Indigenous communities to help in diabetes battle

Queensland’s Indigenous communities could hold the key to the improved treatment of one of the world’s major health problems – Type 2 diabetes.

A two-pronged research partnership between several communities and The University of Queensland aims to improve treatment and prevention of Type 2 diabetes by
(i) developing a community education program and (ii) examining the genetic susceptibility of Indigenous Australians to the disease.

Associate Professor Joanne Shaw said the projects were unique in their focus on indigenous communities, where the incidence of diabetes was more than four times higher than in the general population.

Assoc Prof Shaw and co-researchers Professor Wendy Brown, Assoc Prof Cindy Shannon and Dr Stewart Trost, in cooperation with two Queensland Indigenous Communities, will develop a Diabetes education program with major emphasis on physical activity and family and community support.

In a second project, genetic analysis will be carried out in partnership with Stradbroke Island’s Indigenous community, where Assoc Prof Shaw and her team have been working for six years with the Yulu-Burri-Ba Indigenous Health Centre.

“There is a good chance that if we can identify pathways that cause diabetes in the Indigenous Australian population that this information will be important for the development of improved methods of preventing and treating diabetes that will help both indigenous Australians and also other populations,” Assoc Professor Shaw said.

“Despite a strong genetic basis for Type 2 diabetes, we know very little about the specific genes involved,” Assoc Prof Shaw said.

Funding for the projects was announced recently.