Indigenous Health
Aboriginal health policy: is nutrition the ‘gap’ in ‘Closing the Gap’?

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Abstract

Objective

To examine the extent to which nutrition has been prioritised in national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy.

Method

Australian Government websites were searched for Aboriginal‐specific health policies and strategies developed between 2000 and 2012. Thirteen documents describing nine policies were analysed.

Results

Increased and more comprehensive inclusion of nutrition in Aboriginal health policy was identified during the first half of this period. In the second half, however, nutrition strategies were fragmented, and a much greater emphasis was placed on smoking.

Conclusion and Implication

With the exception of food security in remote communities, nutrition seems to have disappeared from the national Aboriginal health policy agenda. This is a concern, given the burden of nutrition‐related disease in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.

Key words

Indigenous health
Aboriginal health
nutrition
policy

Cited by (0)

The authors have stated they have no conflict of interest.