Lung Cancer in Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders

This literature review examines the prevalence, risk factors, and barriers to diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. It discusses the high smoking rates, lack of access to healthcare services, and socio-economic factors that contribute to the higher mortality rate in this population. The review also highlights the importance of early detection, prevention methods, and the role of support groups in raising awareness and increasing participation in cancer screening services.

Lung cancer in Indigenous
Australians and Torres Strait
Islanders
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Table of Contents
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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LITERATURE REVIEW
As said by Cunningham & Garvey (2020), lung cancer is most common disease in
Australia. The aboriginal and Torres islander people in nation are suffering from lung cancer as
well. It is found that there are 744,956 estimated people suffering from lung cancer. But among
them 45% of aboriginal and Torres islander people are living in inner areas whereas 20% lives in
remoter areas. The population is younger as compared to non indigenous people. It has been
analysed that there are many risk factors of lung cancer. They are alcohol, smoking, overweight
and obesity, etc. So, these all are highly contributing in occurrence of lung cancer. In report of
2015 it is found that Torres and aboriginal islander people smoke 2.8 more times than non
indigenous people. Besides that, 54% of population eat more fruits each day. In addition, 74%
population is suffering from obesity, 65% is not doing enough physical activity.
It has been stated that prevalence of cancer is that in 2013, 3626 people were diagnosed
from cancer in past 5 years (Davidson & et.al., 2013). Besides, prevalence rate is low in this
population but in non indigenous people mortality rate is high. Since 2011 -2015, 2754 people
died due to cancer. There are various types of cancer such as lung, breast, bowel, etc. However,
there are various prevention methods by which cancer can be prevented. First is doing risk
assessment, second is delivering education programs and promoting healthy lifestyle. Besides
that, there are certain programs that are currently running in Australia. They are Cancer
Australia, cancer council, etc. These all will enable in reducing cancer (Tervonen & et.al., 2017).
According to Dunn & et.al., (2017), aboriginal and Torres islander people suffer inferior
outcomes in diagnosis of lung cancer. It is found that as smoking rates in those people are high
due to their low lifestyle. Furthermore, there is great influence of health belief on behaviour of
community. It is found that in their culture there is no word of cancer but in western this word is
easily understood. Thus, their belief has changed. There are also various issues in health care that
are linked to structure, organisation and inter personal ones. The people of community does get
late diagnosis of lung cancer. Within community both chronic bronchitis and emphysema are
twice. Another issue is due to lack of access of services the people are not able to get primary
health care. It is due to lack of transportation, health infrastructure, etc. Besides, environmental
factors is also issue in it. The socio economic status of community is low. There is poor housing,
unemployment, etc. due to which they are at high risk of lung cancer. In view of John & et.al.,
(2020), there is need to implement policy in health care. It will enable in dealing with providing
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high quality care services to them. The policy formed must focus on national approach to
diagnose cancer.
As elucidated by Fitzadam & et.al., (2020), there are many barriers which exist in lung
cancer. First is cultural barriers that is language, communication, etc. due to which aboriginal
people needs are not identified. Besides, lack of knowledge and counselling services are
accepted in their culture. Hence, people does not like to travel and get engage with outside
world. Another issue which exists is health service context. Here, lack of multidisciplinary and
palliative care services in rural areas is reason for it. The poor coordination and lack of tools to
detect cancer has resulted in rise in lung cancer. In hospitals there is not effective tools for
screening. There are many other drivers as well which influence on cancer disease of this
community (Lovett, Thurber, & Maddox, 2017). They are health policy, social sanction, rurality,
culture, etc. Moreover, many anti tobacco campaigns are organised but it has not contributed in
raising awareness about cancer to aboriginal and Torres people. The social network consists of
many elements of health care. There exists gap between indigenous and non indigenous people
in lung cancer outcomes.
Haigh & et.al., (2018) said that there is need to detect cancer at early stage so that it
becomes easy to treat it in effective way. This can be done with help of various campaigns,
screening programs, raising awareness about cancer, etc. Education plays important role in
gaining of knowledge about how cancer can be prevented. For that it need to increase activities
of how screening can be done, campaign is organized. Also, there is need to invest a huge
amount in giving cancer services and treatment. Here, focus is to be on accessing primary health
care services to aboriginal and Torres islander people. It will enable in focusing on rural areas
health care. However, it require support of local and state government as well to promote healthy
life style and well being. They need to continue monitor and control health care services so that
outcomes are measured and accordingly changes are made into policy or strategy. Besides,
standards will be set in order to deliver high quality care services. In addition to socio
demographic and cultural issues, illness representations may be a barrier to early diagnosis of
lung cancer and adhering to treatment. Illness representations refer to a person beliefs and
expectations about their illness and these beliefs influence responses to illness and health care.
Lung cancer is the most common cancer amongst Aboriginal Australians and accounts for the
most cancer mortalities (Hefler & et.al., 2019). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cancer
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support groups have been identified as important for improving cancer awareness and increasing
participation in cancer screening services. Aboriginal women attending these support groups
have reported an increased understanding of screening and reported less fear and concern over
cultural appropriateness.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Cunningham, J., & Garvey, G. (2020). Are there systematic barriers to participation in cancer
treatment trials by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cancer patients in
Australia?. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
Davidson, P. M., Jiwa, M., DiGiacomo, M. L., McGrath, S. J., Newton, P. J., Durey, A. J., ... &
Thompson, S. C. (2013). The experience of lung cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples and what it means for policy, service planning and delivery. Australian
Health Review, 37(1), 70-78.
Dunn, J., Garvey, G., Valery, P. C., Ball, D., Fong, K. M., Vinod, S., ... & Chambers, S. K.
(2017). Barriers to lung cancer care: health professionals’ perspectives. Supportive Care in
Cancer, 25(2), 497-504.
Fitzadam, S., Lin, E., Creighton, N., & Currow, D. C. (2020). Lung, breast, and bowel cancer
treatment for Aboriginal people in New South Wales: a population‐based cohort
study. Internal medicine journal.
Haigh, M., Burns, J., Potter, C., Elwell, M., Hollows, M., Mundy, J., ... & Thompson, S.
(2018). Review of cancer among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Australian
Indigenous HealthInfoNet.
Hefler, M., Kerrigan, V., Freeman, B., Boot, G. R., & Thomas, D. P. (2019). Using Facebook to
reduce smoking among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a
participatory grounded action study. BMC public health, 19(1), 615.
John, T., Cooper, W. A., Wright, G., Siva, S., Solomon, B., Marshall, H. M., & Fong, K. M.
(2020). Lung Cancer in Australia. Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 15(12), 1809-1814.
Lovett, R., Thurber, K. A., & Maddox, R. (2017). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
smoking epidemic: what stage are we at, and what does it mean. Public Health Res
Pract, 27(4), e2741733.
Tervonen, H. E., Walton, R., You, H., Baker, D., Roder, D., Currow, D., & Aranda, S. (2017).
After accounting for competing causes of death and more advanced stage, do Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander peoples with cancer still have worse survival? A population-
based cohort study in New South Wales. BMC cancer, 17(1), 398.
Online
HealthBulletin, A. I. Australian Indigenous HealthBulletin. [Online] available through : <
http://healthbulletin.org.au/>
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