Hope Amid Gloom Australian Aboriginals' Health

Posted August 7, 2006 in News

Dr David Thomas, of Darwin's Menzies School of Health Research, who led the research is encouraged:

"Diabetes deaths have slowed from 13 per cent [annual increase] in the 1970s to 3 per cent. That's a really dramatic change. Clearly, before death rates can turn around you've got to see a slowing of the rate of increase."

The study could be done only in the Northern Territory, he said, because of its scrupulous recording of Aboriginality on death certificates, but it was likely there were improvements in other states. The findings are published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

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