$5 million boost for Indigenous health

In a major boost for Indigenous health research, the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) at The Australian National University has won $5 million in Commonwealth Government funding for two new Centres of Research Excellence (CRE) in primary health care.

Director of the Institute Robert Wells said the CRE for Urban Aboriginal Child Health and the CRE for Prevention of Chronic Conditions in remote and rural communities would be awarded $2.5 million each in primary health care research funding from the Department of Health and Ageing to conduct world-leading research into essential health care.

"The Australian Government has committed to reducing Aboriginal disadvantage, including closing the gap in life expectancy within a generation and halving the gap in mortality rates for children less than five years of age within a decade," he said. 

"Overall, 53 per cent of the Aboriginal population of Australia lives in cities or large regional centres and it is estimated that 60 per cent of the health gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians is attributable to the health of people living in non-remote areas.

"In spite of this, little is known about the factors influencing the health of urban Aboriginal children and the paucity of research to test the impact of strategies to improve Aboriginal health is widely acknowledged.

"The research by the CRE in Urban Aboriginal Child Health will aim to address these key gaps in evidence by supporting Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to use data from the children attending their services to improve their health and health care."

The centre will be led by a team from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at ANU in partnership with The Sax Institute and several aboriginal medical services in New South Wales.

Mr Wells said the second new centre, the CRE for Prevention of Chronic Conditions, would evaluate models for primary health care delivery to Indigenous and other high risk groups in rural and remote settings using a robust, mixed-methods approach with clearly-defined clinical endpoints.

"This centre’s evaluations will provide stronger evidence for better ways of delivering primary care, with a focus on enhancing prevention capacities and chronic disease management," he said.

The centre will be led by a team from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at ANU in partnership with The Sax Institute, the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council and key Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in New South Wales.

"Today’s announcement is an exciting step in the CRE program for primary health care research in Australia," Mr Wells said. "APHCRI is dedicated to producing world-class primary healthcare research. We anticipate that the results from these new centres will have a significant long-term benefit for the community."

APHCRI is funded through a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.