Aboriginal health
The National Centre in HIV Social Research does not have a formally constituted research program in Aboriginal health. However, given our commitment to working with communities affected by HIV, hepatitis C and sexually transmissible infections, we have become involved in and initiated a number of projects working with Aboriginal health organisations and communities. These collaborative projects explore issues such as the knowledge of blood-borne viruses among Aboriginal people, access to services, resilience and child health, and the experience of cancer among Aboriginal Australians. It is vital that research with Aboriginal people be equitable, transparent, deliver community benefits and meet the highest ethical standards. For these reasons we work closely with Aboriginal health organisations to develop research protocols of benefit to all stakeholders.
| Current projects and contacts |
- Survey of knowledge, risk practice and access to services in Aboriginal people in New South Wales: for more information please contact, Associate Professor Heather Worth.
- SEARCH: study of environment on Aboriginal resilience and child health: for more information please contact, Professor Susan Kippax.
- Aboriginal patterns of cancer care (APOCC): for more information please contact, Professor Susan Kippax.
- Building research capacity for health interventions to imporve Aboriginal health
| Selected past projects |
- Cancer in Aboriginal people
- Aboriginal people living with HIV in urban and rural settings in Western Australia
Project Descriptions
Survey of knowledge, risk practice and access to services among Aboriginal people in New South Wales |
This project aims to assess levels of knowledge, risk practice and access to health services in relation to sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and blood-borne viruses among Aboriginal people aged 16 to 30 in New South Wales.
In 2007 we obtained approval from the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council to carry out a cross-sectional pilot study at the Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout Carnival in Lismore in October. We also trialled the use of handheld computers as a way of gathering data. Most (97%) of the participants used the handheld computers to complete the questionnaire and were comfortable doing so. The advantage of using handheld computers for data collection is a saving in data entry costs.
A convenience sample of 130 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander attendees, 16 to 30 years old, was obtained over three days of the carnival. Results were in the process of being analysed at the end of 2007 and consent had been obtained from the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council to conduct the survey again during the next major Aboriginal event in New South Wales, Yabun.
Study of environment on Aboriginal resilience and child health (SEARCH) |
This project involves the establishing of a cohort of Aboriginal families with children aged 16 years and under to investigate over a twenty-year period the causes of health and illness with a focus on physical, community and family environments. It aims to investigate the relationship between a healthy environment and a range of health outcomes in Aboriginal children and young people living in urban areas, and the impact of a community led program on the development of healthy environments and the health of children. Information will be collected using a variety of measures including: observational measures of housing quality and safety; survey and questionnaire assessments of self-reported health, resilience, social and emotional well-being, family structure, social support and community engagement; and medical records from Aboriginal medical services. The input of NCHSR will be focused on resilience and its correlates.
In 2007 the questionnaire was designed and approval sought and gained from Aboriginal medical services. Discussions with communities indicated that within existing resource constraints it would be possible to recruit 400 families. Data collection began in late 2007; however, new recruitment strategies are being trialled to improve access to families.
Kippax, Treloar, Brener, Ellard and Newman
The aims of the APOCC study are to assess whether or not Aboriginal people are being diagnosed with cancer at later stages than non-Aboriginal people and, if so, to describe both the barriers to early diagnosis and access to cancer care experienced by Aboriginal people and the care that Aboriginal people with cancer are currently receiving; and to compare the level and type of care they receive with that received by non-Aboriginal people.
The research is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council on a Health Services Grant and administered by The Cancer Council New South Wales. This research consists of four phases. NCHSR is responsible for the qualitative arm of the research, which entails conducting in-depth interviews with 50 Aboriginal people with cancer, 30 carers of Aboriginal people with cancer and 30 health care workers who work with Aboriginal people with cancer. The qualitative arm aims to explore and understand Aboriginal people’s cancer journey using culturally appropriate qualitative research tools. The other three phases of the study are: i) a description of patterns of cancer treatment given to Aboriginal in-patients, using linked data from the New South Wales Central Cancer Registry and the Inpatient Statistics Collection of records of hospital admissions in New South Wales; ii) validation and expansion of the data from the analysis of the in-patient statistics by means of abstraction of treatment information from medical records at Aboriginal medical services; and iii) population-based studies of the patterns of care and pathways to diagnosis for Aboriginal people with cancer.
| Making a difference: building research capacity for health interventions to improve Aboriginal health |
NCHSR will work with Aboriginal researchers to build their research skills and their capacity to engage in qualitative research. This capacity building will be carried out in conjunction with the project Aboriginal Patterns of Cancer Care, which is run by The Cancer Council New South Wales in conjunction with NCHSR and researchers from the University of Sydney.
Past project descriptions
| Cancer in Aboriginal people: pilot study |
A qualitative pilot study was funded by The Cancer Council Australia to develop and test research tools for a larger study on cancer in Aboriginal people in New South Wales. This pilot study established working relationships with key Aboriginal organisations, including the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council and the Coalition for Research to Improve Aboriginal Health (CRIAH). The study also designed and piloted interview schedules, built research capacity among Aboriginal researchers by employing and training Aboriginal interviewers, and developed and tested strategies for recruiting participants.
To ensure Aboriginal involvement in the data collection stage, the project team recruited and trained three Aboriginal people to work as interviewers on the project. The training process included a workshop on qualitative research and interviewing, observing experienced interviewers conducting interviews with health care workers and, alongside an experienced interviewer, co-interviewing Aboriginal people with cancer. It is envisaged that these Aboriginal interviewers will also be employed on the larger study.
In 2007, pilot interviews were conducted with five Aboriginal people with cancer (three women and two men) and eight health care workers (both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) who worked with Aboriginal people with cancer. The patients and health care workers were recruited from one urban and one regional Aboriginal community controlled health service. In 2007 a paper reviewing the literature on this topic was accepted for publication in Critical Public Health. A final report on the initial ‘pilot’ study will be completed in early 2008.
The pilot study was conducted by a research team with experience in qualitative research, cancer research and Aboriginal health research from the School of Psychology, University of Sydney; The Sax Institute; and the School of Public Health and Community Medicine and the National Centre in HIV Social Research, both at The University of New South Wales.
This pilot study has fed into a five-year project entitled Aboriginal Patterns of Cancer Care (APOCC), which isfunded by the National Health and Medical Research Council in collaboration with the University of Sydney, the Sax Institute and The Cancer Council New South Wales. This project will run from 2007 to 2011.
| Aboriginal people living with HIV in urban and rural settings in Western Australia |
This project was conducted by the Western Australian Department of Health with
NCHSR acting as consultant and co-author on selected publications. The aim
was to document, through 20 in-depth interviews, the experience of living with
HIV among urban and rural Aboriginal people in Western Australia, and thereby
to inform programs to reduce the social impact of HIV in Aboriginal communities.
The interviews focused on issues relating to the impact of HIV on everyday life.
This qualitative study gave a voice to Aboriginal people living with HIV in Western
Australia. Several journal articles have been published from the findings of the study and in 2005 two conference papers were presented.
Join an NCHSR studyThe following projects are currently seeking research participants: |
