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Have The Health Gaps Between Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Australian Children Changed Over Time? Results From An Australian National Representative Longitudinal Study, Lixin Ou, Jack Chen, Kem Hillman

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes of health gaps between Indigenous and non- Indigenous children over time and to explore critical factors that contribute to the changes. We employed data consisting of two cohorts of Australian children: infant (0/1 year) and children (4/5 years) that are part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Health outcomes were measured by physical outcome index (POI) and parent-rated health during 2004, 2006 and 2008. We used first-order autoregressive modelling to examine the longitudinal relationship between the changes in health outcomes and possible contributing risk factors. The results showed that …