Cohort profile: South Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort (SAABC)—a prospective longitudinal birth cohort

Abstract

PurposeThe South Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort (SAABC) is a prospective, longitudinal birth cohort established to: (1) estimate Aboriginal child dental disease compared with population estimates; (2) determine the efficacy of an early childhood caries intervention in early versus late infancy; (3) examine if efficacy was sustained over time and; (4) document factors influencing social, behavioural, cognitive, anthropometric, dietary and educational attainment over time.ParticipantsThe original SAABC comprised 449 women pregnant with an Aboriginal child recruited February 2011 to May 2012. At child age 2 years, 324 (74%) participants were retained, at age 3 years, 324 (74%) participants were retained and at age 5 years, 299 (69%) participants were retained. Fieldwork for follow-up at age 7 years is underway, with funding available for follow-up at age 9 years.Findings to dateAt baseline, 53% of mothers were aged 14–24 years and 72% had high school or less educational attainment. At age 3 years, dental disease experience was higher among children exposed to the intervention later rather than earlier in infancy. The effect was sustained at age 5 years, but rates were still higher than general child population estimates. Experiences of racism were high among mothers, with impacts on both tooth brushing and toothache. Compared with population estimates, levels of self-efficacy and self-rated oral health of mothers at baseline were low.Future plansOur data have contributed to a better understanding of the environmental, behavioural, dietary, biological and psychosocial factors contributing to Aboriginal child oral and general health, and social and emotional well-being. This is beneficial in charting the trajectory of cohort participants’ health and well-being overtime, particularly in identifying antecedents of chronic diseases which are highly prevalent among Aboriginal Australians. Funding for continued follow-up of the cohort will be sought.Trial registration numberACTRN12611000111976; Post-results.

Exploratory Graph Analysis of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Children

“…For more information regarding the SAABC study consent process, please see Merrick et al (2012). For general information about the SAABC, please refer to Jamieson et al (2021).…”

“…Considering that responses to the caregiver-informant SDQ for children aged 4-10 years have already been collected for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children in national surveys (Department of Families, 2009) and longitudinal cohorts in Australia (Jamieson et al, 2021), one main implication of the network structure of the caregiver-informant SDQ in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children is that, instead of summing items into subscale scores, the SDQ items should be considered individually. For example, the item bullied ("picked on or bullied by other children") can be used to inform Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children's experience of victimization without needing to be summed with the other peer problem items to create a subscale score (Ribeiro Santiago et al, 2021a).…”

“…In the last few years, the instrument has been refined and have recently been applied for the first time to children aged 11-13 years in LSIC (Thurber et al, 2019). The instrument has also been applied in the SAABC 9-years-old follow-up (Jamieson et al, 2021). The psychometric properties of Strong Souls' have yet to be systematically assessed among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children, and this is an agenda for future research.…”

Weighing the Unintended Consequences of Early Dental Care in Indigenous Australian Children

“…Australian children experience higher rates of dental caries, with the prevalence among children in some areas being up to 5 times higher than among their non-Indigenous counterparts. 2 On the other hand, the seeds of childhood overnutrition and obesity are often sown early in infancy and result in a greater tendency for adult overweight and obesity with correspondingly greater lifetime disease burden. Although children with overweight and obesity are at higher risk for dental caries and poor oral health, whether the converse is also true is not as clear.…”

“…On the one hand, childhood dental caries is an entirely preventable disease that can considerably affect the health and quality of a child's life well into adulthood. 2…”