Developing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural indicators: an overview from Mayi Kuwayu, the National Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culture is foundational to health and wellbeing. However, its inherent conceptual complexity and diversity across and within different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural groups means that it has rarely been explored in depth by epidemiological research. As a result, there are very few measures which adequately represent the heterogeneity and importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures for health and wellbeing. Tools grounded in the social determinants of health are mostly based on European academic opinion about what constitutes culture and wellbeing, and the views of Indigenous peoples are rarely included. Mayi Kuwayu, the National Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing, developed a new survey tool based on health and wellbeing as perceived by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This paper describes several of the key processes used to identify cultural domains and develop questionnaire items for the survey tool, reflecting the importance of culture to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. METHODS: Focus groups were conducted at community organisations and conferences with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These sessions were aimed at identifying key cultural domains to be addressed by the Mayi Kuwayu questionnaire and to field test drafts of the questionnaire, which were then modified according to focus group feedback and expert input. RESULTS: Extensive community consultations allowed us to identify key cultural domains, generate questionnaire items, and test initial content validity. The six overarching cultural domains identified during the development of the Mayi Kuwayu questionnaire were: Connection to Country; Beliefs and knowledge; Language; Family, kinship, and community; Cultural expression and continuity; and Self-determination and leadership. CONCLUSIONS: The processes used by Mayi Kuwayu have generated meaningful cultural items for use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing research. Further assessment of these processes, including a comparison with best practice guidelines and psychometric testing of the items and scales developed, will be conducted in a future program of work.

Updated systematic review and meta-analysis of studies examining the relationship between reported racism and health and well-being for children and youth: a protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Racism is a critical determinant of health and health inequities for children and youth. This protocol aims to update the first systematic review conducted by Priest et al (2013), including a meta-analysis of findings. Based on previous empirical data, it is anticipated that child and youth health will be negatively impacted by racism. Findings from this review will provide updated evidence of effect sizes across outcomes and identify moderators and mediators of relationships between racism and health. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This systematic review and meta-analysis will include studies that examine associations between experiences of racism and racial discrimination with health outcomes of children and youth aged 0-24 years. Exposure measures include self-reported or proxy reported systemic, interpersonal and intrapersonal racism. Outcome measures include general health and well-being, physical health, mental health, biological markers, healthcare utilisation and health behaviours. A comprehensive search of studies from the earliest time available to October 2020 will be conducted. A random effects meta-analysis will examine the average effect of racism on a range of health outcomes. Study-level moderation will test the difference in effect sizes with regard to various sample and exposure characteristics. This review has been registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This review will provide evidence for future research within the field and help to support policy and practice development. Results will be widely disseminated to both academic and non-academic audiences through peer-review publications, community summaries and presentations to research, policy, practice and community audiences. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020184055.

Strengths-based approaches for quantitative data analysis: A case study using the australian Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children.

In Australia and internationally, there are increasing calls for the use of strengths-based methodologies, to counter the dominant deficit discourse that pervades research, policy, and media relating to Indigenous health and wellbeing. However, there is an absence of literature on the practical application of strengths-based approaches to quantitative research. This paper describes and empirically evaluates a set of strategies to support strengths-based quantitative analysis. A case study about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child wellbeing was used to demonstrate approaches to support strengths-based quantitative analysis, in comparison to the dominant deficit approach of identifying risk factors associated with a negative outcome. Data from Wave 8 (2015) of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children were analysed. The Protective Factors Approach is intended to enable identification of factors protective against a negative outcome, and the Positive Outcome Approach is intended to enable identification of factors associated with a positive health outcome. We compared exposure-outcome associations (prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), calculated using Poisson regression with robust variance) between the strengths-based and deficit approaches. In this case study, application of the strengths-based approaches retains the identification of statistically significant exposure-outcome associations seen with the standard deficit approach. Strengths-based approaches can enable a more positive story to be told, without altering statistical rigour. For Indigenous research, a strengths-based approach better reflects community values and principles, and it is more likely to support positive change than standard pathogenic models. Further research is required to explore the generalisability of these findings.