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Why are Aboriginal Australians more likely to get dementia?

on Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The preliminary results of an ongoing study into the ageing of Aboriginal Australians found that dementia is three times more likely to effect the indigenous population.

The Koori Growing Old Well (KGOW) study is now looking at what causes these high rates of dementia in older Aboriginal Australians.

Neuroscience Research Australia Senior Principal Research Fellow Professor Tony Broe, who began the study in 2009, said the factors they are exploring are based on a cross section of their results, as well as several years of dementia research with non-indigenous people.

Professor Broe said dementia can be caused by other systematic diseases developing in mid to late life.

“Heart disease, hyper stroke and diabetes are all medical risk factors of dementia. We want to know if this is true, or even more prevalent, with Aboriginal people,” he said.

The second hypothesis that the KGOW explores is that brain development, starting from early childhood, is directly related to dementia in Aboriginal communities.

 “We believe dementia, like most chronic diseases, is environmental in origin and very much relates to early-life events like upbringing and education,” Professor Broe said.

“We look at schooling, but also informal education, like how many books there are in the house."

Professor Broe said experiences such as parental separation or child abuse may affect someone’s social, cognitive and even physical developement, which could stunt brain growth and lead to dementia.

Using a “longitudinal flow” method, the KGOW will determine whether these factors are indeed “predictors” of higher rates of dementia in Aboriginal Australians.

This involves working with volunteers in the Aboriginal elder community who carry these risk factors but do not have dementia.

If they develop the disease during a period of five years, those factors will be recognised as predictors.

The common assumption that alcohol abuse is related to dementia in Aboriginal Australians has been proved false.

Both the KGOW, a census of five urban and regional Indigenous communities in NSW and a previous study, which looked at the remote Kimberly region in WA, found alcohol related dementia was uncommon.

Professor Broe said there is another common assumption, that Aboriginal people simply don’t grow old, which is not true.

“Although the average life expectancy of indigenous Australians is still ten years younger than non-indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people over 65 have a lifespan that is only six years less than other Australians,” he said.

Professor Broe said more Aboriginal people are now living longer, which means they are more likely to get dementia, because its biggest risk factor is old age.

“It’s something we call the survivor effect. All those things that are killing you earlier, if you survive them, are more likely to give you dementia,” he said.

The research is now being translated into appropriate practice for the Aboriginal communities of Kempsey, Nambucca, Coffs Harbour, La Perouse and Campbelltown, who participated in the study.

The Koori Dementia Care Project employs Aboriginal workers from those communities and people with strong Aboriginal connections, to help provide education and aged care services that will close some of the gaps exposed by the study.

As well as installing geriatricians in all of these communities, Professor Broe hopes to gain sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that early childhood development and education relate to early onset dementia.

“That will give us the evidence to fund even more valuable projects in other communities.”

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