MNCLHD

MNCLHD

Thursday, August 04, 2016

Diabetes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Published recently by The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet is a comprehensive Review of diabetes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  The review is aimed at informing people involved in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care and to provide evidence for policy makers. 

There have been varying reports about the extent of this problem, but in 2012-2013, national estimates of the prevalence of diabetes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ranged from 9% (based on self-reported data) to 11% (based on biomedical data). "After age-adjustment, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were more than 3 times as likely as non-Indigenous people to have diabetes."  In addition, hospitalisation rates for complications of type 2 diabetes were almost six times higher than for non-Indigenous people.

As well as looking at the data for prevalence and complications, the review puts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diabetes into context, discusses current prevention and management programs and policies and suggests future directions.

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