factors for suicide, such as alcohol and drug abuse. yaruman

Reducing Indigenous suicide through empowerment and pride

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…
Relying on FIFO health-care workers is expensive and can end up disempowering local providers. AIA web team

Fly-in, fly-out heath care fails remote Aboriginal communities

This is a story about two small Aboriginal communities in the Gulf region of North Queensland: Mornington Island and Doomadgee. They share two key characteristics with many other remote communities: very…
Indigenous Australians are one of the minority groups with high rates of lupus. Len Matthews

Addressing lupus in Indigenous Australian communities

Lupus is a chronic inflammatory systemic autoimmune disorder. It affects various tissues of the body, particularly the heart, joints, lungs, skin and kidneys. An autoimmune illness is one in which body’s…
This is how to illustrate an article about petrol sniffing without breaching vulnerable people’s privacy. jcart

Unfair and unbalanced: misreporting the petrol sniffing ‘scourge’

Once again, petrol sniffing in Indigenous communities is in the headlines. And once again, sadly, the restraint that newspapers normally exercise in reporting drug issues among non-Indigenous Australians…
Just beyond the built community lies a health-promoting environment providing cultural, spiritual and physical nourishment. misha.penkov/Flickr

Innovative strategies needed to address Indigenous obesity

OBESE NATION: It’s time to admit it - Australia is becoming an obese nation. This series looks at how this has happened and more importantly, what we can do to stop the obesity epidemic. Today Julie Brimblecombe…
Treatment for mental illness can break the ‘revolving door’ cycle among inmates, researchers say. Flickr/:Dan.

Indigenous inmates need better mental health services

Aboriginal people in custody are in urgent need of improved mental health services, according to the authors of a study that found many Indigenous adults in Queensland jails have at least one mental disorder…

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