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Impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous Australians’ preventive health behaviours: A mixed methods study
Description
A collaborative sequential mixed methods study will be conducted with the aim to measure and explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on current preventive health behaviours and investigate barriers and enablers of engaging with preventive health services for Indigenous Australians residing in New South Wales (NSW).
Research questions: What are the pre- and during-COVID-19 levels of preventive health behaviours and, what are barriers and enablers of preventive health behaviours of and service utilisation by Indigenous Australians residing in NSW?
Hypothesis: Preventive health behaviours and service utilisation will be lower as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study will include two phases: Phase 1 will involve examining NSW Health routinely collected and MBS data for Indigenous Australians residing in NSW at three time points-pre (2019) and during the COVID-19 outbreak (2020-21); and Phase 2 will involve a qualitative study using a yarning storytelling approach to explore reasons for (or not) attending preventive health appointments following COVID-19, current preventive health behaviours during COVID-19 isolation, and to identify interventions that can be adopted to improve participation in preventive health behaviours and appointment attendance.
