Improved life expectancy for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, 1999-2018: overall and by underlying cause of death.

Objectives: To provide updated estimates of life expectancy at birth for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, 1999-2018; to quantify the contributions of changes in life years lost to disease-specific causes of death to overall changes in life expectancy.

Design, Setting, Participants: Analysis of Australian Coordinating Registry data on underlying and nine multiple causes of death (ICD-10) for deaths in the NT, by age, sex, and Indigenous status, 1 January 1999 - 31 December 2018.

Main Outcome Measures: Life expectancy at birth by year and 5-year period, by Indigenous status and sex; change in life expectancy by year and 5-year period, by Indigenous status and sex; contributions in changes in life years lost to leading underlying causes of death, by 5-year period, Indigenous status and sex.

Does delay in planned diabetes care influence outcomes for aboriginal Australians? A study of quality in health care.

Background: To examine the association between delay in planned diabetes care and quality of outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of primary care and inpatient records for 2567 Aboriginal patients, with diabetes, living in 49 remote communities in the Northern Territory of Australia. Poisson regression was used to estimate the association between delay from diagnosis to documented diabetes care plan and three outcome measures: mean HbA1c level, most recent blood pressure and number of diabetes-related hospital admissions.

Estimating the total prevalence and incidence of end-stage kidney disease among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in the Northern Territory of Australia, using multiple data sources.

Background: Most estimates for End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) prevalence and incidence are based on renal replacement therapy (RRT) registers. However, not all people with ESKD will commence RRT and estimates based only on RRT registry data will underestimate the true burden of ESKD in the community. This study estimates the total number of Northern Territory (NT) residents with ESKD including: those receiving RRT, those diagnosed but not receiving RRT and an estimate of "undiagnosed" cases.

Establishing contemporary trends in hepatitis B sero-epidemiology in an Indigenous population.

Background: Indigenous populations globally are disproportionately affected by chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection however contemporary sero-prevalence data are often absent. In the Indigenous population of the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia the unique C4 sub-genotype of HBV universally circulates. There are no studies of the sero-prevalence, nor the impact of the vaccination program (which has a serotype mismatch compared to C4), at a population-wide level.

Progress in closing the gap in life expectancy at birth for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, 1967-2012.

Objectives: To compare long term changes in mortality and life expectancy at birth (LE) of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and of the overall Australian population; to determine the contributions of changes in mortality in specific age groups to changes in LE for each population.

Design, Setting, Participants: Retrospective trend analysis of death and LE data for the NT Aboriginal and Australian populations, 1967-2012.

Main Outcome Measures: LE estimates based on abridged life tables; mortality estimates (deaths per 100 000 population); and age decomposition of LE changes by sex and time period.

Frequent use of hospital inpatient services during a nine year period: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Frequent use (FU) of hospital services impacts on patients and health service expenditure. Studies examining FU in emergency departments and inpatient settings have found heterogeneity and the need to differentiate between potentially preventable FU and that associated with ongoing management of complex conditions. Psychosocial factors have often been reported as underpinning or exacerbating the phenomena.

Neuroprotective properties of Madecassoside from Centella asiatica after hypoxic-ischemic injury.

Madecassoside is one of increasingly used constituent of Centella asiatica, a frequently prescribed crude drug in South eastern Asia and China for wound healing. In the present experiment, it exposes the neuroprotective nature of Madecassoside in GT1-7 cell lines, further, which the antioxidant activities are performed. The cellular toxicity was assessed using 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay with increased cell viability with IC 2.

Disparity in Mortality From Rheumatic Heart Disease in Indigenous Australians.

Background: Recent estimates of the global burden of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) have highlighted the paucity of reliable RHD mortality data from populations most affected by RHD.

Methods And Results: We investigated RHD mortality rates and trends for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory (NT) for the period 1977-2005 and seminationally (NT plus 4 other states, covering 89% of Indigenous Australians) from 1997 to 2005 using vital statistics data. All analysis was undertaken by Indigenous status, sex, and age at death.

Impact of perinatal health and socio-demographic factors on school education outcomes: A population study of Indigenous and non-Indigenous children in the Northern Territory.

Aim: This study investigated the association between early-life risk factors and school education outcomes.

Methods: This is an historical cohort study of 7601 children (61% were Indigenous) born in the Northern Territory between 1999 and 2004. Information was linked, for each child on: perinatal health, student enrolment and National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) Year 3 results.

Protective effect of SGK1 in rat hippocampal neurons subjected to ischemia reperfusion.

Background/aims: To investigate the protective effect of SGK1 (serum- and glucocorticoid-inducible protein kinase 1) in rat hippocampal neurons in vitro and in vivo following ischemia reperfusion (I/R).

Methods: Isolated rat hippocampal neurons were subjected to 2 h of oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) then returned to normoxic conditions for 10, 30 or 60 min. Cell apoptosis and protein expression of SGK1 were analyzed.

Does relative remoteness affect chronic disease outcomes? Geographic variation in chronic disease mortality in Australia, 2002–2006.

Objective: To examine the variation of chronic disease mortality by remoteness areas of Australia, including states and territories.

Methods: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) death registration data, by Statistical Local Area (SLA), were used to identify chronic disease mortality by remoteness category for states and territories and Australia. The analysis used multiple cause of death for six common chronic diseases: diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and renal disease.

Dementia prevalence and incidence among the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations of the Northern Territory.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and incidence of dementia in Northern Territory Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations.

Design, Setting And Participants: Four data sources were used to identify clients with a diagnosis of dementia, from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2011. The data sources included hospital admissions, aged care services, primary care and death registration.

The end of the Australia antigen? An ecological study of the impact of universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination two decades on.

Background: A universal newborn hepatitis B (HBV) vaccination program was introduced in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1990, followed by a school-based catch-up program. We evaluated the prevalence of hepatitis B infection in birthing women up to 20 years after vaccination and compared this to women born before the programs commenced.

Methods: A cohort of birthing mothers was defined from Northern Territory public hospital birth records between 2005 and 2010 and linked to laboratory confirmed notifications of chronic HBV, based principally on a record of hepatitis B surface antigen detection.

Trends in alcohol-attributable hospitalisation in the Northern Territory, 1998-99 to 2008-09.

Objective: To examine trends in hospitalisation for alcohol-attributable conditions in the Northern Territory Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations between the financial years 1998-99 and 2008-09.

Design And Setting: Retrospective descriptive analysis of inpatient discharge data from NT public hospitals.

Main Outcome Measures: Alcohol-attributable hospitalisation by age, sex, Aboriginality, region of residence and medical conditions, with annual time trends.

Trend analysis of hospital admissions attributable to tobacco smoking, Northern Territory Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations, 1998 to 2009.

Background: Tobacco smoking is a well-recognised risk factor for many diseases [1]. This study assesses the extent of smoking-attributable hospitalisation in the Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations, and examines smoking-attributable hospitalisation trends for the years 1998/99 to 2008/09.

Methods: Hospital discharge data were used for the analysis.

Inorganic polyphosphate stimulates cartilage tissue formation.

Clinical utilization of tissue-engineered cartilage constructs has been limited by their inferior mechanical properties compared to native articular cartilage. A number of strategies have been investigated to increase the accumulation of major extracellular matrix components within in vitro-formed cartilage, including the administration of growth factors and mechanical stimulation. In this study, the anabolic effect of inorganic polyphosphates, a linear polymer of orthophosphate residues linked by phosphoanhydride bonds, was demonstrated in both chondrocyte cultures and native articular cartilage cultured ex vivo.

Interaction of thiamine with anions in the triclinic form of thiamine iodide: 3-[(4-amino-2-methylpyrimidin-5-yl)methyl]-5-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-methyl-1,3-thiazol-3-ium iodide 1.25-hydrate.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C(12)H(17)N(4)OS(+)·I(-)·1.25H(2)O, contains two crystallographically independent molecules. Both formula units assume the usual F conformation and have the hydroxyethyl group disordered over two sites, each with half occupation.

How much is too much? Alcohol consumption and related harm in the Northern Territory.

Objective: To present recent estimates of alcohol consumption and its impact on the health of people in the Northern Territory, and to draw comparisons with Australia as a whole.

Design, Setting And Participants: Descriptive study of alcohol consumption in the NT population, based on sales data and self-report surveys, and alcohol-attributable deaths and hospitalisations among people in the NT in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 financial years using population alcohol-attributable fractions specific to the NT.

Main Outcome Measures: Per capita consumption of pure alcohol, self-reported level of consumption, and age-standardised rates of death and hospitalisation attributable to alcohol.

Trends in chronic disease mortality in the Northern Territory Aboriginal population, 1997-2004: using underlying and multiple causes of death.

Objective: To assess trends in chronic disease mortality in the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory (NT), using both underlying and multiple causes of death.

Method: Death registration data from 1997 to 2004, were used for the analysis of deaths from five chronic diseases; ischaemic heart disease (IHD), diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), renal failure and stroke. Negative binomial regression models were used to estimate the average annual change in mortality rates for each of the five diseases.

Avoidable mortality trends in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in the Northern Territory, 1985-2004.

Objectives: To analyse rates of avoidable mortality in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents of the Northern Territory (NT) from 1985 to 2004, in order to assess the contribution of health care to life expectancy improvements.

Methods: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) death registration data for NT residents were used to identify 'avoidable' deaths, with further separation into three categories of conditions amenable to either medical care or health policy, and a category for ischaemic heart disease (IHD). A Poisson regression model was used to calculate the average annual change in avoidable mortality by sex and Aboriginality in the NT compared with Australia as a whole.

Avoidable hospitalisation in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

Objectives: To analyse rates of avoidable hospitalisations in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents of the Northern Territory, 1998-99 to 2005-06, and to consider the implications for primary care interventions.

Design And Setting: Retrospective descriptive analysis of inpatient discharge data from NT public hospitals.

Main Outcome Measures: Avoidable hospitalisations by age, sex, Aboriginality and condition, with annual time trends.