Indigenous Australians at higher heart risk

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2006

SYDNEY (AFP) — Indigenous Australians face three times the risk of a heart attack than other Australians but are less likely to receive medical treatment, a new report said. Aborigines and inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands had three times the rate of a "major coronary event" and more than twice the chance of dying in hospital, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report said.

Indigenous peoples account for around 2.4 percent of Australia's population of 20 million, comprising 450,000 Aborigines and 50,000 Torres Strait Islanders, who come from a group of small isles off northeastern Queensland state. Indigenous Australians were also considerably more likely to die from heart attacks, regardless of whether they were admitted to hospital, the government...