Indigenous Health and Health Equity
Closing the gap in health equality between Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander people and other disadvantaged Australians is a national priority. Focused effort is required to understand and resolve the underlying basis for the inequalities of health care and health care outcomes across our most vulnerable Australian community members.
There are many factors impeding the availability and delivery of health care to ensure good health outcomes for Indigenous and disadvantaged groups in Australia. These include: physical access to services for rural and remote communities; cultural appropriateness of treatment; education on the maintenance of health; and financial restrictions.
Our researchers are investigating ways to overcome these barriers and provide an improved understanding of the health and health care amongst Indigenous and disadvantaged communities. This understanding is essential for the development and implementation of informed, effective public health policy.
Researchers across the faculty are focused on:
- reducing the burden of disease and health inequalities, arising from chronic dental diseases among Indigenous children
- monitoring and surveying Indigenous oral health and use of dental services
- working with Indigenous women to develop culturally-appropriate care in order to improve the outcomes for mothers and their babies
- working with the Indigenous community to use existing knowledge on best-practice chronic disease prevention and treatment to improve the coverage and appropriateness of health services and care
- conducting interventional clinical trials to provide evidence for optimal management of HIV/AIDS across high-, middle- and low-income communities.
Our research centres and institutes working in this area
- Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (Professor David Brennan)
- Freemasons Centre for Male Health & Wellbeing (Professor Gary Wittert)
- Robinson Research Institute (Professor Sarah Robertson)
- Wardliparingga Aboriginal Research Unit (Professor Alex Brown)
Our research groups working in this area
- Adelaide Health Technology Assessment (AHTA) (Associate Professor Tracy Merlin)
- BetterStart - Child Health and Development Research Group (Professor John Lynch)
- Clinical Pharmacogenomics Group (Professor Andrew Somogyi)
- Critical and Ethical Mental Health Research Group (Professor Jon Jureidini)
- Indigenous Oral Health Unit (Professor Lisa Jamieson)
- Life Course and Intergenerational Health (LIGHt) (Professor Michael Davies)
- Northern Area Local Health Network Clinical Research (Professor Mark Boyd)
Lead researchers
For additional leads in this area of research, please contact Indigenous Health and Health Equity researchers.
Interested in a postgraduate research degree?
We offer exciting opportunities for researchers at the honours, masters and PhD levels. Our research degrees are open to students from a broad range of backgrounds, and range from basic sciences to clinical research. If you are interested in human health, consider furthering your research career with us.