Australian Aboriginal child health.

There have been substantial improvements in the health of Australian Aboriginal children over the past 2 decades. These include lower infant and toddler mortality rates and a significant decline in rates of hospitalization for conditions such as gastro-enteritis and lower respiratory tract infection. In addition, the degree of illness among these children on presentation is now generally much less severe than previously. There is evidence also of some improvement in birthweight, growth and nutritional status over the past 20 years. Incidence rates of infections among Aboriginal children, however, are still much higher than among their non-Aboriginal counterparts and much of this is due to unsatisfactory standards of living and community and personal hygiene. This is aggravated by widespread inadequate infrastructures for providing better housing, water supplies, solid and liquid waste disposal and the provision of regular, clean and nutritious food supplies in Aboriginal communities. These issues and more effective and culturally acceptable methods of disease prevention and health promotion are now being accorded high priority. But serious concerns remain about early Aboriginal "lifestyles" that may have important implications for health and mortality patterns among Aborigines during young to middle-age adult life. These include proneness to non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, particularly ischaemic heart disease, and stroke which are likely to have their origins in childhood. The recent increase in rates of motor vehicle accidents, sometimes fatal, homicide and suicide, and the increasing rate of tobacco smoking and the use of addictive drugs, including the sniffing of petrol, glue and other volatile substances, is cause for serious concern for the future health and well-being of Aboriginal youth and their families.