About the Authors

Timothy Howarth

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

timothypaul.howarth@cdu.edu.au

Affiliations College of Health and Human Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, Darwin Respiratory and Sleep Health, Darwin Private Hospital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Helmi Ben Saad

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Université de Sousse, Faculté de Médecine de Sousse, Laboratoire de Physiologie, Sousse, Tunisia, Department of Physiology and Functional Exploration, Farhat HACHED Hospital, Sousse, Tunisia, Heart Failure Research Laboratory (LR12SP09), Farhat HACHED Hospital, Sousse, Tunisia

Ara J. Perez

Roles Data curation, Resources

Affiliation Darwin Respiratory and Sleep Health, Darwin Private Hospital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Charmain B. Atos

Roles Data curation, Project administration, Resources

Affiliation Darwin Respiratory and Sleep Health, Darwin Private Hospital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Elisha White

Roles Data curation, Project administration, Resources

Affiliation Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Subash S. Heraganahally

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Darwin Respiratory and Sleep Health, Darwin Private Hospital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, College of Medicine and Public Health and Northern Territory Medical Programme, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Competing Interests

We also want to declare that this study was partially/voluntarily supported by Boehringer Ingelheim pharmaceutical company to support respiratory research in Aboriginal Australian population of the Northern Territory of Australia. Boehringer Ingelheim did not have any role in the study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation. The funds were utilised to employ research assistants and statisticians for this study. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.