Aboriginal health | |
Aboriginal primary health care. An evidence-based approach. Sophia Couzos, Richard Murray. Melbourne: Oxford University Press 1999 (xxxi + 453pp.). ISBN: 0 19 550836 X. |
The grim statistics
of Aboriginal illness and death cry out for a different approach to health services for Aboriginal people. This publication was instigated and developed by the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council. Such Aboriginal control is the highest qualification that the authors can have. They are also qualified in general practice, public health and rural and remote medicine. The book represents explicit acknowledgement that Aboriginal people have different medical needs from non-Aboriginal people. Although there are clearly important roles for health professionals in the improvement of Aboriginal health, most improvement will come from better education, nutrition, housing and employment opportunities. This book places emphasis on evidence. Seven important issues in Aboriginal health are discussed in depth. The areas chosen are those in which Aboriginal people have substantially worse health than other Australians, in which there is controversy about management, but for which a useful amount of scientific evidence is available to help develop health service guidelines. The comprehensive references will enable readers to develop their own evidence-based practices; however, the reference list is somewhat daunting. For example, the chapter on ear health cites 643 references. Unfortunately, each citation is given a new number and the full title is not restated. The reader is left to manually search for the authors' names through hundreds of preceding references. In addition, some of the references are secondary sources. This leads to further work for the reader interested in quality evidence. Aboriginal health organisations currently developing management protocols will find it a useful work. Busy clinicians may use it to develop an evidence-based approach. However, it shows that we must still rely on sometimes contradictory opinion-based advice as we wait for evidence. Rosalie Schultz
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Aboriginal primary health care. An evidence-based approach. 2nd edition. Sophia Couzos, Richard Murray (editors). Melbourne: Oxford University Press 2003 (xxxviii + 658pp.). ISBN: 0 19 550836 X. |
In this second edition
of Aboriginal primary health care there are added experts who examine a broader range of topics, such as the burden of disease affecting the Aboriginal population, the influence of poverty, and the consequences arising from inequities in access to care. Substantial new information is also added on such issues as ischaemic and rheumatic heart disease, sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, leprosy, substance misuse, growth failure in children, suicide prevention, custodial health, and the Australian policy process.
The Editor, MJA
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