I've divided this page into two sections. The first provides you with
some
tips on searching for material on Medline, while the second
section provides links to web pages, reports, and other databases.
The library also has a page of Aboriginal
Studies resources, and you will find material on aboriginal mental
health on my mental health page, in the subject
bibliographies, and in the topics
section.
Searching Medline
You will find material on aboriginal health in Medline, but you
will
need to be aware of the thesaurus (MeSH) terms used to search for this
group of people.
MeSH - Oceanic Ancestry Group
To search for material on Australian aboriginal people you'll need to add Australia to your search.
MeSH - Australia
Exploding this thesaurus term will search for Australia as a whole, and the individual states and territories as well, whereas if you simply search for the word "Australia*" you will miss the specific individual states.
It will be useful to search the name of the country as a word too, with appropriate truncation.
Australia* - truncating the word will search for Australia, or Australian as words in any field.
The search formulation will need brackets to ensure that the Boolean logic is executed in the correct sequence.
PubMed Search Formulation
Using thesaurus terminology alone to search for material on Australian aboriginal health issues is not very successful in PubMed
Test the two examples below by copying and pasting them into the PubMed search box.
oceanic ancestry group AND (australia* OR australia[mh])
Now test the search below where aborig* OR indigenous have been added as alternatives to the thesaurus term.
(oceanic ancestry group OR aborig* OR indigenous) AND (australia*
OR australia[mh])
Your search results will increase dramatically, and you will find much additional, very recent material. For this topic thesaurus terminology is simply inadequate for effective searching!
To make the search more specific add
terms relating
to health services or specific diseases. For example at the end of the
search line you could add any one of the following
AND cardiovascular diseases[mh]
AND eye diseases[mh]
AND diabetes mellitus[mh]
In PubMed the default is to explode all
thesaurus
terms, so you would cover specific eye diseases, cardiovascular
diseases,
or diabetic conditions.
Remember that if you add multiple topics you need to connect
them with
"OR" and bracket them to preserve the logic of your search. For example
if you would like to search for eye diseases or diabetes mellitus in
aboriginal
people you would add
AND (eye diseases[mh] OR diabetes
mellitus[mh])
to the end of your original search,
leaving a
space before the "AND"
Below is a search strategy for a more complex search
on health
services and aboriginal people. Try copying and pasting it into the PubMed search box.
(oceanic ancestry group[mh] OR aborig* OR indigenous) AND
(australia* OR australia[mh])
AND (health[mh] OR health care reform[mh] OR delivery of health
care[mh]
OR health services[mh]) AND english[lang]
Additional Databases to Search for Aboriginal Health
Meditext
Access restricted to staff and students of Adelaide University
Bibliographic database which indexes and abstracts articles from Australian health and medical journals which are not indexed in Medline. It covers all aspects of health and medicine with an emphasis on clinical medicine and paraprofessional fields. Includes journals, conference proceedings, government reports, selected monographs and the full text of most NHMRC sessions. Contains full text for a number of publications for which there is no other full text online source available.
ATSIhealth
(Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Bibliography)
Access restricted to staff and students of Adelaide University.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Bibliography indexes
published
and unpublished material on indigenous health. It includes journal
articles,
theses, unpublished articles, government reports, conference papers,
abstracts,
books, book chapters, discussion and working papers and statistical
documents.
Records are not exhaustive and relate to health status rather than to
social,
historical, political or monetary aspects.
ATSIROM
: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander CD-ROM
Access restricted to staff and students of Adelaide University.
This collection of Australian database subsets indexes materials on
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concerns in education, law,
public
affairs, health, literature, criminology, family and society, culture
and
heritage, multiculturalism.
AEI-ATSIS on ATSIROM : (Australian Education Index
ATSI subset)
AGIS-ATSIS on ATSIROM
APAIS-ATSIS on ATSIROM : (Australian Public Affairs Information Service
ATSI subset)
MAIS-ATSIS on ATSIROM : (Multicultural Australia and Immigration
Studies
ATSI subset)
AUSTLIT-ATSIS on ATSIROM : (Australian Literary Database ATSI subset)
FAMILY-ATSIS on ATSIROM : (Australian Family & Society Abstracts
Database ATSI subset)
HERA-ATSIS on ATSIROM : (Heritage Australia Information System ATSI
subset)
CINCH-ATSIS on ATSIROM : (Australian Criminology Database ATSI subset)
ATSIhealth-ATSIS on ATSIROM : (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
health)
Other Resources
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Welfare (AIHW)
Full text of a large number of publications is availale online.
Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia Inc. : AHCSA Publications
Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia Inc. : Shared Publications
Achieving
Improved Aboriginal Health Outcomes: An Approach to Reform (August 1996)
This document outlines the Victorian Government's reform strategy.
It recognises the need for both the Commonwealth and State governments
to contribute to the improvement of the health status of Aboriginal
people.
Australian
Indigenous
HealthInfonet
The work of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet is
undertaken
currently by a small
part-time team comprising health researchers, multimedia staff and
a librarian based at Edith Cowan University in Perth and an Indigenous
Project Officer in Brisbane, assisted by an extensive Australia-wide
network
of HealthInfoNet Consultants. The site contains a wealth of information
including the full text of many government documents.
 A Chartbook of the Health and Wellbeing Status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in South Australia
Published December 2006 by the South Australian Department of Health
Population Research and Outcome Studies Unit.
A
Comparative Overview of Aboriginal Health in Western Australia
By J Watson, VB Ejueyitsi, and JP Codde. Epidemiology Occasional paper,
No. 15, December 2001. Perth, Department of Health, Western Australia.
Culture
Training Manual for Medical Workers in Aboriginal Communities
By Gordon O'Brien & Daniel Plooij, School of Social Sciences,
Flinders
University, South Australia, 1973 Converted to hypertext 1995 by Dr
Hugh
Nelson.
Department of Health and Ageing - Publications - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Full text of a large number of Australian government publications relating to aboriginal health issues.
Djiadi No. 1.1 Muru Marri Monograph Series
Revised Monograph of the Inaugural Indigenous Health Unit Research Day 2004. Edited by Dr L Jackson Pulver and Mr D McDermott. The Muru Marri Indigenous Health Unit, is part of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of NSW.
eMJA:
Articles on Aboriginal health
A collection of articles on this subject from the Medical Journal of
Australia.
Environmental
Health Handbook: A Practical Manual for Remote Communities
Edited by Geoff Harris. Darwin, Menzies School of Health Research,
c2000.
Evaluation
of the Specialist Outreach Service in the Top End of the Northern
Territory
By Russell Gruen and Ross Bailie. Darwin, Menzies School of Health
Research, c2000.
Health is Life: Report on the Inquiry into Indigenous Health
Report by the Australian Parliament house of representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs, Canberra, May 2000.
The
Health of Young Aborigines
A report on the health of Aborigines aged 12 to 25 years, prepared
for the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme, by Maggie Brady,
Australian
Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra,
1991.
Hobart: National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 1992.
Health Report - Indigenous - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Transcripts from Radio National's Health Report, with Norman Swan.
Indigenous
Australian Alcohol
and Other Drug Databases
From Curtin University of technology, a database of references to both
books and articles.
Indigenous
Australians (AIHW)
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare portal,
which includes the full text of numerous publications relating to
indigenous health.
Indigenous Health - Your Health - Health & Wellbeing
Resources from the ABC
Key
Facts - Indigenous Health Issues
From the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet
Koori
Health - Publications
From the Department of Human Services, Victoria, Australia, the full
text of a range of publications on Koori health.
Koori
Health Counts
Koori health statistics for Victoria.
National
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition Strategy and Action
Plan
2000-2010, and First Phase Activities 2000-2003
Developed by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Nutrition
Working Party. National Public Health Partnership, 2001.
National
Indigenous
Australian's Sexual Health Strategy
The full text of the National Indigenous Australians’ Sexual Health
Strategy 1996-97 to 1998-99, and the National Indigenous Australian's
Sexual
Health Strategy - Implementation plan for 2001-2002 to 2003-2004 are
available
at this site.
Nutrition
in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples: An Information Paper
Published by NHMRC, July 2000.
Office
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) Publication and Resources
Full text of reports online as .pdf files.
The
Public Health Bush Book
This is the 2nd. edition of the Bush Book, written as a resource for
people who work with remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern
Territory,
and produced by the Northern Territory Department of Health and
Community
Services, 2002.
Royal
Commission on Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
This site contains the full text of both national and regional reports.
Values
and Ethics - Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Health Research
National Health and Medical Research Council, 2003.
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