@article{cb96190f5cd24de59700e7b4fd85da05,
title = "Prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases in Aboriginal children: A whole population study",
abstract = "Background: The burden of bronchiectasis is disproportionately high in Aboriginal adults, with early mortality. Bronchiectasis precursors, that is, protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB) and chronic suppurative lung disease (CSLD), often commence in early childhood. We previously reported a 10% prevalence of PBB in Aboriginal children aged 0 to 7 years, however there are no data on prevalence of chronic lung diseases in older children. Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of PBB, CSLD, bronchiectasis, and asthma in Aboriginal children living in four communities. Methods: A whole-population cross-sectional community co-designed study of Aboriginal children aged <18-years in four remote communities in Western Australia across two-time points, a month apart. Children were assessed by pediatric respiratory clinicians with spirometry undertaken (when possible) between March–September 2021. Children with respiratory symptoms were followed up via medical record audit from either the local medical clinic or via a respiratory specialist clinic through to March 2022 to establish a final diagnosis. Findings: We recruited 392 (91.6%) of those in the selected communities; median age = 8.4 years (interquartile range [IQR] 5.1–11.5). Seventy children (17.9%) had a chronic respiratory pathology or abnormal spirometry results. PBB was confirmed in 30 (7.7%), CSLD = 13 (3.3%), bronchiectasis = 5 (1.3%) and asthma = 17 (4.3%). The prevalence of chronic wet cough significantly increased with increasing age. Interpretation: The prevalence of PBB, CSLD and bronchiectasis is high in Aboriginal children and chronic wet cough increases with age. This study highlights the high disease burden in Aboriginal children and the urgent need for strategies to address these conditions.",
keywords = "Aboriginal children, prevalence, respiratory disease",
author = "Pamela Laird and Nicola Ball and Shekira Brahim and Henry Brown and Chang, {Anne B.} and Matthew Cooper and Deanne Cox and Denetta Cox and Samantha Crute and Foong, {Rachel E.} and Janella Isaacs and John Jacky and Gloria Lau and Elizabeth McKinnon and Annie Scanlon and Smith, {Elizabeth F.} and Sarah Thomason and Roz Walker and Andr{\'e} Schultz",
note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the Aboriginal families who agreed to participate in the study and the council members and wider community who invited and supported the work. We would like specifically to thank the community Navigators who partnered with our team to conduct the project, including Angelo Thomas, Belinda Sampi, Rosita Billycan, Stanley Victor, Mareeka Patrick, Natasha Fejo; Nathan McIvor, Philomena Manado, Yvonne Sampi, Pauline Sampi, Laurette Davey, and Tahnee Brolga. We would like to thank the local medical clinics who provided valuable support to assist in identifying children in community at the time of the study and for arranging medical follow‐up. The project was funded by an unrestricted National and Mineral Resources Ltd. grant and the Medical Research Future Fund (Australia). Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Western Australia, as part of the Wiley ‐ The University of Western Australia agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians. Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the Aboriginal families who agreed to participate in the study and the council members and wider community who invited and supported the work. We would like specifically to thank the community Navigators who partnered with our team to conduct the project, including Angelo Thomas, Belinda Sampi, Rosita Billycan, Stanley Victor, Mareeka Patrick, Natasha Fejo; Nathan McIvor, Philomena Manado, Yvonne Sampi, Pauline Sampi, Laurette Davey, and Tahnee Brolga. We would like to thank the local medical clinics who provided valuable support to assist in identifying children in community at the time of the study and for arranging medical follow-up. The project was funded by an unrestricted National and Mineral Resources Ltd. grant and the Medical Research Future Fund (Australia). Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Western Australia, as part of the Wiley - The University of Western Australia agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians. Funding Information: The study was partially funded by an unrestricted grant from Mineral Resources Ltd., and a Medical Research Future Fund Investigator grant awarded to A/Prof Schultz (Grant APP1193796). Dr. Laird was funded by a Raine Clinician Research Fellowship, Dr Foong was supported by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (Grant APP1140312). Prof Chang is supported by an NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship (Grant 1058213) and a Queensland Children's Hospital Foundation top‐up (Grant 50286) and has received multiple NHMRC grants related to topics of cough and bronchiectasis including Centre of Research Excellence grants for lung disease (Grant 1040830) among Indigenous children and bronchiectasis (Grant 1170958). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors. Pediatric Pulmonology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.",
year = "2022",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1002/ppul.26148",
language = "English",
volume = "57",
pages = "3136--3144",
journal = "Pediatric Pulmonology",
issn = "8755-6863",
publisher = "John Wiley & Sons",
number = "12",
}