College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia.
Department of Rural Health, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Oct 12;23(1):1993. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16942-8.
Aedes-borne disease risk is increasing in tropical and sub-tropical regions across the globe. While Aedes-borne disease continues to disproportionally affect low- and middle-income countries, parts of high-income countries, such as the Torres Strait region in Australia are also at risk. The Torres Strait is a group of islands located between Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland, Australia and Papua New Guinea. The Torres Strait has both Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti and is close to Papua New Guinea where dengue fever is endemic. Managing Aedes-borne disease risk requires a range of strategies, including community participation. Existing research shows that high-income countries tend to favour government-led (top-down) informing approaches when engaging communities in Aedes mosquito management. Little is known about the factors that influence the choice of community participation approaches in Aedes mosquito management particularly in a high-income country setting, such as Australia. This research contributes to filling this knowledge gap by exploring the community participation approaches used in Aedes mosquito management and the factors influencing these choices in the Torres Strait.
16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with local government and state government agencies working in Aedes mosquito management in the Torres Strait. Six key mosquito management plans and policies were also reviewed. Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and attribute meaning from the data collected.
A range of community participation approaches were used within the two main Aedes mosquito management programs (Aedes albopictus Elimination Program and the Torres Strait Island Regional Council, Environmental Health Program) in the Torres Strait. These approaches included door-to-door inspections, awareness raising strategies, and community clean-up events. Approaches were chosen for reasons related to regulations, attitude and beliefs, and resourcing.
This study revealed the use of both top-down and bottom-up approaches to engaging the community in Aedes mosquito management in the Torres Strait. These findings contribute to a better understanding of why bottom-up approaches are used, which is valuable for shaping future policy decisions. This study also provides suggestions on ways to enhance community participation in the Torres Strait, which could also be considered in other similar tropical regions.
在全球范围内，热带和亚热带地区的登革热媒介疾病风险正在增加。虽然登革热媒介疾病继续不成比例地影响低收入和中等收入国家，但高收入国家的部分地区，如澳大利亚托雷斯海峡地区也有风险。托雷斯海峡是位于澳大利亚远北昆士兰州约克角半岛和巴布亚新几内亚之间的一组岛屿。托雷斯海峡既有白纹伊蚊又有埃及伊蚊，而且靠近巴布亚新几内亚，那里是登革热的流行地区。管理登革热媒介疾病风险需要采取一系列策略，包括社区参与。现有研究表明，高收入国家在让社区参与登革热蚊子管理时，往往倾向于采用政府主导（自上而下）的告知方法。关于影响在登革热蚊子管理中选择社区参与方法的因素，特别是在澳大利亚等高收入国家的情况，知之甚少。这项研究通过探索在托雷斯海峡使用的登革热蚊子管理社区参与方法以及影响这些选择的因素，有助于填补这一知识空白。
对在托雷斯海峡从事登革热蚊子管理的地方政府和州政府机构进行了 16 次半结构化访谈。还审查了六项主要的蚊子管理计划和政策。使用主题分析方法从收集的数据中识别、分析和赋予意义。
在托雷斯海峡的两个主要登革热蚊子管理计划（白纹伊蚊消除计划和托雷斯海峡岛屿区域委员会，环境卫生计划）中，使用了一系列社区参与方法。这些方法包括挨家挨户检查、提高认识战略和社区清理活动。之所以选择这些方法，是因为与法规、态度和信仰以及资源有关。
本研究揭示了在托雷斯海峡，社区参与登革热蚊子管理既采用了自上而下的方法，也采用了自下而上的方法。这些发现有助于更好地理解为什么采用自下而上的方法，这对于制定未来的政策决策具有重要价值。本研究还就如何加强托雷斯海峡的社区参与提出了建议，这些建议也可以在其他类似的热带地区考虑。
