Project:
Dr Liz McDonald
Registered Nurse and Midwife/Remote Area Nurse, Menzies School of Health Research

Funding:
National Health and Medical Research Council Primary Health Care Scholarship

Young Aboriginal children living in remote Northern Territory communities continue to experience poor health due to chronic infection and malnutrition with high levels of underweight (14.5%), stunting (11.3%) and wasting (9.0%). These levels compared to an expected prevalence of 2.3% in a healthy population.

Poor health during children’s vital growth and development stages is a serious problem affecting their general wellbeing, cognitive development, educational outcomes, and their risk of developing chronic diseases later in life.

This research focused on the lesser-examined area of hygiene improvement. In particular, it investigated the physical and social barriers that prevent the hygiene needs of young children from being satisfactorily met, as well as potentially effective interventions.

The study revealed that extreme levels of social, economic and educational disadvantage underpin the unsanitary living conditions and poor hygiene that exist in many communities. Household crowding and non-functioning toilets, taps, and showers combine with poor standards of personal and domestic hygiene to underlie the high burden of childhood infection.

Many of the barriers to hygiene and health improvements are at policy and systems levels. Collaboration between researcher Dr Liz McDonald and relevant NT government departments has already begun to transfer these findings into policy and practice.

View the project abstract on ROAR