Pathways between birth weight and later body size in predicting blood pressure: Australian Aboriginal Cohort Study 1987-2007.

Background: Although a large number of previous studies suggest an association between birth weight and later blood pressure, others do not. Controversy surrounds the relative importance of these associations, in particular in relation to more modifiable factors in later life and whether the association would be seen in a, relatively disadvantaged, Indigenous population. The aim of this study, within the Aboriginal Birth Cohort study, was to examine the relative contributions and mediating pathways of birth weight, and later growth and lifestyle factors to variation in blood pressure at age 16-20 years.

Prevalence and validity of self-reported smoking in Indigenous and non-Indigenous young adults in the Australian Northern Territory.

Background: In this study, we used data from Australia's Northern Territory to assess differences in self-reported smoking prevalence between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. We also used urinary cotinine data to assess the validity of using self-reported smoking data in these populations.

Methods: The Aboriginal Birth Cohort (ABC) is a prospective study of 686 Aboriginal babies born in Darwin 1987-90.

Challenges and strategies for cohort retention and data collection in an indigenous population: Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort.

Background: Longitudinal prospective birth cohort studies are pivotal to identifying fundamental causes and determinants of disease and health over the life course. There is limited information about the challenges, retention, and collection strategies in the study of Indigenous populations. The aim is to describe the follow-up rates of an Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort study and how they were achieved.

Birthweight and fasting glucose and insulin levels: results from the Aboriginal Birth Cohort Study.

Objective: To examine the relationships between birthweight, current size, and fasting glucose and fasting insulin levels in Aboriginal adolescents.

Design, Participants And Setting: Longitudinal prospective study of a Northern Territory Aboriginal birth cohort of 686 Aboriginal babies born at the Royal Darwin Hospital between January 1987 and March 1990, and followed up between December 2006 and January 2008 in over 40 NT locations.

Main Outcome Measures: Fasting insulin and glucose levels, adjusted for gestational age, sex and contemporary age.

Oral health and social and emotional well-being in a birth cohort of Aboriginal Australian young adults.

Background: Social and emotional well-being is an important component of overall health. In the Indigenous Australian context, risk indicators of poor social and emotional well-being include social determinants such as poor education, employment, income and housing as well as substance use, racial discrimination and cultural knowledge. This study sought to investigate associations between oral health-related factors and social and emotional well-being in a birth cohort of young Aboriginal adults residing in the northern region of Australia's Northern Territory.

Lipoprotein(a) identifies cardiovascular risk in childhood: the Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort Study.

Aim: To describe the lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a))profile and its relationship to cardiovascular risk factors in Australian Aboriginal children.

Methods: A cross-sectional study within a longitudinal birth cohort study in the Darwin Health Region (Northern Territory, Australia). Subjects were Aboriginal children born between 1987 and 1990 who were re-examined between 1998 and 2001.

Clinical oral health outcomes in young Australian Aboriginal adults compared with national-level counterparts.

Objective: To compare clinical oral health outcomes between a birth cohort of young Australian Aboriginal adults and age-matched, national-level counterparts.

Design, Setting And Participants: Comparison of outcomes between the dental component of Wave-3 of the Aboriginal Birth Cohort (ABC) study--a cross-sectional study conducted between January 2006 and December 2007, nested within a prospective longitudinal investigation in the Northern Territory's Top End--and the 2004-06 National Survey of Adult Oral Health (NSAOH), a representative survey of the Australian population. Data were analysed for 442 ABC study participants and 202 NSAOH participants aged 16-20 years.

Apo-B/AI ratio identifies cardiovascular risk in childhood: the Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort study.

We describe the lipoprotein and apolipoprotein profiles and their relationship to cardiovascular risk factors in Australian Aboriginal children. This cross-sectional study within a longitudinal birth cohort study involved Australian Aboriginal children born between 1987 and 1990 and re-examined between 1998 and 2001. Height, weight, blood pressure, waist circumference, body fat percentage, cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-c, LDL-c, apolipoprotein B and A1 were measured.

Substance use and periodontal disease among Australian Aboriginal young adults.

Aim: To investigate the effects of tobacco, marijuana, alcohol and petrol sniffing on periodontal disease among Australian Aboriginal young adults.

Design: Cross-sectional nested within a long-standing prospective longitudinal study. Setting Aboriginal communities in Australia's Northern Territory.

Risk indicators for severe impaired oral health among indigenous Australian young adults.

Background: Oral health impairment comprises three conceptual domains; pain, appearance and function. This study sought to: (1) estimate the prevalence of severe oral health impairment as assessed by a summary oral health impairment measure, including aspects of dental pain, dissatisfaction with dental appearance and difficulty eating, among a birth cohort of Indigenous Australian young adults (n = 442, age range 16-20 years); (2) compare prevalence according to demographic, socio-economic, behavioural, dental service utilisation and oral health outcome risk indicators; and (3) ascertain the independent contribution of those risk indicators to severe oral health impairment in this population.

Methods: Data were from the Aboriginal Birth Cohort (ABC) study, a prospective longitudinal investigation of Aboriginal individuals born 1987-1990 at an Australian regional hospital.

Indigenous newborn care.

Infant mortality and morbidity disparities occur between non-Indigenous and Indigenous populations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Neonatal mortality is due to high-risk births, which vary according to prevalence of the maternal risk factors of smoking, alcohol consumption, infection, and disorders of nutritional status, whereas postneonatal mortality is predominantly influenced by environmental factors. Aside from changing socioeconomic conditions, a continuum of maternal and child health care is likely to be the most effective measure in reducing these health disparities.

Oral health investigations of indigenous participants in remote settings: a methods paper describing the dental component of wave III of an Australian Aboriginal birth cohort study.

Background: A prospective Aboriginal Birth Cohort (ABC) study has been underway in Australia's Northern Territory since 1987. Inclusion of oral epidemiological information in a follow-up study required flexible and novel approaches with unconventional techniques. Documenting these procedures may be of value to researchers interested in including oral health components in remotely-located studies.

Large waist but low body mass index: the metabolic syndrome in Australian Aboriginal children.

Objective: To describe the prevalence and clinical characteristics of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a cohort of Australian Aboriginal children.

Study Design: Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, skin fold thickness, body fat percentage, insulin resistance, and the prevalence of MetS were evaluated in 486 children age 9 to 14 years from the Darwin Health Region, Northern Territory, Australia.

Results: Using an age- and sex- specific definition, 14% of the children in the cohort had MetS, 6.

Risk factors for reduced lung function in Australian Aboriginal children.

Aim: To determine the influence of perinatal and childhood exposures on lung function in a cohort of Australian Aboriginal children.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 547 Northern Territory Aboriginal children, aged 8-14 years, belonging to a birth cohort. Assessment included physical examination and spirometry as well as retrospective review of centralised hospital records.

In an Aboriginal birth cohort, only child size and not birth size, predicts insulin and glucose concentrations in childhood.

The objectives were to describe cross-sectional growth in 279 Australian Aboriginal children aged 8-14 years in order to test the hypothesis that birth size interacts with child size to predict glucose and insulin metabolism. Cross-sectional growth outcomes were described using standard deviation scores or z-scores for height for age (HAZ) and weight for age (WAZ) calculated from CDC 2000 reference values in Epi Info 2000. Interrelationships were examined using standard regression models with current height and weight and birth weight, ponderal index and birth weight below the 10th percentile for gestational age.

An Australian Aboriginal birth cohort: a unique resource for a life course study of an Indigenous population. A study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The global rise of Type 2 diabetes and its complications has drawn attention to the burden of non-communicable diseases on populations undergoing epidemiological transition. The life course approach of a birth cohort has the potential to increase our understanding of the development of these chronic diseases. In 1987 we sought to establish an Australian Indigenous birth cohort to be used as a resource for descriptive and analytical studies with particular attention on non-communicable diseases.

Growth and morbidity in children in the Aboriginal Birth Cohort Study: the urban-remote differential.

Objectives: To describe the prevalence of markers of growth, chronic and infectious disease in peripubertal Aboriginal children living in the Darwin Health Region in the "Top End" of the Northern Territory, and to compare prevalence between children living in urban and remote areas.

Design: Cross-sectional survey nested in a prospective birth cohort.

Subjects: 482 children living in the region who were recruited at birth (Jan 1987 to Mar 1990) and were followed up between 1998 and 2001, when aged 8-14 years.