Diabetes in the Torres Strait Islands of Australia: better clinical systems but significant increase in weight and other risk conditions among adults, 1999-2005.

Objectives: To (i) assess changes in clinical indicators of adults diagnosed with diabetes and (ii) estimate changes in risk factors and incidence of diabetes among adults without diabetes living in the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area Health Service District in Queensland from 1999 to 2005.

Design And Participants: (i) Annual audit of clinical records of Torres Strait Islander adults on diabetes registers in 21 primary care clinics, and (ii) a 5-year follow up of a community cohort of 207 Torres Strait Islander adults without diabetes who participated in the Well Person's Health Check in 2000-01 and 2005-06.

Main Outcome Measures: Weight, height, waist circumference, fasting blood sugar (those without diabetes) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c; those with diabetes) levels, blood pressure (BP), fasting triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio and smoking status.

An assessment of the interval between booster doses of Japanese encephalitis vaccine in the Torres Strait.

Objective: Japanese encephalitis (JE) emerged for the first time in the Torres Strait, north Australia, in 1995. The inactivated mouse-brain derived JE vaccine was offered to all residents of the outer Torres Strait Islands prior to the 1996 wet season. This study was undertaken to determine the appropriateness of the recommended three-year interval between booster doses of the vaccine.

Uptake of influenza vaccine among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults in north Queensland, 2003.

The uptake of the vaccine in at-risk Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults in north Queensland in 2003 was determined using the state-wide computerised immunisation register. The uptake in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults > or = 50 years was 63 per cent, and assuming that a third of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults 15-49 years of age had a medical risk factor, 85 per cent of those at-risk were vaccinated in 2003. There were considerable improvements in vaccine uptake in both age groups in the Cairns, Charters Towers, Mackay and the Tablelands Health Service Districts (HSDs) in 2003, but there were been considerable declines in both age groups in the Innisfail and Mt Isa HSDs in 2003 compared to 2002.

Uptake of influenza vaccine among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island adults in north Queensland, 2002.

Since 1999, the Commonwealth has provided free annual influenza vaccine for all at-risk Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults. The uptake of the vaccine in this population in north Queensland in 2002 was determined using the state-wide computerised immunisation register. Although 59.