The Medical journal of Australia
-
To identify the proportion of hospitalisations (inpatient admissions and emergency department presentations) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland that were medication-related and potentially preventable for nine clinical indicators of cardiovascular disease (CVD). ⋯ Interventions supporting targeted and timely medication safety services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to be reviewed and improved to reduce the numbers of avoidable hospitalisations and deaths.
-
To examine what ethics approvals are being sought for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and medical research, and to determine what proportion of this research upholds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ethical governance via an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled human research ethics committee (AHREC) by jurisdiction and funding body type. ⋯ We found a concerning lack of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ethical governance reported in health and medical research. Acknowledging that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ethics guidelines and AHRECs were established due to harm caused to communities, these results suggest a high risk, with research not consistently being deemed safe, respectful and beneficial with appropriate AHREC ethics review and approval. We join calls for the establishment of AHRECs in all jurisdictions and nationally. Furthermore, we urge funding bodies and institutions to uphold requirements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ethical governance in research and funding agreements, as well as institutional policies and procedures.
-
To assess the distribution of blood pressure levels and the prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension in young Indigenous people (10-24 years of age). ⋯ Blood pressure was within the normal range for most young Indigenous people in our study, but one in three had elevated blood pressure or hypertension. Community-level, culturally safe approaches are needed to avoid the early onset of cardiovascular risks, including elevated blood pressure.
-
To assess the clinical impact on generally healthy older Australians of changing from the 2009 CKD-EPI (CKD-EPI2009) to the 2021 CKD-EPI (CKD-EPI2021) equation for calculating the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). ⋯ Using CKD-EPI2021 would yield higher eGFR values than the CKD-EPI2009, substantially reducing the proportion of older Australian adults classified as having CKD, without any overall difference in long term health outcomes for people reclassified to less advanced CKD stages. Using the CKD-EPI2021 could markedly reduce the number of referrals of generally healthy older adults to specialist nephrology services.