The North Queensland tobacco project

Abstract

Tobacco smoking is a major contributor to the well-documented poorer health status of Indigenous Australians.

During the period 1989–1999 the smoking-related death rate among Indigenous Queenslanders was almost three times greater than that of non-Indigenous Queenslanders. Data from the north Queensland Well Person’s Health Check (1998- 2000) has shown self-reported smoking rates of 66% among men and 54% among women living in communities that took part. There are few reports of interventions intended to decrease the prevalence of tobacco smoking or strategies to raise awareness among Indigenous people about the hazards associated with it.

The North Queensland Indigenous Tobacco Project, funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council grant, is a three-year collaborative research project between James Cook University, Queensland Health and eight Indigenous communities. The project is a multi-intervention approach that targets individuals as well as their communities and is intended to address knowledge, attitudes and resources related to tobacco use.