Positive community responses to an arts-health program designed to tackle diabetes and kidney disease in remote Aboriginal communities in Australia: a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: The Western Desert Kidney Health Project (WDKHP) is an innovative clinical screening, arts-health and community development program, staffed by Aboriginal health workers. The WDKHP is aimed at prevention and early detection, improving the chance of better management of kidney disease among people in 10 predominantly Aboriginal communities in rural Western Australia. This paper aimed to understand community responses to the WDKHP in three of these communities. METHODS: Interviews were undertaken with 26 Aboriginal people living in three remote communities. Community responses were analysed with attention to the social organisation of participants in each community and a focus on the perspectives of key groups, identified here as 'Community Leaders', 'Homelanders', 'Refuge Seekers' and 'Dislocated'. RESULTS: Participants from all groups reported that the WDKHP was highly acceptable, and an effective means of drawing attention to the need for prevention, early detection and management of diabetes and kidney disease. The integration of Aboriginal health workers to explain the project contributed to the high rates of participation in clinical screening. CONCLUSIONS: Outreach clinical services can be an appropriate method of engaging people in remote communities in addressing diabetes and kidney disease. IMPLICATIONS: The remote community setting can act as an 'enabler' of healthy lifestyle for Aboriginal people, particularly when augmented by well-designed outreach programs.

Perils and possibilities: achieving best evidence from focus groups in public health research.

OBJECTIVE: Focus group research is often seen as a cost-effective way of gathering evidence from multiple research participants about the diversity of their views, experiences or beliefs. Our objective is to argue that focus group research only fulfils its potential if analysis of individual views is extended to include analysis of interaction between participants, so that we learn more why people hold these views. APPROACH: We outline the literature on focus group research, contrasting the 'quick-and-easy' approach with the demands of studies that are designed, conducted and analysed in a methodologically rigorous way to yield high quality public health evidence. CONCLUSION: Well-conducted focus groups contribute good evidence for public health decision making. The challenges of conducting high-quality studies should not be underestimated, and must involve rigorous analysis of both interaction and content.