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THE HEALTH OF THE ABORIGINAL CHILDREN OF CUNNAMULLA, WESTERN QUEENSLAND
Author(s) -
COPEMAN RICHARD,
PASHEN DENNIS,
BURGER GRAEME
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1975.tb140359.x
Subject(s) - demography , geography , population , pediatrics , medicine , environmental health , sociology
A survey of the health and nutritional status of 187 Aboriginal children under 15 years of age in Cunnamulla, western Queensland, in December, 1971, showed that their weights, heights and arm circumferences were considerably and significantly lower than those of white children, according to both English and American standards. Those children living in shanties on the outskirts of Cunnamulla had significantly lower weights than those living in houses in the town. As a whole, the group showed degrees of weight and height retardation similar to those of most other reported groups of Australian Aborigines. Three‐quarters of the preschool children had a previous history of gastroenteritis, and the protozoan parasite, Giardia lamblia, was present in the children's faeces in minor epidemic proportions. Eleven per cent of the children were anaemic, and 9% had some degree of deafness. The infant mortality rate of the Cunnamulla Aboriginal population for the decade 1961‐1971 was almost four times the Australian average.