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Health and well-being are holistic concepts that are perceived to be inseparable for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We examined relationships between parent-reported ear symptoms for 787 Indigenous children at two time points (age 2-3 years, age 4-5 years) and two parent-reported speech and language outcomes one year later (age 5-6 years). Most parents (80.2%) reported no concern about their child's expressive language and (93.8%) receptive language. Binary logistic regression models examined ear health as a predictor of children's expressive and receptive speech and language adjusting for sociodemographic and health covariates. For children without parent-reported ear symptoms, there were lower odds of parental concern about expressive speech and language (aOR = 0.45; 95% CI 0.21-0.99) and receptive language (aOR = 0.24; 95% CI 0.09-0.62). Parents were less likely to have concerns about the child's expressive speech and language if their child was female, lived in urban or regional areas, had excellent or very good global health, or had no disability when aged 2-5 years. Since parent-reported ear health and speech and language concerns were related, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children could benefit from culturally safe, strength-based, and family-centered integrated speech, language, and ear health services.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate ear health and hearing among urban Aboriginal children and quantify relationships with child, family and social factors. METHODS: Baseline questionnaire and ear health examinations from 1430 children with diagnoses (0.5-18 years) attending Aboriginal Health Services enrolled in SEARCH. Ear health outcomes were Otitis Media (OM), and hearing loss (three-frequency average hearing loss >20dB) diagnosed using pneumatic otoscopy, tympanometry, and audiometry. RESULTS: Half the children 0.5-3 years had OM (51.5%, 136/264). One third 0.5-18 years (30.4%; 435/1430) had OM, including 1.8% (26/1430) with perforation (0.8% chronic suppurative OM, 0.6% dry perforation and 0.4% acute OM with perforation). One quarter 0.5-18 years (25.7%; 279/1087) had hearing loss; 12.4% unilateral, 13.2% bilateral (70.6% with bilateral loss had concurrent OM). OM was associated with: younger age (0.5-<3 years versus 6-18 years) age-sex-site; adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR)=2.64, 95%, 2.18-3.19); attending childcare/preschool (aPR=1.24, 95%CI, 1.04-1.49); foster care (aPR=1.40, 95%CI, 1.10-1.79); previous ear infection/s (aPR=1.68, 95%CI, 1.42-1.98); and ≥2 people/bedroom (aPR=1.66, 95%CI, 1.24-2.21). Hearing impairment was associated with younger age (0.5-<6 years vs. ≥6 years aPR=1.89, 95%CI, 1.40-2.55) and previous ear infection (aPR=1.87, 95%CI, 1.31-2.68). CONCLUSIONS: Half the urban Aboriginal children in this cohort had OM and two-thirds with hearing impairment had OM. IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: Findings highlight importance of early detection and support for ear health, particularly in pre-school-aged children with risk factors.

INTRODUCTION: The 2001 Recommendations for clinical care guidelines on the management of otitis media in Aboriginal and Torres Islander populations were revised in 2010. This 2020 update by the Centre of Research Excellence in Ear and Hearing Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children used for the first time the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS: We performed systematic reviews of evidence across prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and management. We report ten algorithms to guide diagnosis and clinical management of all forms of otitis media. The guidelines include 14 prevention and 37 treatment strategies addressing 191 questions. CHANGES IN MANAGEMENT AS A RESULT OF THE GUIDELINES: A GRADE approach is used. Targeted recommendations for both high and low risk children. New tympanostomy tube otorrhoea section. New Priority 5 for health services: annual and catch-up ear health checks for at-risk children. Antibiotics are strongly recommended for persistent otitis media with effusion in high risk children. Azithromycin is strongly recommended for acute otitis media where adherence is difficult or there is no access to refrigeration. Concurrent audiology and surgical referrals are recommended where delays are likely. Surgical referral is recommended for chronic suppurative otitis media at the time of diagnosis. The use of autoinflation devices is recommended for some children with persistent otitis media with effusion. Definitions for mild (21-30 dB) and moderate (> 30 dB) hearing impairment have been updated. New "OMapp" enables free fast access to the guidelines, plus images, animations, and multiple Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language audio translations to aid communication with families.

Introduction Immigration detention has a profound and negative impact on the physical health, mental health, development and social-emotional well-being of children, adolescents and their families. Australian clinicians will report results from detailed health and well-being assessments of asylum seeking children and adolescents who have experienced prolonged immigration detention. Methods and analysis This is a national, multicentre study with a longitudinal cohort design that will document health and well-being outcomes of the children and adolescents who have been detained in offshore detention on the remote island of Nauru. Outcome measures will be reported from the time arrival in Australia and repeated over a 5-year follow-up period. Measures include demographics, residency history and refugee status, physical health and well-being outcomes (including mental health, development and social-emotional well-being), clinical service utilisation and psychosocial risk and protective factors for health and well-being (eg, adverse childhood experiences). Longitudinal follow-up will capture outcomes over a 5-year period after arrival in Australia. Analysis will be undertaken to explore baseline risk and protective factors, with regression analyses to assess their impact on health and well-being outcomes. To understand how children's outcomes change over time, multilevel regression analysis will be utilised. Structural equation modelling will be conducted to explore the correlation between baseline factors, mediational factors and outcomes to assess trajectories over time. Ethics and dissemination This research project was approved by the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network Human Research Ethics Committee. Subsequent site-specific approvals have been approved in 5 of the 11 governing bodies where the clinical consultations took place. In order to ensure this research is relevant and sensitive to the needs of the cohort, our research team includes an asylum seeker who has

Aim: To describe socio-demographic patterns of asthma prevalence in urban Aboriginal children and quantify associations between asthma prevalence and pre-natal maternal and current carer smoking. Methods: Analyses used carer-reported survey data for 1290 urban Aboriginal children aged 2–17 years from the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health. Multilevel log-binomial regression was used to estimate asthma prevalence ratios (PRs) for child- and family-level socio-demographic factors, pre-natal maternal smoking and current carer smoking. Smoking-related PRs were compared with general-population estimates derived from meta-analyses of published cross-sectional data. Results: Overall, 33.9% of children had ever had asthma, and 12.9% had received treatment for asthma in the past month. Prevalence estimates declined with increasing household income and increasing household size (posterior probabilities of decreasing trend '0.98), while children exposed to pre-natal maternal smoking had a higher risk of asthma ever than unexposed children (PR 1.18 (95% credible interval 1.00–1.40)). Recently treated asthma prevalence was not significantly associated with pre-natal maternal (0.98 (0.71–1.41)) or current carer smoking (0.97 (0.68–1.37)); however, there was substantial uncertainty in our PR estimates, and 95% credible intervals contained general-population estimates derived from the meta-analyses (1.37 (1.17–1.65) for pre-natal smoking, 1.28 (1.15–1.44) for current parental or household smoking). Conclusion: Among urban Aboriginal children in the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health cohort, asthma prevalence declines as household income and household size increase, while children exposed to pre-natal maternal smoking are at increased risk of ever having asthma. Our results emphasise the importance of reducing smoking in Aboriginal communities, particularly among pregnant women.

Introduction Immigration detention has a profound and negative impact on the physical health, mental health, development and social-emotional well-being of children, adolescents and their families. Australian clinicians will report results from detailed health and well-being assessments of asylum seeking children and adolescents who have experienced prolonged immigration detention. Methods and analysis This is a national, multicentre study with a longitudinal cohort design that will document health and well-being outcomes of the children and adolescents who have been detained in offshore detention on the remote island of Nauru. Outcome measures will be reported from the time arrival in Australia and repeated over a 5-year follow-up period. Measures include demographics, residency history and refugee status, physical health and well-being outcomes (including mental health, development and social-emotional well-being), clinical service utilisation and psychosocial risk and protective factors for health and well-being (eg, adverse childhood experiences). Longitudinal follow-up will capture outcomes over a 5-year period after arrival in Australia. Analysis will be undertaken to explore baseline risk and protective factors, with regression analyses to assess their impact on health and well-being outcomes. To understand how children's outcomes change over time, multilevel regression analysis will be utilised. Structural equation modelling will be conducted to explore the correlation between baseline factors, mediational factors and outcomes to assess trajectories over time. Ethics and dissemination This research project was approved by the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network Human Research Ethics Committee. Subsequent site-specific approvals have been approved in 5 of the 11 governing bodies where the clinical consultations took place. In order to ensure this research is relevant and sensitive to the needs of the cohort, our research team includes an asylum seeker who has

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience a higher prevalence of disability and socio-economic disadvantage than other Australian children. Early intervention from across the health, education and social service sectors is vital for improving outcomes, but families face a number of barriers to service access which impede intervention. This study aimed to inform ways to improve access to services for families of urban-dwelling Aboriginal children with a range of disabilities. A qualitative approach was taken to explore providers' perceptions of factors that either impeded or enabled families' access to services. In this research, the term 'provider' refers to individuals who are employed in a range of sectors to deliver a service involving assessment or management of an individual with a disability. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 24 providers were conducted. Data analysis was informed by the general inductive approach and then applied deductively to the candidacy framework to generate additional insights. Candidacy focuses on how potential users access the services they need and acknowledges the joint negotiation between families and providers regarding such access. Our research identified that candidacy was influenced by the historical legacy of colonisation and its ongoing socio-cultural impact on Aboriginal people, as well as funding and current policy directives. Enacting culturally sensitive and meaningful engagement to better understand families' needs and preferences for support, as well as support for providers to develop their understanding of family contexts, will contribute to facilitating service access for Aboriginal children with a disability.

© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience a higher prevalence of disability than other Australian children. Early intervention from across the health, education, and social service sectors is vital for improving outcomes, but families face lack of coordination between services. This study aimed to inform improvements in service access for families of urban-dwelling Aboriginal children with disability through exploring providers’ perceptions of factors that influenced working together across sectors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data analysis was informed by the general inductive approach and the Collaborative Practice to Enhance Patient Care Outcomes framework. Twenty-four providers participated. Interprofessional collaborative practice was influenced by interdependent interactional and organizational factors. Interactional factors fit within one of two dimensions: the ability of providers to share common goals and vision within a complex cross-sector service landscape, and influence of interpersonal relationships on their sense of belonging working in a cross-cultural space. Organizational factors also fit within one of two dimensions: the influence of governance in relation to its role in coordination and unlocking the strength of schools as service settings, and the need to formalize processes for effective interprofessional communication. Interprofessional collaborative practice was managed within the context of systemic factors relating to policy and funding. These findings demonstrate the complex interplay of factors related to the cross-sector involvement of providers in early intervention service provision. Consideration of these factors is required to facilitate collaborative cross-sector responses to improve service access for Aboriginal families. Abbreviations: WHO: world health organization; ACCHS: aboriginal community controlled health service; GP: general practitioner; NDIS: nati

Background: The impacts of optimal infant feeding practices on diarrhoea have been documented in some developing countries, but not in countries with high diarrhoea mortality as reported by the World Health Organisation/United Nations Children's Fund. We aimed to investigate the association between infant feeding practices and diarrhoea in sub-Saharan African countries with high diarrhoea mortality. Method: The study used the most recent Demographic and Health Survey datasets collected in nine sub-Saharan African countries with high diarrhoea mortality, namely: Burkina Faso (2010, N = 9,733); Demographic Republic of Congo (2013; N = 10,458); Ethiopia (2013, N = 7,251); Kenya (2014, N = 14,034); Mali (2013, N = 6,365); Niger (2013, N = 7,235); Nigeria (2013, N = 18,539); Tanzania (2010, N = 5,013); and Uganda (2010, N = 4,472). Multilevel logistic regression models that adjusted for cluster and sampling weights were used to investigate the association between infant feeding practices and diarrhoea in these nine African countries. Results: Diarrhoea prevalence was lower among children whose mothers practiced early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive and predominant breastfeeding. Early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding were significantly associated with lower risk of diarrhoea (OR = 0.81; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.77-0.85, P<0.001 and OR = 0.50; 95%CI: 0.43-0.57, respectively). In contrast, introduction of complementary foods (OR = 1.31; 95%CI: 1.14-1.50) and continued breastfeeding at one year (OR = 1.27; 95%CI: 1.05-1.55) were significantly associated with a higher risk of diarrhoea. Conclusion: Early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding are protective of diarrhoea in sub-Saharan African countries with high diarrhoea mortality. To reduce diarrhoea mortality and also achieve the health-related sustainable development goals in sub-Saharan African, an integrated, multi-agency strategic partnership within each country is

OBJECTIVES: Australian Aboriginal children experience earlier, more frequent and more severe otitis media, particularly in remote communities, than non-Aboriginal children. Insertion of ventilation tubes is the main surgical procedure for otitis media. Our aim was to quantify inequalities in ventilation tube insertion (VTI) procedures between Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children, and to explore the influence of birth characteristics, socioeconomic background and geographical remoteness on this inequality. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using linked hospital and mortality data from July 2000 to December 2008. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A whole-of-population cohort of 653 550 children (16 831 Aboriginal and 636 719 non-Aboriginal) born in a New South Wales hospital between 1 July 2000 and 31 December 2007 was included in the analysis. OUTCOME MEASURE: First VTI procedure. RESULTS: VTI rates were lower in Aboriginal compared with non-Aboriginal children (incidence rate (IR), 4.3/1000 person-years; 95% CI 3.8 to 4.8 vs IR 5.8/1000 person-years; 95% CI 5.7 to 5.8). Overall, Aboriginal children were 28% less likely than non-Aboriginal children to have ventilation tubes inserted (age-adjusted and sex-adjusted rate ratios (RRs) 0.72; 95% CI 0.64 to 0.80). After adjusting additionally for geographical remoteness, Aboriginal children were 19% less likely to have ventilation tubes inserted (age-adjusted and sex-adjusted RR 0.81; 95% CI 0.73 to 0.91). After adjusting separately for private patient/health insurance status and area socioeconomic status, there was no significant difference (age-adjusted and sex-adjusted RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.86 to 1.08 and RR 0.93; 95% CI 0.83 to 1.04, respectively). In the fully adjusted model, there were no significant differences in VTI rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children (RR 1.06; 95% CI 0.94 to 1.19). CONCLUSIONS: Despite a much higher prevalence of otitis media, Aboriginal children were less likely to receive VTI

BackgroundSevere middle ear disease places children at high risk of speech, language and learning impairments as a result of impaired hearing; this may in turn affect later educational outcome. Although middle ear disease is largely managed in the primary health care setting, children may also be admitted to hospital for treatment or surgical intervention. AimsTo investigate whether the incidence of first myringotomy and ventilation tube insertion (MVTI) procedures is different in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in NSW.MethodsA birth cohort was identified in the NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection (APDC) including all live births from July 2000 to December 2008. Person-years accrued from date of birth and terminated at first MVTI procedure or first of either date of death or December 31, 2008. Poisson regression methods were used to estimate relative risks for first MVTI procedures in Aboriginal compared with non-Aboriginal children. ResultsUnadjusted rates of MVTI were higher among non-Aboriginal children, those admitted as a private patient at their birth admission, those living in areas of higher socio-economic status, and those in major cities. After adjusting for age, sex and year of birth, Aboriginal children were 30% less likely to have a MVTI procedure than non-Aboriginal children, despite higher rates of OM.ConclusionsThe lower rates of MVTI among Aboriginal children in NSW may be an indication of inequitable access to health services. Similar research in WA has also shown lower rates of hospitalisation for middle ear surgery for Aboriginal children compared with non-Aboriginal children.

Background: Since 1992, Australia has been unique in mandating indefinite detention of people arriving "unauthorised" by boat, contravening multiple international conventions to which Australia is signatory. Families, including children and young people (CYP), seeking asylum were held in offshore detention on Nauru from 2013 to 2019. Most were subsequently transferred to Australia for medical care. Protracted detention of 4-5 years is unprecedented globally. An association between deteriorating health and length of stay in detention has been demonstrated, however the effects of such prolonged detention are unknown. Aim(s): This study aims to describe the health and wellbeing of children after prolonged detention on Nauru. Method(s): This is a cross sectional analysis of a national longitudinal cohort of CYP (under 19 years of age), detained on Nauru between 2013 and 2019. Treating clinicians, from participating Australian sites, documented the cohort's socio-demographic factors and health and wellbeing outcomes immediately after release from detention. An online survey, completed by the clinicians, was used to collect study data. Survey questions were codeveloped with a refugee with lived experience and Australian clinicians experienced in care for refugee CYP. Protective and risk factor data, including exposure to abuse and witnessed trauma, was collected using the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and Refugee-specific ACE instruments (R-ACE). Key outcomes were categorised into physical illness, neurodevelopmental disorders and mental health conditions. Result(s): A total of 222 CYP were detained on Nauru, of which 100 were seen in Australian states serviced by participating health sites. We present preliminary analysis of the first 35 study participants (35% of the total eligible cohort). The mean age was 8.9 years (3.5 months -17 years); a slight majority (19, 54%) was male and most originated from the Eastern Mediterranean Region (21, 60%), particularly Iran (