CRCAH Project No: CD216
Administering organisation
Menzies School of Health Research
Project leader
David Thomas, Menzies School of Health Research
Contact details
Email: david.thomas@menzies.edu.au
Funding sources
- CRC for Aboriginal Health
- The National Health and Medical Research Council
Partners involved
- Menzies School of Health Research
- Aboriginal people and organisations in remote communities
- Stores and takeaway outlets in these communities
- Wholesalers to these stores and takeaway outlets
- Northern Territory Department of Health & Community Services (NTDHCS)
- Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT (AMSANT)
- Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH)
- Arnhemland Progress Association (ALPA)
- Outback Stores
- National Heart Foundation
- University of Melbourne
- University of Wollongong
Project summary
Tobacco smoking caused an estimated 20% of national Indigenous deaths in 2003. Smoking is twice as common in Indigenous as non-Indigenous Australians.
Our project will increase knowledge about Indigenous smoking by describing:
- Indigenous perceptions of why people smoke or quit
- The social determinants of Indigenous smoking
- National and local trends in Indigenous smoking
The project will increase knowledge about tobacco control activities for Indigenous people by:
- Evaluating tobacco control projects
- Monitoring tobacco control activities in remote Indigenous communities.
Summary of projected outcomes
This research will add important new evidence about Indigenous perceptions of smoking and quitting in remote communities, the social determinants of smoking and quitting, local and national trends in Indigenous smoking, and evaluations of tobacco control interventions.
It will also establish the feasibility of monitoring tobacco consumption trends in remote Indigenous towns, using store and takeaway sales of tobacco. Such monitoring (and local feedback) is analogous to the established monitoring of infectious disease notifications. It would enable timely policy responses to local changes in tobacco consumption, and will facilitate the evaluation of the local impact of new tobacco control activities and policies.
The project started in February 2007 and was due to finish in 2009.
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