Strong Souls Study

心血管疾病(CVD)是澳大利亚土著居民的主要问题，给澳大利亚的医疗保健系统带来了巨大的经济负担。心血管疾病不能用糖尿病、吸烟和超重等传统心血管危险因素的增加来充分解释。使用传统风险因素预测的土著青年的心血管疾病发病率比观察到的发病率低约30倍。越来越多的人认识到心理社会因素在心血管疾病中的作用，特别是土著澳大利亚人恶劣的心理社会环境。然而，人们对日常不良经历引起的心理现象及其与心血管疾病的关系知之甚少。这项研究旨在检验社会、情感和精神健康的文化有效指标与传统和新的心血管危险因素之间的关系。这项研究的结果将有助于确定许多澳大利亚原住民的不利心理社会环境是否导致目前心血管疾病的过度发病率和死亡率。这项研究被嵌入到纵向研究中，因此早期的生活经历可以被考虑在内。可悲的是，这一人群特别适合于生命历程研究，因为成人过早死亡和非传染性疾病的早期发作意味着发病率和死亡事件发生的时间间隔相对较短。

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is major problem among indigenous Australians, and imposes a significant financial burden on the Australian health care system. CVD cannot be sufficiently explained by the increased prevalence of conventional cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, smoking and overweight. Predicted CVD rates among young Indigenous adults using conventional risk factors are about 30 times lower than the observed rate. Increased recognition has been given to the role of psychosocial factors in CVD, particularly, the poor psychosocial circumstances of Indigenous Australians. However, psychological phenomena resulting from adverse day-to-day experiences and their relationships to CVD, are poorly understood. This study aims to examine relationships between culturally valid measures of social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and traditional and novel cardiovascular risk factors. Findings from this study will help determine if the adverse psychosocial environment of many Aboriginal Australians contributes to the current excess morbidity and mortality from CVD. This study is embedded in a longitudinal study so that early life experiences can be taken into account. Sadly this population is especially suitable for a life course study, because the premature adult mortality and early onset of non-communicable diseases means the time intervals for development of morbidity and mortality events is relatively short.