The health of Queensland’s Samoan population 2009 Queensland.

Abstract

This document profiles the health of Samoan Queenslanders. Data from a literature review, the Queensland Hospital Admitted Patient Data Collection, Australian Bureau of Statistics and focus groups with Samoan community members and leaders in Queensland are presented. Quantitative data, particularly on the determinants of health and some health status indicators are not available for the Samoan population. Improved data collection and analysis is required to enable the development of a complete synopsis of the health of Samoan Queenslanders. At the 2006 Census there were 4863 Queenslanders born in Samoa and 13,536 Queenslanders with Samoan ancestry. The population grew at a rate of 20.4 per cent between 2001 and 2006. The Samoan population speaks mainly Samoan at home and is predominantly Christian. The majority of Samoa-born people arrived in Australia between 1991 and 2000. The population is geographically distributed throughout Queensland. The largest populations live in Brisbane, Logan and Ipswich – with 69.8 per cent of the population living in these three Local Government Areas. The Queensland Samoan population has Australian and traditional health beliefs and practices. The importance of Aiga (family) and Va (relational space) to the Samoan world view permeate beliefs about health and illness. Illnesses may be perceived as caused by conflicts with or failed duty towards family, or because of unbalanced social relationships.1 In Samoan culture, the individual can only be described as having meaning in relation to others, not as an individual. Religion and spirituality are also central to health beliefs and people are viewed as having physical, mental and spiritual needs. The fonofale model of Samoan health, developed in New Zealand, has components related to a traditional Samoan meeting house: cultural values (roof); family (floor); and physical, mental, spiritual and other dimensions of wellbeing (four pillars). These traditional health beliefs and the process of acculturation all impact on Samoan health in Queensland. The Samoa-born population display significant health inequalities with higher mortality rates for all causes and avoidable conditions; and higher hospitalizations for all causes, avoidable conditions, COPD, diabetes and diabetes complications.

Focus groups identified diabetes, coronary heart disease, mental illness, asthma, obesity and cancer as the health priorities in the Samoan community. The main issues raised in the focus groups included lack of culturally tailored health promotion, economic and communication barriers to health, cultural reluctance to seek help and low health literacy. To improve Samoan health in Queensland, all four focus groups recommended culturally tailored health promotion, dedicated Pacific Islander health workers and training, scholarships and up-skilling programs to access health jobs. Similar findings were made across other Pacific Islander communities in Queensland, highlighting what focus group participants themselves stated – Pacific Islander people have more similarities than differences regarding health and cultural belief systems. Therefore, the strategies to improve Pacific Islander health in Queensland have been compiled into a separate document, Queensland Health response to the Pacific Islander and Maori needs assessment