Summary
- A team of Deakin University researchers and collaborators secured over $1.56 million to investigate the commercial determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.
- Professor Yin Paradies will lead an interdisciplinary research project to understand and address how the influence of business practices can impact Indigenous health.
- The project aims to develop a national Indigenous-led policy agenda to reduce the negative health impacts, and enhance the potential positive impacts, of the commercial sector.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Deakin Distinguished Professor Yin Paradies has received more than $1.56 million in funding through the NHMRC’s 2023 Targeted Call for Research for commercial determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.
Commercial determinants of health are how business practises can influence public health outcomes. Examples include how products are advertised, marketed, designed and consumed, price and affordability, industry practices and regulations, access and availability.
The grant will support experts to conduct innovative, ground-breaking research that recognises and adjusts for the interplay between social, cultural, economic, and commercial determinants of health and how it positively or negatively influences health outcomes.
Empowering Indigenous health voices
Professor Paradies, from the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI), and a multidisciplinary team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers will commence an important project to understand and address how commercial factors impact Indigenous health.
The Australia-wide research team have a combined 100 years’ experience in Indigenous health and have specialised knowledge about the food, alcohol, tobacco, e-cigarette industries and beyond.
The team includes Dr Jennifer Browne, Professor Kathryn Backholer, Dr Beau Cubillo, Dr Troy Walker, Professor Steven Allender and PhD candidate Fiona Mitchell all from the Institute’s Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) domain.
The research project, known as Addressing Commercial Health-determinants: Indigenous Empowerment and Voices for Equity (ACHIEVE), aims to:
- understand Indigenous perspectives on the commercial determinants of health and the interplay between the social, cultural and commercial determinants of health,
- evaluate the effectiveness of the current regulations reducing the health equity impacts of industry marketing of harmful projects for Indigenous populations,
- assess the health and equity impacts of specific commercial entities on Indigenous populations, including commercial sector influence on public health policies,
- working with Indigenous leaders and the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service sector to co-design strategies to reduce the commercial determinants of health.
‘It’s estimated that the profit-focused strategies of large corporations are responsible for 45% of global deaths from non-communicable disease,’ Professor Paradies says.
‘Despite being disproportionately affected by these commercial determinants, Indigenous health and the representation of voices are mysteriously absent.
‘Our ACHIEVE project will advance knowledge about how commercial factors influence Indigenous health and equity.’
The multidisciplinary team will produce novel insights into Indigenous peoples’ exposure to unhealthy marketing, the effectiveness of current regulations, and reveal how commercial actors influence policy relevant to Indigenous health.
Outcomes will include a new holistic model of the commercial determinants of Indigenous health and Indigenous-led commercial determinants of health policy agenda. ACHIEVE will enable the Aboriginal Controlled Community Health sector to address the commercial determinants of health in their strategies and advocacy.
