Cost and affordability of healthy, equitable and more sustainable diets in the Torres Strait Islands.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the cost, cost differential and affordability of current and recommended (healthy, equitable, culturally acceptable and more sustainable) diets in the Torres Strait Islands and compare with other Queensland locations. METHODS: The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) methods protocol was applied in five randomly selected communities in the Torres Strait Islands. RESULTS: The current diet was 32% more expensive than that recommended; 'discretionary' foods comprised 64% of the current diet cost. Families could save at least A$281.38 a fortnight by switching to recommended diets. However, these cost 35-40% more than elsewhere in Queensland. Recommended diets would cost 35% of median and 48% of welfare household income in the Torres Straits. CONCLUSIONS: While less expensive than the current diet, recommended diets are unaffordable for most households. Consequently, many Torres Strait Islander families are at high risk of food insecurity and diet-related disease. IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: Urgent policy action is required to further lower the relative price of recommended diets, and also increase household incomes and welfare supplements to equitably improve food security and diet-related health, and contribute to environmental sustainability in the Torres Strait Islands.

Climate change and infectious diseases in Australia's Torres Strait Islands.

OBJECTIVE: This research seeks to identify climate-sensitive infectious diseases of concern with a present and future likelihood of increased occurrence in the geographically vulnerable Torres Strait Islands, Australia. The objective is to contribute evidence to the need for adequate climate change responses. METHODS: Case data of infectious diseases with proven, potential and speculative climate sensitivity were compiled. RESULTS: Five climate-sensitive diseases in the Torres Strait and Cape York region were identified as of concern: tuberculosis, dengue, Ross River virus, melioidosis and nontuberculous mycobacterial infection. The region constitutes 0.52% of Queensland's population but has a disproportionately high proportion of the state's cases: 20.4% of melioidosis, 2.4% of tuberculosis and 2.1% of dengue. CONCLUSIONS: The Indigenous Torres Strait Islander peoples intend to remain living on their traditional country long-term, yet climate change brings risks of both direct and indirect human health impacts. Implications for public health: Climate-sensitive infections pose a disproportionate burden and ongoing risk to Torres Strait Islander peoples. Addressing the causes of climate change is the responsibility of various agencies in parallel with direct action to minimise or prevent infections. All efforts should privilege Torres Strait Islander peoples' voices to self-determine response actions.

Beyond the pipeline: a critique of the discourse surrounding the development of an Indigenous primary healthcare workforce in Australia.

A central strategy in addressing health disparities experienced by Indigenous people has been based on a concern with workforce improvement. In this paper, the Indigenous Australian healthcare workforce literature since 1977 is reviewed and its scope of concern, as being often limited to questions of 'supply', is critiqued. The pipeline metaphor, whether used explicitly or implied, regularly focuses attention on closing the gap on Indigenous representation within the health workforce. The exception though is the discourse concerning Indigenous Health Workers (IHWs), where questions concerning the legitimacy of the role continue to abound within a workforce hierarchy where community knowledge, though shown to be crucial to culturally safe health service provision, is trumped by the other health professions whose knowledges and legitimacy are not in question. This contrast exemplifies the need to examine the working of power not just 'supply'. The pipeline metaphor is disrupted with concerns about a range of other 'gaps' - gaps in the recognition of Indigenous knowledges, in organisational structures, in governance and in self-awareness by the health professions of their whiteness. As the health system continues to measure workforce development in terms of pipeline capacity, our study questions what happens beyond the pipeline.

Overseas-trained doctors in Indigenous rural health services: negotiating professional relationships across cultural domains.

OBJECTIVE: To examine how OTDs and staff in rural and remote Indigenous health contexts communicate and negotiate identity and relationships, and consider how this may influence OTDs' transition, integration and retention. METHOD: Ten case studies were conducted in rural and remote settings across Australia, each of an OTD providing primary care in a substantially Indigenous practice population, his/her partner, co-workers and Indigenous board members associated with the health service. Cases were purposefully sampled to ensure diversity in gender, location and country of origin. RESULTS: Identity as 'fluid' emerged as a key theme in effective communication and building good relationships between OTDs and Indigenous staff. OTDs enter a social space where their own cultural and professional beliefs and practices intersect with the expectations of culturally safe practice shaped by the Australian Indigenous context. These are negotiated through differences in language, role expectation, practice, status and identification with locus with uncertain outcomes. Limited professional and cultural support often impeded this process. CONCLUSION: The reconstruction of OTDs' identities and mediating beyond predictable barriers to cultural engagement contributes significantly not only to OTDs' integration and, to a lesser extent, their retention, but also to maximising effective communication across cultural domains. IMPLICATIONS: Retention of OTDs working in Indigenous health contexts rests on a combination of OTDs' capacity to adapt culturally and professionally to this complex environment, and of effective strategies to support them.

Carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a Queensland Indigenous community.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) carriage and infection among children living in an Indigenous community in Queensland. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Swabs for culture of S. aureus were collected from the nose, throat and skin wounds of primary school children. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: MRSA carriage, antibiotic sensitivity, genotype, and presence of the virulence factor Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL); and epidemiological risk factors for MRSA carriage. RESULTS: 92 (59%) of 157 eligible children were included in the study. Twenty-seven (29%) carried S. aureus; 14 of these (15% of total) carried MRSA. MRSA was isolated from 29% of wound swabs, 8% of nose swabs, and 1% of throat swabs. Fourteen of 15 MRSA isolates were sensitive to all non-beta-lactam antibiotics tested. Eight children (9%) carried CA-MRSA clonal types: six carried the Queensland clone (ST93), and two carried the South West Pacific clone (ST30). All these isolates carried the virulence factor PVL. The remaining six children carried a hospital-associated MRSA strain (ST5), negative for PVL. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified a high prevalence of CA-MRSA carriage in school children from a Queensland Indigenous community. In this setting, antibiotics with activity against CA-MRSA should be considered for empiric therapy of suspected staphylococcal infection. Larger community-based studies are needed to improve our understanding of the epidemiology of CA-MRSA, and to assist in the development of therapeutic guidelines for this important infection.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and the conduct of longitudinal studies: issues for debate.

The National Health and Medical Research Council, Research Agenda Working Group (RAWG), and the literature on Indigenous health have identified the need to fill gaps in descriptive data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and noted both the lack of research with urban populations and the need for longitudinal studies. This paper presents some of the broad ethical and methodological challenges associated with longitudinal research in Indigenous health and focuses particularly on national studies and studies in urban areas. Our goal is to advance debate in the public health arena about the application of ethical guidelines and the conduct of longitudinal studies in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We encourage others to offer their experiences in this field.