Aims:  

• To understand how social media can be harnessed to enhance the impact of tobacco control strategies among Indigenous Australians.  

Objectives:  

• Smoking causes 1/5 deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Many social media tobacco control campaigns exist, but there is minimal understanding of their effectiveness.

Summary:  

This is a three year project, made up of four studies:

• Study 1: What social media health information is being shared within communities, how and by who?
• Study 2: How can social media be used effectively to reduce smoking and improve health?
• Study 3: How can Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services use social media effectively for reducing smoking?
• Study 4: How can Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services use social media to support people who want to quit smoking?

Working with a team of over 20 Indigenous community based peer researchers from Darwin, Nhulunbuy and Alice Springs we will combine online data collection and analysis with interviews with both users and non-users of social media.

All community based peer researchers are eligible to enroll in the Certificate II in Community Health Research. 

Chief investigators:

• Professor David Thomas
• Associate Professor Marita Hefler

Contact information:

Please email Marita Hefler for further information.

Project dates:

The project commenced in April 2016 and was completed in December 2019. 

Funders:

• National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

Collaborators:

• Danila Dilba Health Service
• Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation
• Central Australian Aboriginal Congress
• Aboriginal Medical Services of the Northern Territory

• Policy and Practice Brief: Social Media to Enhance Indigenous Tobacco control
• Social media in health promotion and tobacco control | Tips and Tricks, March 2018
• Make Facebook work for your health service - View the video here

Make Facebook work for your health service from Menzies School of Health on Vimeo.

• Social Media in health promotion | tips and tricks

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• Policy and Practice Brief: Social Media to Enhance Indigenous Tobacco control

  682 kB

  pdf

The team create short videos for social media to share updates on the social media and health research project. Check out the videos here. 

Latest news:

1. Hefler, M., Kerrigan, V., Grunseit, A., Freeman, B., Kite, J., Thomas, D.P. (2020). Facebook-Based Social Marketing to Reduce Smoking in Australia’s First Nations Communities: An Analysis of Reach, Shares, and Likes. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(12): e16927. doi: 10.2196/16927
2. Hefler, M., Kerrigan, V., Freeman, B., Boot, G.R. & Thomas, D.P. (2019). Using Facebook to reduce smoking along Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a participatory grounded action study. BMC Public Health, 19, 615. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6918-7
3. Kerrigan, V., Herdman, R.M., Thomas, D.P., & Hefler, M. (2019). 'I still remember your post about buying smokes': a case study of a remote Aboriginal community-controlled health service using Facebook for tobacco control. Australian Journal of Primary Health. https://doi.org/10.1071/PY19008
4. Hefler. M, Kerrigan, V., Henryks, J., Freeman, B. & Thomas, D.P. (2018). Social media and health information sharing among Australian Indigenous people. Health Promotion International, 34(4), 706-715. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/day018