- Title
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health: identifying opportunities for health gain through primary health care and targeted research
- Creator
- Stewart, Jessica
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- This doctoral thesis by publication provides new knowledge in two important and related areas in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Firstly, the thesis investigates opportunities in primary health care for reducing some of the major contributors to the health disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians. It suggests that strategies are needed to better support patients and GPs in accurately identifying patients at risk and also support the need for a continued policy commitment towards these activities. Secondly, where evidence is lacking of effective primary health care interventions, the research aims to inform health and medical research policy to support research that will maximise health improvements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It aims to inform policy-makers, health practitioners, researchers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities on opportunities for health gains that are evident in primary health care and through more targeted health and medical research. One of the key findings of this doctoral research is the lack of intervention research being conducted specifically in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. It identifies the lack of research outputs that can be used to inform clinical practice as well as health policy and programs. The findings offer strategies that may be able to be implemented into policy to address barriers to increasing the amount of high quality intervention research being conducted in Australia. Another key finding is that research funding disproportionally funds descriptive research rather than measurement and intervention research. The findings aim to inform future health and medical research funding allocation in a way that targets specific health topics, types of research, as well as disciplines that may result in health gains more quickly due to their ability to more rapidly translate findings into policy and practice. The implications of the research aim to be practical and achievable. In primary health care, improving screening according to evidence-based guidelines will greatly improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Where the evidence is lacking on effective health care strategies specifically targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, strategic research is needed that will create evidence to address the major causes of the health gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians.
- Subject
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health; indigenous health research funding; primary health care research; Aboriginal community controlled health services; thesis by publication
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1310570
- Identifier
- uon:22052
- Rights
- Copyright 2015 Jessica Stewart
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Abstract | 400 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Thesis | 4 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |