A recent UQ PhD graduate has spent the past three years looking at how to prevent kidney failure in Aboriginals.
Dr Philip Baker, who graduated on July 23, completed his thesis among the Tiwi people of the Northern Territory, who until recently had a renal failure rate 60 times higher than the non-Aboriginal NT population.
“Renal failure causes much suffering for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” Dr Baker said.
“Treatment involves regular visits for medical care, frequent blood samples, the discomfort of dialysis and often the need to relocate away from family members for dialysis.
“The epidemic also poses serious health and funding problems. Treatment for renal failure is one of the most expensive publicly-funded health interventions.”
Dr Baker spent three years evaluating the effects and costs of a screening treatment program developed by his supervisor, Professor Wendy Hoy, in collaboration with Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin.
The program operated in partnership with local health boards and health workers and focused on the administration of prescription medicines combined with rigorous blood pressure control. People at risk or with early renal disease in the Tiwi Islands were targeted.
Over the three year assessment period clinical data indicated a marked improvement in the participants’ health and the need for dialysis fell.
Dr Baker’s research also found that the annual cost of the treatment program was $1,210 per person per year. This cost was offset by considerable cost savings, estimated between $0.8 to $11.4 million over three years based upon dialysis services avoided by the Tiwi people.
The research was funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council scholarship and followed a World Health Organisation needs-based health technology assessment method.
Dr Baker said the findings highlighted the importance of funding health interventions which reduced an identified burden of illness rather than funding interventions primarily driven by new technological breakthroughs.
“The research suggests that the allocation of adequate resources for primary care can not only provide better health outcomes for Indigenous people but can also save money,” Dr Baker said.
Dr Baker’s supervisors for his thesis were Professor Wendy Hoy and Professor Paul Glasziou from UQ’s School of Population Health.
A paper on the project Reducing premature death and renal failure in Australian Aboriginals: A community-based cardiovascular and renal protection program was awarded The Medical Journal of Australia/Wyeth Award 2000 for the best paper published in the MJA in 2000.
Media: For further information contact Dr Baker (telephone 07 3234 0962 or email philip_baker@health.qld.gov.au) or Lynda Flower at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2339 or email l.flower@uq.edu.au)
