The Medical journal of Australia
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Despite the "best of intentions", Australia has fallen short of federal targets to close the gap in disproportionate health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. We examined 2150 original research articles published over the 12-year period (from 2008 to 2020), of which 58% used descriptive designs and only 2.6% were randomised controlled trials. There were few national studies. ⋯ The largest number of publications focused on mental and substance use disorders (n = 322, 20.5%); infectious diseases (n = 222, 14.1%); health services planning, delivery and improvement (n = 193, 33.5%); and health and wellbeing (n = 170, 29.5%). This review is timely given new investments in Aboriginal health, which highlights the importance of Aboriginal researchers, community leadership and research priority. We anticipate future outputs for Aboriginal health research to change significantly from this review, and join calls for a broadening of our intellectual investment in Aboriginal health.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
SISTAQUIT: training health care providers to help pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women quit smoking. A cluster randomised controlled trial.
About 44% of Indigenous Australian women smoke during pregnancy, compared with 12% of pregnant non-Indigenous women. Health care providers can assist smoking cessation, but they are not typically trained in culturally appropriate methods. ⋯ health service process evaluations; knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health care providers; and longer term abstinence, perinatal outcomes, and respiratory outcomes for babies (to six months). Ethics approval: The human research ethics committees of the University of Newcastle (H-2015-0438) and the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW (1140/15) provided the primary ethics approval. Dissemination of results: Findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications, at local and overseas conferences, and via public and social media, and to participating health services in art-based formats and reports. Policy briefs will be communicated to relevant government organisations.
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To provide updated estimates of life expectancy at birth for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, 1999-2018; to quantify the contributions of changes in life years lost to disease-specific causes of death to overall changes in life expectancy. ⋯ Life expectancy improved markedly during 1999-2018 for Indigenous people in the NT, particularly with respect to fewer years of life lost to cancer, injuries, and chronic disease. The smaller gains in life expectancy for non-Indigenous people were linked with improved survival for those with cancer and neurological conditions.