Biomaterial Database

Gastroenteritis and environmental health among Aboriginal infants and children in Western Australia. 2003

M Gracey, and J Cullinane

Office of Aboriginal Health, Department of Health and School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.

OBJECTIVE To retrospectively examine rates of hospitalization of infants and children in Western Australia for gastroenteritis from 1994 through 2000. METHODS Analysis of hospital separations data from the Hospital Morbidity Data System of the Department of Health, Western Australia. RESULTS Rates of hospitalization of Aboriginal infants and children for gastroenteritis from 1994 to 2000 in Western Australia were approximately seven times higher than for their non-Aboriginal peers. This was despite some decline in Aboriginal hospitalization rates over the study period. This may have been due to a simultaneous decline in hospital admissions of non-Aboriginal infants and children. Rates of hospitalization of Aboriginal infants and children were much higher in non-metropolitan rather than in metropolitan regions. There was a remarkable fall in the deaths of Aboriginal infants and children from gastroenteritis between 1970 and 2000. There were no deaths recorded in Western Australian hospitals from this disease from 1990 to 2000.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D002675	Child, Preschool	A child between the ages of 2 and 5.	Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D004782	Environmental Health	The science of controlling or modifying those conditions, influences, or forces surrounding man which relate to promoting, establishing, and maintaining health.	Environmental Health Science,Health, Environmental,Environmental Health Sciences,Environmental Healths,Health Science, Environmental,Health Sciences, Environmental,Healths, Environmental,Science, Environmental Health,Sciences, Environmental Health
D005759	Gastroenteritis	INFLAMMATION of any segment of the GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT from ESOPHAGUS to RECTUM. Causes of gastroenteritis are many including genetic, infection, HYPERSENSITIVITY, drug effects, and CANCER.	Gastroenteritides
D006760	Hospitalization	The confinement of a patient in a hospital.	Hospitalizations
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001315	Australia	The smallest continent and an independent country, comprising six states and two territories. Its capital is Canberra.	Canton and Enderbury Islands,Christmas Island,Christmas Island (Australia)
D012189	Retrospective Studies	Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.	Retrospective Study,Studies, Retrospective,Study, Retrospective
D017677	Age Distribution	The frequency of different ages or age groups in a given population. The distribution may refer to either how many or what proportion of the group. The population is usually patients with a specific disease but the concept is not restricted to humans and is not restricted to medicine.	Age Distributions,Distribution, Age,Distributions, Age