The Australian annual Close the Gap Day took place in March and among the many organisations involved, Diabetes Western Australia called for greater recognition of the disproportionate impact of diabetes on aboriginal communities in WA.
Aboriginal Western Australians are at far greater risk of diabetes and diabetes-related complications than any other community in the State.
CAPTION: Image Credit: Diabetes WA
People from the aboriginal community are nearly 40 times more likely to have major lower limb amputations. Those living in remote areas have 20 times the incidence of end stage renal disease compared with the national average.
Over half of aboriginal people who reported having heart disease in 2019 also reported having diabetes. Cataract and diabetic retinopathy continue to be the leading causes of vision loss in aboriginal people in WA.
The diabetes gap is also generational. Type 2 diabetes in children, once vanishingly rare, is on the rise. Last year, the number of children with type 2 diabetes in WA doubled and 60 percent of those children are aboriginal.
This gap continues to widen with age, In some remote communities, 60-70% of people over the age of 65 have type 2 diabetes. Too many older aboriginal people are living with preventable disabilities as a result of diabetes and its silent damage.
Diabetes WA CEO Melanie Gates says that training aboriginal health professionals to work in their own communities is an essential part of closing the diabetes gap.
Advocacy Action: Are there indigenous groups in your country and how do their health outcomes compare? Are different groups consulted and involved in policy and delivery? Do your health care services work with such communities to identify leaders within who can help design and roll out programmes?