Health Status of People Who Are and Are Not Experiencing Homelessness: Opportunities for Improvement.

This study assessed the physical and psychological health parameters of adults experiencing homelessness to inform the development and delivery of health services by comparing with a housed population in the same South Australian city. Adults experiencing homelessness, known to existing support services, were invited to participate in a comprehensive assessment of their physical and mental health using questionnaires and objective assessments. Descriptive analyses using the percentage of participants failing to attain recommended published thresholds and accumulated health deficits for 16 health assessments were compared for the young group of people experiencing homelessness (18-40 years), the middle aged and older people experiencing homelessness (40-75 years), and a housed population of the middle aged and older people (40-75 years).

Codesigning culturally safe oral health care with First Nations Kidney Warriors experiencing kidney disease in South Australia.

Background: This paper describes how First Nations Kidney Warriors (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with kidney disease), dental hygienists, kidney health care professionals, an Aboriginal hostel accommodation manager and researchers co-designed an approach to improve oral health in South Australia. Kidney Warriors have strong connection to Country, Community and family that underpins health, wellbeing and approaches to research. However, significant colonisation, racism and marginalisation have impacted Kidney Warriors' social, cultural and financial determinants of health, leading to increased chronic conditions including kidney disease.

Appropriate and acceptable health assessments for people experiencing homelessness.

Background: Appropriate and acceptable recruitment strategies and assessment tools are essential to determine the health needs for people experiencing homelessness. Based on a systematic review and known feasible community-based health assessments for people who are not homeless, a set of health assessments were trialled with people experiencing homelessness.

Methods: Participants were recruited via support agencies.

Feasibility of population screening tests to establish a healthy ageing trajectory.

Objectives: There are no agreed comprehensive tests for age-related changes to physical, emotional, mental and social functioning. Research into declining function focuses on those 75 years and older and little is known about age-related changes in younger people. The aims of this project were (1) to ascertain a comprehensive test battery that could underpin community-based health screening programmes for people aged 40-75 years and pilot both (2) community-based recruitment and (3) the utility, acceptability, response burden and logistics.

Historical Factors, Discrimination and Oral Health among Aboriginal Australians.

Discrimination is a very real facet of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) life. Paradies has detailed the strong links between racism and chronic stress and the influence this may have on general health, confounding the pre-supposed notion that ATSI populations are more genetically predisposed to chronic diseases. For example a genetic predisposition promoting central adipose storage in populations with recent (in evolutionary terms) changes to hunter-gatherer dietary patterns is thought to contribute to the higher rates of diabetes seen in ATSI and other Native populations.

Historical Factors, Discrimination and Oral Health among Aboriginal Australians.

Discrimination is a very real facet of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) life. Paradies has detailed the strong links between racism and chronic stress and the influence this may have on general health, confounding the pre-supposed notion that ATSI populations are more genetically predisposed to chronic diseases. For example a genetic predisposition promoting central adipose storage in populations with recent (in evolutionary terms) changes to hunter-gatherer dietary patterns is thought to contribute to the higher rates of diabetes seen in ATSI and other Native populations.