University Research: Social Impact of Smoking on Aboriginal Youth

This research proposal investigates the impact of smoking on Aboriginal youth, emphasizing the social and health consequences within this community. The study aims to explore smoking prevalence, social impacts, and potential interventions, considering ethical considerations and healthcare access disparities. The research employs a qualitative design, utilizing interviews with Aboriginal participants to gather data. The literature review highlights the high smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) people, the associated health risks, and the need for culturally sensitive smoking cessation programs. The proposal addresses the historical, social, and cultural factors contributing to tobacco use and examines the impact on mortality rates and overall quality of life. The research also considers the ethical implications of involving Aboriginal participants and the importance of maintaining confidentiality. The ultimate goal is to recommend effective strategies to reduce smoking rates and mitigate the social impact of smoking within the Aboriginal community.

Running Head: HEALTHCARE
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Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Task 1
Abstract
This research proposal is going to propose about the impact of smoking in the
Aboriginal youth and the social impact of smoking. The Aboriginals are more exposed to
smoking at an early age due to various factors. There has been a lot of previous research that
shows that the Aboriginals do not have access to the healthcare facilities and thus, the impact
of smoking cannot be reduced (Bovill et al. 2018). This research proposal outlines the
research methodology and the data collection strategies that will help in the analysis of the
report.
The research proposal highlights the fact that smoking can have a serious social
impact on the health of the young people who belong to the community of Aboriginals. The
research proposal bridges the gap between the availability of the healthcare services to reduce
the rate of smoking and the social impact of smoking (Wright et al. 2018). The research
strategy that has been used in this proposal is that of qualitative design as interviews are
being carried out of the Aboriginal participants.
Introduction
The use of tobacco is one of the most common and widespread among the Aboriginals
and the smoking rates can vary between the communities and regions. It is observed that the
Aboriginals and the Torres Islander (ATSI) people smoke 3 times more as compared to native
people of Australia. Among the Aboriginals it has been found that smoking is the easily
avoidable disease and is also among the top reasons of ill health along with early mortality
(Sitas et al. 2018). It has been found that 1 among 5 people from this community die because
of smoking. It is also directly the cause for one-third of the cancers and the diseases related to
heart issues.

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There has been a number of efforts to reduce the rate of the smoking among the
indigenous people. However, no significant change was observed and that created a greater
social impact on the other people of the community (Thomas et al. 2015). It was observed
that the adverse effects of smoking is not only faced by the smoker but also by the other
members of the community who are living in the society and sharing the same resources as
that of the smoker. As the habit of smoking can be spread to other individuals in a community
thus, it adversely affects the society and can lead to reduced quality of living and the
economy of that community as well.
Aims and Objectives
The aim of the research proposal is to find out the social impact on the indigenous
individuals who are addicted to smoking.
The objectives of the research proposal are as follows:
1. To investigate the prevalence of smoking among the Aboriginals.
2. To investigate the social impact of the smoking among the young population of
Aboriginals.
3. To recommended the ways to reduce the rate of smoking among the Aboriginals.
Ethical Considerations
Ethics are an important part of the research and it is important that all the research
work is carried out with ethical values and beliefs of the participant and the researchers as
well. As the research involves the participants who are Aboriginals it is important that the
researchers respect their beliefs. This is done by incorporating a healthcare member of their
community in the meetings to make the participants comfortable to talk about their healthcare
problems (Sarin, Hunt, Ivers and Smyth 2015). It is important as then only they will be able
to answer all the queries of the researchers. The research committee also kept a counsellor in

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order to understand the views and knowledge of the participants and also to make them
understand the importance of research.
As the research design requires an interview thus, it is important that the consent of
each and every participant is carried out before every interview. The video was also recorded
and the individuals who are minor in age were allowed to give interviews in presence of their
parents or any other guardian. In order to do this permission was taken from their respective
family members (Bovill 2018). Apart from this confidentiality was maintained about the
participants and their names were not revealed either to the other participants or the
researchers itself.
Literature Review
Tobacco was described as a major contributor to the high mortality rates in the ATSI.
Smoking controlling programs tailored for Indigenous Australians are starting to emerge
following years of inattention. Successful cessation of smoking would be strengthened by an
awareness of the long-standing historical, the social and cultural context to today's tobacco
use (Clements, Best and Raymond 2015). Since the advent in 1950 of the first case-control
studies linking smoking and cancer, government action on tobacco has become increasingly
extensive in Australia. Measures included the 1976 ban on overt radio and television
advertisements and the mid-1990's abolition of all print media ads and sponsorship.
Smoking cigarettes is a major factor to the morbidity and the mortality burden
amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Australians, the Australian population as a
whole, and in developing countries around the world. The health effects of smoking differ
with the intensity and duration of smoking, and it is well known that smoking causes a
number of medical conditions (Lovett et al. 2015). While there has been significant decreases

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in smoking in Australia, the incidence of the smoking in the indigenous people stays high,
compared to 14.5% in the overall adult population of Australian.
Smoking behavior is affected by factors like socioeconomic, cultural and the
environmental factors as well as the efficacy of the control of tobacco. The indigenous
smoking is often closely linked to the Australia's colonial history; for instance, tobacco has
often been used as a type of payment and has been distributed as part of mission station
rations. Dramatic declines in the prevalence of smoking in the complete Australian
population indicate that smoking epidemic is in last stages (Ryan et al. 2015). The phase of
the tobacco epidemic among the Australian indigenous people is much less clear.
Comprehending the epidemic stage gives insight into the likely patterns in smoking-
attributable mortality, thus allowing effective analysis of the likely impacts of smoking and
education related policies and programs.
In the total Australian population, there is contemporary direct proof of smoking-
attributable mortality in the adults. Nevertheless, there is a lack of the indigenous population-
specific direct evidence (Harris et al. 2019). Indirect studies have calculated the effect of
tobacco smoking on the mortality among the indigenous Australians by the use of the method
of etiological fractions as well as modeling approaches. While it is believed that tobacco-
related underlying mechanisms are identical among aboriginal and non-indigenous
Australians, it is acknowledged that the relationship among tobacco smoking and death that
differ across population subgroups with time (Askew et al. 2019).
Differences in the prevalence of smoking rates by the remoteness and the sex shows
that the epidemic level, and thus related mortality patterns, might differ among groups.
However, the largest contemporary data sets are inadequate to allow accurate evaluation of
subgroup trends (Cosh et al. 2015). However, the lack of evidence to reliably measure

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smoking-related mortality among the indigenous population, the existing data suggest that the
burden of the smoking-related mortality is likely to continue high. The risk of the cardiac
disease associated with cigarettes is likely to decrease in the brief term as the incidence of
smoking continues to decrease (Lovett et al. 2015). Many gaps in the data need to be resolved
in order to ensure accurate observation of the epidemic of the indigenous tobacco, including
detailed approximation of smoking-related mortality and smoking prevalence, to allow
tracking of the changes over the period.
There are certain differences in the health outcomes among the Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal communities, including higher rates of perinatal negative outcomes. For
Aboriginal women, there was a high incidence and risk of poor perinatal results compared to
regular-Aboriginal women irrespective of smoking status (Harris et al. 2019). Nevertheless,
frequent cigarette smoking during pregnancy was correlated in both groups with an additional
increased risk of negative neonatal and maternal results relative to those in anti-smoking
women, such as premature labor, PROM, premature birth, IUGR and SGA babies.
Importantly, the cessation of smoking at the first trimester was linked with a decrease in these
risks compared to the women who smoked during the pregnancy, clearly showing the
advantages of reduction of smoking for improved neonatal and maternal clinical outcomes
(Cosh et al. 2015). Despite the increased risk of adverse perinatal results in Aboriginal people
compared to non-Aboriginal births, smoking cigarettes is a modifiable risk factor
contributing to adverse outcomes for both populations.
Smoking is considered to be one of the most important risk factor and can cause
serious health issues. These issues can be faced by the adults as well as the children that
includes low weight at the time of birth, perinatal complications, pre-term birth, as well as
complications involving the placenta. The women are at higher risk of cardiovascular

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diseases and are dangerous for the women who are pregnant (Wyndow, Walker and Reibel
2018).
The smoking incidence of female ATSI in the Australian population is quadruple that
of pregnant women and is linked to increased negative pregnancy outcomes. ATSI peoples
belong to different cultures and geographies. While understanding tobacco control and
cessation studies in other cultures and other indigenous communities, attention must be given
to local factors. The study identified complex factors that encourage maternal smoking,
including socio-cultural norms, social backgrounds, and stressors (Gould, Bittoun and Clarke
2015). Quitting is regarded as hard, and in the face of daunting life circumstances, smoking is
often justified, and current anti-tobacco campaigns are irrelevant.
Along with this the Aboriginals do not have specific knowledge about the health
hazards that is caused by smoking. Research has been done in order to know the ways in
which communication can be carried out among the Aboriginals for spreading the awareness
regarding smoking cigarettes or tobacco. Some of the research also shows that the people
living in the Aboriginal and Torres Island know that the smoking can lead to lung diseases as
well as various cardiovascular diseases and are also well aware of the fact that second hand
smoking is dangerous (Passey and Sanson-Fisher 2015). However, the lack of the healthcare
facilities and the lack of the accessibility of the services determines the rate of smoking and
the rate of mortality among the individuals who belong to this community.
The people who belong to the community of Aboriginals are affected by the health
disparities that includes the suffering from epidemic generated from smoking of tobacco. The
gap between the race and ethnicity of the individuals who are living in the in that community
in comparison to the people living in the mainland of Australia (Wyndow, Walker and Reibel
2018). Thus, the smoking is strongly related to the social and economic status of the

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individuals living in that community. Thus, it is important to do significant research on the
social and economic impact of smoking as there is a huge gap in this field of research.
There has been research that shows that the prevalence of smoking is different among
the different genders in the community. It has been seen that smoking is linked with the
standard of education, marital status, age, occupational status, health state of the individuals
(Hefler et al. 2019). It is marked that the health condition of the Aboriginals is much less
than that of the other Australians and the factors such as the malnutrition of the children,
exposure to smoke, dust and fire also results in increased effect on the health of the
individuals who are associated with smoking. The people living in the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island are known to have a health state that is worse than the other individuals. The
death rate among the people are 2-8 times more in comparison to that of the other individuals
(Gibberd et al. 2018). As a result of this the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island are
subjected to lot more diseases such as heart diseases, pneumonia, cataracts, and cervical
cancer and ear problems in comparison to other Australians.
Thus, a lot of research confirms that the Aboriginals need 2-3 times more
hospitalizations and that creates a burden on the financial system of the individual who
smokes (Gould, Bittoun and Clarke 2016). As the cost of the smoking is also increases it
creates a burden on the financial state of the people and their family members. The
individuals who are addicted to smoking waste a lot of money on that and that creates a
serious financial problem in the household of the individuals. This creates a serious social
impact on the lives of the individuals who are smokers and also affects the lives of their
family members. There are a number of social determinants that affect the health of the
individuals like less access to the healthcare facilities, money, power and other national or
global resources (Passey and Sanson-Fisher 2015).

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There are a number of risk factors that can cause the prevalence of smoking and
tobacco chewing among the Aboriginals. The rate of diseases are also higher in the people
who belong to the disadvantaged group in comparison to the people who belong to better
social standards. There are a number of evidences which suggest that there is a social gradient
which determines the social position of the individual and the rate of smoking (Harris et al.
2019). It is seen that the people with poor or low socioeconomic background are more
exposed to smoking. The people who have received less education are subjected to more
smoking in comparison to the other individuals.
It is also seen that the individual s who are 15 years and above are smokers and thus
age is an important factor that determines the rate of smoking among the indigenous
Australians (Hefler et al. 2019). It was also observed that the rate of the individuals who are
smokers is double than the non-indigenous population. Research has shown that smoking is
more related to the people who are mentally ill. This creates more burden on the financial and
the health condition of the individuals’ further deteriorating their status in the society. These
individuals who are addicted to smoking along with other health problems create a lot of
stress and burden on the society (Passey and Sanson-Fisher 2015). They tend to not work and
also creates disturbances in the economic system of the society as they are using the
resources of the society but are unable to contribute anything significant to the society.
The Aboriginals are also exposed to second hand smoking which creates adverse
effects to the health of the individuals. This kind of smoking affects both the children and the
adults of the community and is thus more dangerous (Gould, Bittoun and Clarke 2016).
However, the children are at greater risk as they have immature respiratory, immune and the
nervous system that can cause greater health issues to them. It is observed that the children
who are exposed to tobacco in their respective household have serious threat to the condition.
The children who belong to the rural and remote areas are likely to have a tendency to smoke

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rather than the individuals who belong to higher societies. The children who belong to the
lower socioeconomic status are more exposed to tobacco smoking in comparison to the other
children (Passey and Stirling 2017). Thus, the socioeconomic status of the individuals greatly
affects the lifestyle and the rate of smoking among the Aboriginals. In return, smoking also
creates a great burden on the health of the individuals and the social balance that creates huge
impact on the health of the individuals.
Smoking or tobacco chewing impact the quality of life along with exacerbates the
impact of poverty as they act by lowering the funds for the household essentials that includes
food, clothing, and accommodation (Wyndow, Walker and Reibel 2018). There is a lot of
food insecurity among the households who are financially unstable but are subjected to
smoking. It is also noticed that long term problems can result in the intergenerational poverty
by creating limitations in the assets and the savings along with reduction in the funds that are
available for the education of the children (Cosh et al. 2015).
Research questions
The research question allows the researchers to question the prevalence of smoking
among the young individuals in the indigenous population of Australia. This affects the
quality of life and the
The research questions for the paper are as follows:
1. What is the prevalence rate of smoking among the young individuals in the
Aboriginals?
2. What is the impact of smoking on the society and the community of the
individuals?
3. What are the recommendations that can be used for the reduction of the
prevalence of smoking among the youth of Aboriginal and Torres Island?

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Research Methods
Qualitative research is characterized as a method of consumer research which
emphasizes on data acquisition through accessible and conversational communication.
Qualitative research methods enable respondents to be thoroughly examined and further
questioned on the basis of the answers, in which the presenter or the researcher often seeks to
consider their inspiration and feelings (Askew et al. 2019). Qualitative research designs are
intended to help show the behavior of the target audience and the perception of the particular
topic. There are numerous qualitative research methods, such as an in-depth interview, focus
groups, ethnographic research, the content analysis, and the usually used is the case study
research (Martin et al. 2019).
The most common approach in the qualitative research is to conduct in-depth
interviews. It is a personal interview with some interviewer at a time. It is simply a type of
communication and also provides an opportunity for the respondent to get information in
depth (Ryan, Leatherdale and Cooke 2016). One of the advantage of such a method is that it
offers a good chance to collect correct data about people's beliefs and motivations. If the
investigator has experience in asking the right questions, then they can be beneficial in
collecting meaningful data. If more information is needed, the research teams must ask
follow-up questions to gather more information (Harris et al. 2019).
This research proposal also uses the method of one-to-one interview in order to know
and analyze the effect of smoking. The method of interview also helps in the detection of the
social impact that is created by smoking among the Aboriginals. This is very important and
necessary as that will help the researchers to know the details of the social consequences as
well as the reasons for smoking among the Aboriginals (Gibberd et al. 2018). This helps the
researchers to know the mortality or morbidity rate among the young individuals and also
outlines or highlights the reasons and the origin for the start of smoking among the

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individuals. The research method also emphasizes on the fact that there is a gap between the
healthcare facilities and their accessibility among the Aboriginals who are addicted to
smoking (Gould, Bittoun and Clarke 2015).
Research Data Analysis
The research data reveals that the households who are poor or financially unprivileged
are also subjected to smoking spend almost 20% of their savings or income in smoking or
tobacco chewing (McInerney et al. 2019). Research also shows that the smokers face two
tomes more of financial stress such as not getting meals at proper timings or unable to
increase the total household income of their house. The data also shows that the high
prevalence of smoking among the families and friends of the disadvantaged communities
tend to normalize the act of smoking and thus, it becomes a normal habit of the children and
young individuals in those houses.
The analysis of the data shows that the show that the children who are more exposed
to second hand smoking can face more illness and this can influence the opportunities for
learning at the school and also affect the opportunities for job in the long run. They are also
likely to smoker at a later stage in life (Nicholson et al. 2015). The data also reveals that there
are a number of factors that can influence the smoking rates among the young individuals.
These factors include the political, cultural and social as well as economic factors which
comprises of policies, governance, dominant cultural and the norms and values of the society.
The results show that governance plays an important system in the representation of
values, norms, and policies that have the ability to integrate to the public via the government
and private sector. Thus, the data analysis results emphasizes on the fact that the policies
should be such that it can help the individuals of that community to know and access the
facilities that are available for the treatment of the diseases caused by smoking. It is also seen