Social Determinants
Social Determinants
Improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health relies on addressing broader issues than biomedical health. Social factors – such as housing, education, employment and transport – must also be addressed if we are to achieve lasting health gains.
'Smoke-busters': Maningrida’s experience implementing a tobacco control program
Tobacco is a major cause of the gap in life expectancybetween Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians [1]. Smoking prevalence in remote Aboriginal communities is several times higher than the national average [2] and has not declined over recent decades - suggesting that mainstream health promotion campaigns have been ineffective in this challenging setting. Following a community outreach program of Adult Health Checks, tobacco control was identified as a major priority to improve the health of people in Maningrida.
'They Weren’t Separated': Missions, dormitories and generational health
In 1997 the Bringing Them Home Report brought attention to those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were taken away from their families for the purpose of assimilation. Less attention was given to those children who were also taken away but grew up in mission and settlement dormitories. Over a number of decades, and until the early 1970s, a large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were taken into mission and settlement dormitories. In various ways they were physically and socially separated from their families.
A Cluster of Melioidosis Cases from an Endemic Region Is Clonal and Is Linked to the Water Supply Using Molecular Typing of Bukholderia Pseudomallei Isolates
Nine cases of melioidosis with four deaths occurred over a 28-month period in members of a small remote Aboriginal community in the top end of the Northern Territory of Australia. Typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed isolates of Burkholderia pseudomallei from six of the cases to be clonal and also identical to an isolate from the community water supply, but not to soil isolates. The clonality of the isolates found in this cluster contrasts with the marked genetic diversity of human and environmental isolates found in this region which is hyperendemic for B. pseudomallei.
A Longitudinal Data Resource on Key Influences on Health in the Northern Territory: Opportunities and Obstacles
This is the first in the CRC for Aboriginal Health's Discussion Paper Series. The purpose of this study is to increase understanding among researchers, health professionals, and government policy makers of the social and environmental determinants of health. Determinants include income, employment, education, housing, community infrastructure, social disruption, crime and violence.
A Multifaceted Health-service Intervention in Remote Aboriginal Communities: 3-year follow-up of the impact on diabetes care
Objective: To examine the trends in processes of diabetes care and in participant outcomes after an intervention in two remote regions of Australia. Design: Follow-up study over 3years. Setting: Seven health centres in the Tiwi Islands and the Katherine West region of the Northern Territory. Participants: 137Aboriginal people with type 2diabetes.
A New Variant of Dual-record Population Estimation with an Application in Remote Indigenous Communities
Dual-record system methods are commonly used as a basis for population estimation. A basic assumption is that the units sampled are drawn only from the population to be estimated. This assumption cannot be met for remote Indigenous communities in Australia. A new variant of dual-record population estimation is presented, which relies on the availability of specific additional information to relax the assumption of perfect frame specification. This variant is applied to two remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory of Australia, using locally available data sources.
Aboriginal Adult Literacy Campaign
This project emerged out of a CRC for Aboriginal Health-sponsored workshop in Alice Springs in April 2009 that examined the relationship between adult literacy and health, the international experience of the impact of adult literacy campaigns, and the details of how they were conducted to optimise success.
Aboriginal Adult Literacy Campaign: Stage 1
Aboriginal adult literacy program set to expand beyond Wilcannia
The Lowitja Institute has approved funding for Stage 2 of the Aboriginal adult literacy campaign following the successful pilot of the program over the past year in the New South Wales outback community of Wilcannia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander urban location and health project
Aboriginal people travelling well
Aboriginal People Travelling Well literature review: driver licensing issues, seat restraint non-compliance, Aboriginal health, Aboriginal disability
This review focuses on the interaction between access to safe and sufficient transport, and the effects on the wellbeing and health of Aboriginal people. Aspects under specific consideration are driver licensing, use of seat restraints, and health and disability needs. Attaining and retaining a drivers license for life, and travelling safely, which includes being trained to drive safely and being educated and aware of the efficacy of seat restraints are important issues for Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal Prisoner Health Industry Roundtable
The CRCAH hosted a research development roundtable on Aboriginal prison health in Canberra on 28 November 2007, in partnership with the Public Health Association of Australia and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
The roundtable aimed to bring together community representatives, correction staff (policy, program, management and custodial staff), researchers and advocates in order to:
Aboriginality, Poverty and Health — Exploring the connections (Beyond Bandaids, Chapter 5)
Beyond Bandaids is a collection of sixteen papers from the CRCAH Social Determinants of Aboriginal Health Workshop held in Adelaide in July 2004.
Alternative VET Pathways to Indigenous Development: Review of research
This publication reports on a research project which set out to analyse recent research and policy documents on indigenous peoples' development needs and aspirations, and was aimed at assessing the extent to which current developments in vocational education and training research and policy were sufficiently informed by this separate but related body of literature. The report argues that current policy settings and research on the educational needs of indigenous Australians have been overly influenced by human capital theory and economic rationalist policy.
Ambivalent Helpers and Unhealthy Choices: Public health practitioners' narratives of Indigenous ill-health
Public health practitioners in Australian indigenous health work in a complex political environment. Public health training is limited in providing them with conceptual tools needed to unpack the postcolonial nexus of fourth-world health. A workshop was designed by the authors to facilitate critical reflection on how the concepts of race and culture are used in constructions of indigenous ill-health. It was attended by researchers, students, clinicians and bureaucrats working in public health in northern Australia.
An Aboriginal family and community healing program in metropolitan Adelaide: Description and evaluation
This paper describes and evaluates the process, impacts and outcomes of an Aboriginal Family and Community Healing (AFCH) Program based in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. The evaluation used participatory action oriented methodology, mixed methods and multiple data sources. The AFCH comprised complex and dynamic activities for Aboriginal men, women and youth built around community engagement, and hosted by the regional primary health care Aboriginal outreach service.
An Introduction to the Social Determinants of Health in Relation to the Northern Territory Indigenous Population
This paper re-examines the factors underlying the continuing poor health of the NTs Indigenous population versus the non-Indigenous population. In particular, it focuses on recent research including the well-known Whitehall Studies that demonstrates poorer health outcomes for people with less power/status in their communities/workplaces. The paper concludes that, along with greater availability of primary health care, efforts to raise the socio-economic status of the NTs Indigenous people and allow them increased control over their lives will yield improved health outcomes.
Analysis of representation of Indigenous Australians in mainstream print media: An exploration centred on the social determinants of health
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