From: hounddog23x@gmail.com   
      
   Aboriginal communities have world's highest dementia incidence   
      
   August 20, 2015 by David Stacey   
      
      
       
    Aboriginal communities have world's highest dementia incidence   
   Research by The University of Western Australia's Centre for Health and Ageing   
   has confirmed that the incidence of dementia in remote Aboriginal communities   
   is the highest in the world, with head injuries and age the greatest   
   contributing factors.   
      
   UWA researchers revisited a target group of Aboriginal people based in WA's   
   remote Kimberley region, originally tested ten years ago, to review the   
   clinical and socio-economic factors contributing to dementia, in the hope of   
   improving detection rates and    
   targeting preventative measures.   
      
   WA Centre for Health and Ageing Director and Chair of Geriatric Medicine,   
   Professor Leon Flicker, said they found that each year 21 out of every 1,000   
   Aboriginal Australians over the age of sixty develops dementia, a rate at   
   least twice as high as the    
   general Australian population.   
      
   "This is a world first study that has provided comprehensive clinical data on   
   the cognitive health of a group of older Indigenous people, Professor Flicker   
   said. "We were looking at the incidence, predictors and progress of cognitive   
   impairment and    
   dementia in Aboriginal Australians using culturally appropriate assessment   
   tools.   
      
   "Dementia is placing strain on these Aboriginal communities," Professor   
   Flicker said. "The greatest risk factors we found were head injuries, as were   
   stroke, a low body mass index and high blood pressure.   
      
   "Head injuries can be explained in the main by the higher than average number   
   of car and other accidents, and falls," he said.   
      
   Data was collected from 363 remote and rural Aboriginal Australians aged over   
   45 years living in the Kimberley, who were originally recruited between 2004   
   and 2006 and then reassessed between 2011 and 2013. Researchers found that 75   
   per cent of the    
   original group who had already been living with dementia had died.   
      
   "By further exploring the contributing risk factors we are now looking to   
   target preventative measures such as preventing head injuries and controlling   
   strokes," Professor Flicker said.   
      
   "Further research is needed to intervene and help prevent the onset of   
   dementia and improve long term health outcomes for Aboriginal Australians who   
   live in remote areas," he said.   
      
      
      
   http://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2015-08-aboriginal-world-highest   
   dementia-incidence.html   
      
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