Building an Indigenous-Led Evidence Base for Smoking Cessation Care among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women during Pregnancy and Beyond: Research Protocol for the Which Way? Project

Abstract

Strong and healthy futures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people requires engagement in meaningful decision making which is supported by evidence-based approaches. While a significant number of research publications state the research is co-designed, few describe the research process in relation to Indigenous ethical values. Improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and babies is crucial to the continuation of the oldest living culture in the world. Developing meaningful supports to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers to quit smoking during pregnancy is paramount to addressing a range of health and wellbeing outcomes. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have called for non-pharmacological approaches to smoking cessation during pregnancy. We describe a culturally responsive research protocol that has been co-designed and is co-owned with urban and regional Aboriginal communities in New South Wales. The project has been developed in line with the AH&MRC’s (Aboriginal Health & Medical Research Council) updated guidelines for ethical research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Ethics approvals have been granted by AH&MRC #14541662 University of Newcastle HREC H-2020-0092 and the Local Health District ethics committee 2020/ETH02095. Results will be disseminated through peer reviewed articles, community reports, infographics, and online social media content.

Co-Designing Health Service Evaluation Tools That Foreground First Nation Worldviews for Better Mental Health and Wellbeing Outcomes

“…There is a recognised need for evaluation frameworks to be more reflective of, and responsive to, Aboriginal worldviews to allow the cultural standpoint of Aboriginal people to directly contribute to the quality improvement of mainstream health service delivery [29,[37][38][39][40][41][42]. The development of the service evaluation is an example of how co-design that foregrounds Aboriginal ways of working can be more responsive and relevant to local cultural needs.…”

“…For example, the Ngaa-bi-nya Framework is a practical evaluation guide that was designed from an Aboriginal standpoint informed by the holistic concept of Aboriginal health and used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods [37]. Co-designing evaluations can strengthen, improve and provide a sense of ownership for community members [38][39][40][41][42]. Foregrounding Aboriginal ways of working ensures evaluation instruments are relevant, credible and importantly, effective and meaningful in documenting outcomes [42,43].…”

Factors Associated with Smoke-Free Pregnancy among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Women and Their Experience of Quitting Smoking in Pregnancy: A Mixed Method Cross-Sectional Study

“…This paper reports on several pregnancy-related questions from an online survey of smoking and quitting among Aboriginal women. The parent project, entitled ‘Which Way?’, aimed to co-develop an Aboriginal-led evidence base for smoking cessation interventions to support Aboriginal women to be smoke-free during pregnancy and beyond and has been reported elsewhere [ 20 ]. The Which Way?…”

The Health and Wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples around the Globe: Ensuring and Promoting Best Practice in Research

“…A range of mechanisms across the life of the research project or program, from setting research priorities to ongoing communication to dissemination of results, were described. These included: membership of Indigenous and Tribal people on advisory groups, working groups, steering committees, and governance committees [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 23 , 25 , 27 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 37 ]; involvement of community Elders, other community leaders, and Tribal health centres [ 19 , 25 , 28 , 35 ]; formal and informal partnerships with Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisations, Tribal health services and other community organisations [ 8 , 10 , 14 , 19 , 20 , 22 , 25 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]; hiring and training Indigenous research staff, especially from the relevant community/ies [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 13 , 16 , 18 , 23 , 35 ]; the use of community-based participatory research approaches, co-design, and consumer engagement and involvement [ 12 , 19 , 20 , 23 , 25 , 32 , 33 , 35 ]; and the involvement ...…”

“…The resulting Special Issue includes 31 papers in total, with 21 from Australia [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], 4 from the United States [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], 3 from Aotearoa/New Zealand [ 32 , 33 , 34 ], 1 from Canada [ 35 ], and 2 from authors in multiple countries [ 36 , 37 ]. This represents a substantial body of research on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples, possibly the largest collection ever published.…”