$5 million boost for Indigenous health

In a major boost for Indigenous health research, the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) at The Australian National University has won $5 million in Commonwealth Government funding for two new Centres of Research Excellence (CRE) in primary health care. Director of the Institute Robert Wells said the CRE for Urban Aboriginal Child Health and the CRE for Prevention of Chronic Conditions in remote and rural communities would be awarded $2.5 million each in primary health care research funding from the Department of Health and Ageing to conduct world-leading research into essential health care. "The Australian Government has committed to reducing Aboriginal disadvantage, including closing the gap in life expectancy within a generation and halving the gap in mortality rates for children less than five years of age within a decade," he said.  "Overall, 53 per cent of the Aboriginal population of Australia lives in cities or large regional centres and it is estimated that 60 per cent of the health gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians is attributable to the health of people living in non-remote areas. "In spite of this, little is known about the factors influencing the health of urban Aboriginal children and the paucity of research to test the impact of strategies to improve Aboriginal health is widely acknowledged.