Principal Research Fellow Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit Level 4, 207 Bouverie Street The University of Melbourne VIC 3010 Tel: +61 3 8344 9164 Fax: + 61 3 8344 0824 Email: j.freemantle@unimelb.edu.au

Background

Associate Professor Jane Freemantle is an Australian Research Council Research Fellow undertaking a five-year research project to address the critical issue of lack of data to describe Aboriginal health, particularly child health. Jane is also an Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, UWA.

Research interests

Jane's research interest is in using linked population data to develop reliable data that includes the accurate and complete identification of Aboriginal populations. Such data will enable the identification of the patterns and trends in mortality among infants, children and young people with a particular focus on measuring the disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations and identifying areas of critical need.

Her PhD research, through the University of Western Australia, established the Western Australian Infant, Child and Young Persons Mortality Database. This database describes the deaths of every WA child (0-25 years) who was born between 1980 and 2005. Jane completed a post-doctoral fellowship through the University of Western Australia and the University of Melbourne. Her fellowship constructed a morbidity profile describing the hospitalisation events for every WA born infant, child and young person, and measure the patterns and trends of morbidity with a particular focus on measuring the disparities that exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal infants, children and young people.

In 2007, Jane was awarded an ARC Research Fellowship and funding to undertake a project that will addresses the critical issue of lack of data describing Aboriginal health, particularly child health. The research will develop a total population mortality profile of Victoria's Aboriginal (and non-Aboriginal) children born between 1988 and 2008 using an innovative method and research process. This research will contribute a vital plank in the platform of ensuring the availability of adequate and meaningful health information, which in turn will facilitate a nationally complete data set describing the health status of Aboriginal people in this country.

Selected publications

Freemantle, C. J., McAullay, D., Officer, K. & Anderson, I. 2007, Australia Indigenous Health--Within an International Context, Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health, Darwin & Kulunga Research Network, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia.

Freemantle, C. J., Read, A. W., de Klerk, N. H., McAullay, D., Anderson, I. & Stanley, F. J. 2006, 'Patterns, Trends and Increasing Disparities in Mortality for Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Infants Born in Western Australia, 1980-2001: Population database study', Lancet, vol. 367:1758-66.

Freemantle, C. J., Read, A. W., de Klerk, N. H., McAullay, D., Anderson, I. & Stanley, F. J. 2006, 'Infant Mortality among Australian Aboriginals', Lancet, vol. 368(9539):916-7.

Freemantle, C. J., Read, A. W., de Klerk, N. H., McAullay, D., Anderson, I. & Stanley, F. J. 2006, 'Sudden Infant Death Syndrome--Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal disparities among infants born in Western Australia from 1980--2001 inclusive', Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, vol. 42:445-51.

Freemantle, C. J., Read, A. W., de Klerk, N. H., McAullay, D. & Anderson, I. 2006, 'Constructing a Mortality Profile of Western Australian Born Aboriginal Infants, Children and Young People Using Total Population Linked Data', Australasian Epidemiologist, April, vol. 13(1):9-13.

Freemantle, C. J., Read, A. W., de Klerk, N. H., McAullay, D., Anderson, I. & Stanley, F. J. 2005, 'Interpretation of Recent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Rates in Western Australia', Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, vol. 41(12):669-70.

Freemantle, C. J., Read, A. W., de Klerk, N. H., McAullay, D., Charles, A. A. & Stanley, F. J. 2005, '[Letter to the Editor:] SIDS and Unascertainable Deaths in Western Australia', Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 25 October.

Freemantle, C. J., de Klerk, N., Read, A. & Stanley, F. 2004, First Research Report of the Advisory Council for the Prevention of Death in Children and Young People, Department for Community Development, Government of Western Australia.

Freemantle, C. J. 2003, Indicators of Infant and Childhood Mortality for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Infants and Children Born in Western Australia from 1980 to 1997 Inclusive [Doctor of Philosophy], University of Western Australia, Perth.

Freemantle, C. J., McAullay, D. & Seymour, E. 2003, Descriptive Analysis of Morbidity and Mortality Data in Western Australia: Priority Areas for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Youth, report commissioned by National Health Priority Actions Council.