Oceania

This paper seeks to describe and categorise some of the most common behaviours and practices of public health professionals and institutions that introduce or sustain systematic ethnic bias into public health work and thus potentially perpetuate or exacerbate Indigenous inequities in health.

Although Indigenous Australians critically ill with sepsis have similar short and long-term mortality rates, they present to hospital, die in-hospital, and die post-discharge significantly younger. Unique cohort characteristics may explain these outcomes, and assist clinicians, researchers and policy-makers in targeting interventions to these characteristics to best reduce the burden of sepsis in this cohort and improve their healthcare outcomes.

Māori and Pacific people want to take charge of their heart health but face challenges. Participants described important obligations to family, community and tikanga (the culturally correct way of doing things). Participants described times when health care undermined existing responsibilities, their dignity and/or their mana, and they felt excluded from treatment as a result.

This study, led by Indigenous scholars at the University of Queensland, examines the health and social outcomes of Indigenous peoples and health workers during pandemics in urban settings. The study incorporates systems thinking, emphasising new approaches to complex problems. The research highlighted systemic challenges in pandemic responses, emphasising the need for policy reform, particularly in areas like housing.