Excess Risk of Stroke in Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Populations

Abstract

See related article, page 1515–1521 There are an estimated ≈517 000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, comprising ≈2.5% of the total population.1 The greatest proportion of this group (90%) identify themselves as being of Aboriginal origin.2 The remainder represent 6% of Torres Strait Islander origin, and 4% identify as being of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin. Within each of these groups, often collectively called “Indigenous Australians,” there is a wide diversity of languages, culture, governance, community structure, geographic locality, and history. In the current issue of Stroke , Katzenellenbogen et al3 highlight the disparity in the burden of stroke between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians in Western Australia, the largest state of Australia (2.5 million km2), in which ≈15% of all Indigenous Australians reside and, overall, where ≈2.2 million people live (10% of the total Australian population).4 Using a high-quality comprehensive health data linkage system, these authors have found that when compared to non-Indigenous Australians, the incidence rate of stroke in Indigenous Australians was 2.6-fold in men and 3.0-fold in women. Similarly, disability-adjusted life-years were also greater in Indigenous Australians, being ≈3.2-fold that of …