Improving Health for Aboriginal People Through Tobacco Related Research

Summary

Aim: To identify barriers and facilitators in the uptake of smoking cessation pharmacotherapies, tobacco prevention, doctor visits, smoking amongst youth, community held health priorities and barriers to research in Aboriginal Australians from the perspectives of:

* Aboriginal smokers and ex/non-smokers
* Aboriginal Healthcare workers
* Consultants/general practitioners, and
* Key stakeholders in Aboriginal health

Focus groups, one-on-one interviews and surveys will be conducted to provide information at the 'grass-roots' level including examinations into perceived differences in locally held beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, traditional practices and the cultural and social constructs, to assist implementation of future tobacco cessation/prevention interventions and treatment of smoking related illnesses. This information can be used to improve the health of Aboriginal people by identifying inadequacies in current practices and highlighting what these are through the eyes of community members, healthcare workers, consultants/general practitioners and key stakeholders. We also intend on examining any facilitators that are identified as positive and working aspects of current initiatives e.g. community infrastructure, in an effort to not 'reinvent the wheel' and acknowledge what is working.

Conditions

• Tobacco Dependence

Interventions

OTHER

Focus group

Initially, ten focus groups with an average sample size of 5-7 participants each will be performed in two communities within South Australia, one being Adelaide and the other Murray Bridge, this includes focus groups held with healthcare workers. The proposed focus groups will be conducted by experienced mediators who have undertaken Aboriginal cultural awareness training and have experience in qualitative research methods. Both mediators have also been involved in all aspects of project development and consultation with Aboriginal Elders and key stakeholders since its conception. We will be using topic guides (reviewed by Aboriginal Elders and researchers) that will be semi-structured with open-ended questions designed to encourage group discussion around smoking cessation and the use of pharmacotherapies in particular, in addition to other objectives identified during the consultation phase of this research.

OTHER

One-on-one interviews

One-on- one interviews will be held with both medical clinicians and key stakeholders and will be conducted by existing TQEH (The Queen Elizabeth Hospital), Clinical Practice Unit employees, experienced in qualitative research. Informed consent will be required and the interview will be audio taped to allow analysis of the qualitative data. All interviews will remain anonymous, unless the interviewee prefers to be named. In this case, they will be named in the acknowledgement section of all publications and presentations. Moderator guides have been developed and reviewed in the same process undergone by the focus group moderator guides

OTHER

Survey

A four page survey will be administered to all focus group and interview participants in addition to select cohorts including tobacco related special interest groups of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ). The survey will include demographic data, smoking history and current smoking status (questions related to smoking for current tobacco users include the Fagerstrom test for nicotine dependence, multiple Likert scales for cravings, motivation to quit, confidence etc.) and Likert scales examining perceptions, attitudes and knowledge about tobacco use, cessation, prevention, health and research in the Aboriginal setting.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Adelaide

  collaborator OTHER

• The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kristin V Carson, PhD · University of Adelaide

• Brian J Smith, MBBS, PhD · The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

• Adrian J Esterman, PhD,MSc,BSc · University of South Australia

• Matthew J Peters, MBBS, PhD · Concord Hospital

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-03-31

Primary Completion

2016-04-30

Completion

2016-04-30

Countries

• Australia

Study Locations