Breaking health barriers for culturally and linguistically diverse Australian women
Around three in 10 Australians are born overseas, and Australian women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds can face multiple disadvantages when it comes to their health. A lack of educational opportunities; cultural taboos around sensitive health topics; logistical, financial, and language barriers to accessing care; and language barriers to access credible information online are all factors in a complex equation.
Two teams of School researchers have focussed on this gap recently, delivering two suites of multi-lingual videos providing culturally-relevant, evidence-based information regarding contraceptive choices, and healthy behaviours to support mental and physical wellbeing at the crucial midlife stage.
Contraceptive choices videos
Professor Danielle Mazza, Dr Jessica Botfield, Jessie Zeng, Claudia Morando-Stokoe, Dr Noushin Arefadib
Unintended pregnancies can increase the likelihood of poorer health outcomes for mothers and children. Women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD) are particularly likely to have lower contraceptive use, greater reliance on less effective contraceptive methods, and a higher risk of unintended pregnancy.
Long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods dramatically reduce the likelihood of unintended pregnancy, but have faced uptake issues in Australia for a multitude of reasons, including limited knowledge, stigma and misconceptions.
The recent EXTEND-PREFER Study, conducted by the SPHERE Centre of Research Excellence found that online educational videos could improve contraceptive knowledge by 41 per cent among young women from CALD backgrounds who are aged 16 to 25 years.
The videos evaluated by the study were co-designed with young women from priority CALD backgrounds, who speak Arabic, Cantonese, English, Hindi and Mandarin. Off the back of the successful study results, the videos are now being distributed to multicultural communities, women’s and general health websites, and social media platforms.
Funded by the Department of Health and Aged Care, EXTEND-PREFER benefited from the input of the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health and the Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health at the University of Melbourne.
Study lead Professor Daniella Mazza AM says “Combining contraceptive education with support to LARC access is crucial for empowering these young women to make informed contraceptive decisions and prevent unintended pregnancies.”
Information in the videos includes the presence and types of hormones found in various contraceptive methods, effectiveness, how the contraceptive is used, inserted and removed, length of use, cost, whether a prescription is needed, effects on bleeding patterns, non-contraceptive benefits, whether the contraceptive provides protection against sexually transmissible infections, and common side effects.
Learn more about the study at spherecre.org/research/completed-trials/extend-prefer
Midlife health videos
Professor Jane Fisher, Professor Flavia Cicuttini, Dr KarIn Hammarberg
Midlife has repeatedly been shown to be a crucial time in determining healthy ageing, and with longer lifespans for women, it’s an important teachable moment to help more women age well.
“Some but not all determinants of good health in older age are able to be influenced during midlife,” says Professor Jane Fisher, Head of our Global and Women’s Health Unit. “It’s important that information about healthy choices is accessible, intelligible and practical for all community members.
“We’d worked with the team at the CRE Women and Non-Communicable Diseases (CREWaND), a collaborative NHMRC funded initiative out of the University of Queensland, in which we identified a gap in online health resources for women from CALD backgrounds, particularly around menopause and midlife health.”
Dr Karin Hammarberg was heavily involved in that piece of research. “We decided to use short videos to communicate health promoting messages,” she says, “based on evidence that video animations show promise as patient information tools, particularly for effects on knowledge. The videos are narrated and have subtitles and particular attention has been paid to ensure the animations are inclusive by depicting women from different cultural backgrounds.”
Professor Flavia Cicuttini, Head of Musculoskeletal Epidemiology at our School, saw a synergy with her own interest areas, around healthy joints, strength and weight, and the connections between joint and heart health. “We’d already created some animated videos in different languages about these topics, and joining forces with Jane and her team was too good of an opportunity to miss.”
There are a number of videos around the following key topics, and include information on staying well, how to tell if you should seek health support, and how to avoid costly unnecessary medical procedures:
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