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Aboriginal kids' health worse in NT: research

17 May 2008 - New research shows that health services for Aboriginal children in remote areas of the Northern Territory are relatively good, but that they have worse health than in other regional areas.

The research was conducted by the Darwin-based Menzies School of Health and published in the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia.

One of the study's authors Jonathan Carapetis says the children are worse-off than those in New South Wales and Western Australia.

"That's because the places they were in were truly remote settings, and because we know that when you go to the remote communities in the Northern Territory, you find a lot more anaemia a lot more [mal]nutrition," he said.

The research has also found that medical checks on Aboriginal children as part of the federal intervention will have little or no benefit unless follow-up care is provided.

Mr Carapetis says many children present with complex issues that cannot be fully treated in one session.

"They're actually doing quite well in terms of dealing with those acute problems, which is a very important thing to note," he said.

"But the problems they are facing is the ability to follow-up when they identify a child with a health issue, to institute something that will then deal with that in the longer term."

Source: ABC

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