Addressing dementia with Indigenous peoples: a contributing initiative from the Circular Head Aboriginal community

• Published in: Australian and New Zealand journal of public health Vol. 42; no. 5; pp. 424 - 426
• Main Authors: Goldberg, Lynette R., Cox, Terrance, Hoang, Ha, Baldock, Dianne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia Elsevier B.V 01.10.2018; Elsevier Limited; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aboriginal Australians; Aging; Alzheimer's disease; Blood pressure; Blood vessels; Canada; Chronic illnesses; Cognitive ability; Communities; Community; Data collection; Dementia; Dementia - ethnology; Dementia disorders; Disease; Education; Elder care; Health care policy; Health disparities; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Health Services, Indigenous; Humans; Hypertension; Indigenous peoples; Internet; Knowledge; Lifestyles; Likert scale; Medical personnel; Mental depression; Native peoples; Oceanic Ancestry Group; Public health; Quality of life; Recognition; Researchers; Respondents; Risk analysis; Risk factors; Signs and symptoms; Vascular dementia; Australia
• ISSN: 1326-0200; 1753-6405
• DOI: 10.1111/1753-6405.12798

A major public health issue in Australia is the continuing health inequality between Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples) and non‐Indigenous Australians, and the urgent need to close this gap. A key component of this health disparity is the notably higher prevalence rates of dementia now documented for younger as well as older Indigenous Australians, and increasingly men as well as women. This growing burden of disease has been proposed to reflect complex and intergenerational health risk factors. Studies document how Australia’s Indigenous peoples are at greater risk for chronic diseases that increase susceptibility to dementia, including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. This is compounded by the consequences of repeated head injury, depression, physical inactivity, smoking, substance abuse, limited education, and loss of social and cultural connectivity. An additional factor, recently identified, is the impact of childhood stress on emotional health and dementia in later life.16 Further, there is increasing understanding of Indigenous peoples’ vulnerability to vascular brain damage, particularly damage deep in the brain. The resulting cognitive impairment is characterised by disturbances in frontal‐executive functions, complex attention and processing speed, and changes in behaviour and emotion, rather than memory loss, but may co‐exist with Alzheimer‐type changes in function.