Top End tobacco project

• Reach:

  NT

• Focus area:

  Indigenous

• Status:

  Current

• Evaluated:

  No

Overview

The NHMRC funded Top End tobacco project aims to reduce tobacco smoking in three remote Aboriginal communities plus several homelands in the Top End (Arnhem Land) of the Northern Territory over a five year period (2007 - 2011).

The project includes:

• base line surveys of tobacco use in each community with follow-up
• ongoing measurement of tobacco sales
• support for community-developed strategies to reduce and prevent tobacco use
• improved access to Nicotine Replacement Therapy
• employment of local research workers
• provision of regular feedback to each community and key stakeholders
• support for capacity building of local health workers

Baseline surveys were undertaken June 2008 to February 2009.

Preliminary data show up to 77% of the 400 community members interviewed identified themselves as current smokers. More than half of these smokers are thinking about or actively trying to quit. Community members have expressed the need for greater community-based quit support.

Following consultation with community members, culturally and conceptually appropriate survey feedback is taking place through presentations at public meetings, to clan and family groups, to service providers and workplaces. To date, this, along with the baseline survey, has stimulated the development and implementation of community-specific intervention strategies. These include: assisting to build capacity in local health workers to deliver brief interventions and provide quit support; quit competitions; and developing local language tobacco resources. Hand-held expired carbon monoxide monitors have proven extremely successful in both verifying self-reported smoking status and creating opportunities for brief interventions in each community.

The researchers involved in the project are:

• Associate Professor Alan Clough (JCU)
• Jan Robertson (JCU)
  
• Marlene Thompson (JCU).

Contacts

Jan Robertson
Community-based Health Promotion & Prevention Projects
School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences
James Cook University
Cairns Qld 4870
Ph: (07) 40421635
Fax: (07) 40 421680
Email: jan.robertson@jcu.edu.au

Related publications

Robinson J (2008)

Top End tobacco project.

The Chronicle; 11(5): 26-27

• Links
• View information: The Chronicle
• View website: Chronic Diseases Network

Clough AR, Robertson JA, MacLaren DJ (2009)

The gap in tobacco use between remote Indigenous Australian communities and the Australian population can be closed [letters].

Tobacco Control; 18(4): 335

• Links
• View abstract: The gap in tobacco use between remote Indigenous Australian communities and the Australian population can be closed [letters]
• View article: The gap in tobacco use between remote Indigenous Australian communities and the Australian population can be closed [letters] (PDF - 472.0 KB)
• View website: Tobacco Control

Robertson JA, MacLaren DJ, Clough AR (2009)

Should the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee extend the range of free nicotine replacement therapies available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? [letter].

Medical Journal of Australia; 191(5): 293

• Links
• View abstract: Should the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee extend the range of free nicotine replacement therapies available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? [letter]
• View article: Should the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee extend the range of free nicotine replacement therapies available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? [letter]
• View website: Medical Journal of Australia

MacLaren DJ, Conigrave KM, Robertson JA, Ivers RG, Eades S, Clough AR (2010)

Using breath carbon monoxide to validate self-reported tobacco smoking in remote Australian Indigenous communities.

Population Health Metrics; 8(2): 1-24

• Links
• View abstract: Using breath carbon monoxide to validate self-reported tobacco smoking in remote Australian Indigenous communities
• View article: Using breath carbon monoxide to validate self-reported tobacco smoking in remote Australian Indigenous communities (PDF - 204.0 KB)
• View information: Using breath carbon monoxide to validate self-reported tobacco smoking in remote Australian Indigenous communities
• View website: Population Health Metrics

Time to stop or slow down? Your local health staff can help (2011)

Top End Tobacco Project

This resource kit was produced by James Cook University as part of the Top End tobacco project, which aims to reduce tobacco smoking in Aboriginal communities in the Top End of the Northern Territory. The kit contains posters and stickers promoting smoking cessation written in the Indigenous languages of the area, including Burarra, Kriol and Walpiri. A book containing stories on tobacco - Short ones - gathered from Indigenous people from Arnhem Land was also developed.

Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet abstract

• Links
• View resource: AJAY! ALAY! JAMBAKU GU-GUNA WENGA BARRA NY-BAWA, YA? Awurr-gata wachpil jama aburr-jirra aburr-workiya, birripa barra aburr-gunggaja nggula [Burarra] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
  page 2
• View resource: Enena arakba yikungwajinama nara-manja arakba ambaka-langwa yikungwajina? Nungkwurra-langwa local health staff wurrakina yikabumamurikajinama [Anindiliyakwa] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
  page 3
• View resource: Gulyurra narali’nurnydja bunytjunanur wo wiripuny wanga-wanganymirra bunytjurr: Ga marrtji nhanu watjpilil walal dhu gunga’yun nhuna [Djambarrpuynu] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
  page 8
• View resource: Ngaanguru kuwarri wiyarringkuntjaku: Yanangu ngurra waltjangka warrkarringkula marrlkupayi [Pintupi-Luritja] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
  page 6
• View resource: Short ones: tobacco stories from Arnhem Land - Jan Robertson (James Cook University) (PDF - 3.7 MB)
• View resource: Smoke-free homes [sticker]: Djambarrpuynu (Arnhem Land area) (PDF - 1.9 MB)
• View resource: Smoke-free homes [sticker]: Gunbalanya area (PDF - 751.5 KB)
• View resource: Smoke-free homes [sticker]: Kriol (Barkly and Katherine areas) (PDF - 238.0 KB)
• View resource: Taim bla yu bla libum smok. Yu gin gajim help burrum klinik mob. [Kriol] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
  page 5
• View resource: TIME BU KARRINGURDME DJA YELEDJ KARRIRE: KE LOCAL HEALTH STAFF BEDDA NGUNDIBIDYIKARRME [Kunwinkn] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
  page 1
• View resource: Time to stop or slow down? Your local health staff can help [poster] (PDF - 760.5 KB)
• View resource: Time to stop or slow down? Your local health staff can help: 8 language translations [poster] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
• View resource: Werte kwertekurne mbetyeke treyerre mwerrerrytyeke: Ngangkereyetyke kwerte mbetyeke [Arrernte] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
  page 4
• View resource: Yaapa paru wangkaya maya: Yaapa kalanyina nguru nyampula puraya yampitjala puyu [Walpiri] (PDF - 3.2 MB)
  page 7
• View website: James Cook University
• View website: James Cook University Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences

Robertson J (2011)

Reflections on tackling tobacco: a call to arms for remote area nurses.

Contemporary Nurse; 37(1): 49-56

• Links
• View abstract: Reflections on tackling tobacco: a call to arms for remote area nurses
• View website: Contemporary Nurse

Thompson M, Robertson J, Clough A (2011)

A review of the barriers preventing Indigenous Health Workers delivering tobacco interventions to their communities.

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health; 35(1): 47–53

• Links
• View abstract: A review of the barriers preventing Indigenous Health Workers delivering tobacco interventions to their communities
• View article: A review of the barriers preventing Indigenous Health Workers delivering tobacco interventions to their communities (PDF - 623.4 KB)
• View website: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health

Robertson JA, Conigrave KM, Ivers R, Usher K, Clough AR (2012)

Translation of tobacco policy into practice in disadvantaged and marginalized subpopulations: a study of challenges and opportunities in remote Australian Indigenous communities.

Health Research Policy and Systems; 10: 23

Retrieved 28 July 2012 from http://www.health-policy-systems.com/content/10/1/23/abstract

• Links
• View abstract: Translation of tobacco policy into practice in disadvantaged and marginalized subpopulations: a study of challenges and opportunities in remote Australian Indigenous communities
• View article: Translation of tobacco policy into practice in disadvantaged and marginalized subpopulations: a study of challenges and opportunities in remote Australian Indigenous communities (PDF - 408.0 KB)
• View website: Health Research Policy and Systems

Robertson J (2012)

Top End Tobacco Project - 2012 update.

The Chronicle; 24(4): 4-6

• Links
• View article: Top End Tobacco Project - 2012 update (PDF - 1.5 MB)
  See pages 4-6
• View website: The Chronicle

Links

• View information: Community action for smoking cessation in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory’s ‘Top End’
• View information: James Cook University - Population Health Research projects
• View website: James Cook University