Healthy Mothers Healthy Families Research Group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.
Healthy Mothers Healthy Families Research Group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia; South Australian Health and Medical Research Council, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia.
Women Birth. 2019 Feb;32(1):72-79. doi: 10.1016/j.wombi.2018.04.002. Epub 2018 Apr 24.
Aboriginal women and families are under-represented in Australian research on pregnancy and childbirth. The Aboriginal Families Study aimed to investigate the views and experiences of a representative sample of women giving birth to an Aboriginal baby in South Australia between July 2011 and June 2013, using methods designed to respect Aboriginal culture and communities.
A team of 12 Aboriginal researchers facilitated community engagement and recruitment of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal mothers of Aboriginal infants in urban, regional and remote areas of South Australia over a two-year period.
A total of 344 women took part, around a quarter of all Aboriginal women giving birth in South Australia in the study period (39% urban, 35% regional and 25% from remote areas). Participants were representative in relation to maternal age (mean age of 25 years, range=15-43 years). Over half of women (56%) first heard about the study via a member of the fieldwork team making contact with them through community connections. Other major sources of recruitment were: Aboriginal health services/programs (20%) and public maternity hospitals (16%). Almost all of the women (95%) recruited via community networks of the fieldwork team completed the questionnaire. In contrast, 51% of women recruited via public hospitals completed the questionnaire (odds ratio=0.1, 95% confidence interval 0.0-0.1, p<0.001).
Aboriginal researchers' community knowledge and leadership is critical to the conduct of successful Aboriginal health research. High levels of participation in research by 'harder to reach' populations are achievable when researchers take time to build relationships and work in partnership with communities.
在澳大利亚关于妊娠和分娩的研究中，原住民妇女和家庭的代表性不足。原住民家庭研究旨在调查 2011 年 7 月至 2013 年 6 月期间在南澳大利亚出生的代表性样本的妇女的观点和经验，使用旨在尊重原住民文化和社区的方法。
一个由 12 名原住民研究人员组成的团队在两年期间促进了社区参与，并在南澳大利亚的城市、地区和偏远地区招募了原住民和非原住民的原住民婴儿的母亲。
共有 344 名妇女参加了研究，约占研究期间南澳大利亚所有原住民妇女分娩的四分之一（39%来自城市，35%来自地区，25%来自偏远地区）。参与者在产妇年龄方面具有代表性（平均年龄 25 岁，范围 15-43 岁）。超过一半的妇女（56%）首次通过田野调查团队的一名成员通过社区联系与她们联系得知了这项研究。其他主要的招募来源是：原住民健康服务/计划（20%）和公立妇产医院（16%）。几乎所有通过田野调查团队的社区网络招募的妇女（95%）都完成了问卷。相比之下，通过公立医院招募的妇女中有 51%完成了问卷（比值比=0.1，95%置信区间 0.0-0.1，p<0.001）。
原住民研究人员的社区知识和领导力对于成功开展原住民健康研究至关重要。当研究人员花时间与社区建立关系并合作时，可实现对“更难接触”人群进行高参与度的研究。
