Healthy country, healthy people: the relationship between Indigenous health status and "caring for country".

Objective: To investigate associations between "caring for country" -- an activity that Indigenous peoples assert promotes good health -- and health outcomes relevant to excess Indigenous morbidity and mortality.

Design, Setting And Participants: Cross-sectional study involving 298 Indigenous adults aged 15-54 years in an Arnhem Land community, recruited from March to September 2005.

Main Outcome Measures: Self-reported involvement in caring for country, health behaviours and clinically measured body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure, type 2 diabetes status, albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR), levels of glycated haemoglobin (HbA(1c)) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, lipid ratio, score on the five-item version of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K5), and 5-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

Beyond the mainstream - health gains in remote aboriginal communities.

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have long asserted the health benefits of maintaining close links with the lands and seas to which they have ancestral connections.

Objective: This article outlines the health findings of the 'Healthy country, healthy people' study conducted in central Arnhem Land between 2004-2007, which examined 'caring for country' practices in a remote Aboriginal community, and draws out the policy implications for health promotion and sustainable development.

Discussion: At the request of, and in collaboration with, Aboriginal landowners in central Arnhem Land, the study investigated the ecological and human health outcomes associated with 'caring for country' practices.