Chronic conditions are a significant health concern. Most Australian men are overweight or obese and half live with at least one chronic health condition. General practice delivers a range of services, including preventive health care. The paper reports on men’s perspectives on preventive health care within general practice. Our study indicates that there is significant potential to enhance the communication of lifestyle risks, support behavioural changes and reduce the impact of chronic conditions on men.

Reablement is an innovative approach to improving in-home care services for older adults at risk of functional decline. This study seeks to understand the experiences of senior staff following the introduction of a reablement-based model of care for community dwelling adults and the factors contributing to the success of implementation of this model.

General practitioners can prescribe oral COVID-19 antivirals to actively infected patients. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of oral COVID-19 antiviral prescribing in general practice settings between March 2022 and November 2023. Characteristics of patients prescribed antivirals, including chronic conditions, monthly prescribing volumes, repeated prescribing activity, and use of telehealth (phone/video) for antiviral prescribing are reported. Telehealth exceeding face-to-face for oral COVID-19 antiviral prescribing supports continued access to telehealth to reduce exposure to COVID-19 and provide time-critical access to treatment.

We evaluated the pivotal role of Cultural Health Stations in advancing social development and health care within Indigenous communities. Data analysis clearly shows that the stations employ a diverse range of cultural care models tailored to the specific needs of local elders across various rural tribal and urban contexts. The culturally safe practices from the services demonstrated by the cultural health stations preserve cultural heritage, bridge the gap between tribal and urban life, and restore pride and continuity of cultural traditions.

This article belongs to the collection: Models of Community Health in Action.

There is little available evidence on how often GPs are considering and diagnosing long COVID for patients with common symptoms like fatigue. This study examined 3193 GP registrar consultations for fatigue, and found that registrars considered long COVID in 80% and diagnosed it in 18% of these, and were more likely to do both in telehealth consultations. This shows that GP registrars are adapting their approach to common presenting symptoms for the post-pandemic world.

Chlamydia is a common sexually transmissible infection in Australia, and can lead to permanent reproductive complications. Management of Chlamydia Cases in Australia (MoCCA) involves a multifaceted intervention aiming to strengthen the management of chlamydia in general practice. Our findings show that practice champions, motivated staff and useful resources facilitated adoption of interventions, whereas competing priorities, difficulties retaining staff, and a lack of staff and patient engagement hindered adoption. Findings can support general practitioners and reduce burden of disease.

Limited knowledge exists about the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have received physiotherapy care. This study offers insights into the lived experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples receiving care in the community and provides recommendations that may assist physiotherapists, alongside other community-based health professionals, to provide culturally safe care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples emphasised the significance of communication, respect for cultural identity, creating culturally safe environments, and the role of professional training in providing culturally safe physiotherapy care.

The use of data-driven quality improvement (QI) activities is increasingly being used in healthcare globally. This study delves into the implementation and impact of a year-long QI intervention, shedding light on barriers and enablers in improving care for coronary heart disease patients. These findings emphasise the need for collaborative approaches and highlight the potential of technology-driven solutions in enhancing patient outcomes and shaping the future of healthcare improvement initiatives.

Informal caregivers are an essential aspect of Australia’s health and social care systems, yet research has found them unsupported with greater risk of negative health outcomes. This study found an association between increased use of GPs and reduced hospitalisation risk in caregivers. This finding is important, because supporting caregivers to maintain their caring role has the potential to reduce demand of health services. Increasing caregivers’ engagement with GPs may be a cost-effective way of reducing healthcare system costs that requires further examination.

Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) clients face significant challenges in prioritising oral health due to addiction-related issues, unstable living conditions, lack of motivation and dental anxiety. Clinicians from both OTPs and oral health services identify inadequate support systems and competing priorities as key barriers to care. To address these, proposed strategies include holistic care integration, targeted education and flexible scheduling, all aimed at improving oral healthcare access and outcomes for OTP clients.

It is unknown whether health literacy instruments measure the same health literacy construct. This study compares psychometric properties and correlations between four widely used instruments: two performance-based functional health literacy instruments (Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults and Newest Vital Sign) and two self-report multidimensional instruments (European Health Literacy Survey and Health Literacy Questionnaire). New insight into the different constructs these instruments measure and implications for their application in research, policy, and clinical practice is presented.

Chronic pain affects one in five people in Australia and has a high economic burden on individuals and the health system. Upskilling primary care providers in best practice pain care is critical. The South Australian (SA) Chronic Pain ECHO Network was established to improve knowledge, confidence, attitudes and practice of primary care providers and provide professional support. The ECHO Network model was found to be an acceptable and effective model for upskilling primary care providers in best practice pain care.

There is a clear need for more research prioritising former refugees’ experiences of health care in their settlement countries; however, this research is known to be ethically and methodologically challenging. We found successful and ethical engagement with former refugees in qualitative health research is based on carefully establishing relationships, having a responsive suite of methods during fieldwork and finding meaningful ways to communicate. Our reflections and analysis will help others engage in this much needed area of research.

In Australia, while numerous vaccines are nationally recommended and funded for both children and adults, there are instances where vaccines are recommended but not funded. Using a national cross-sectional survey targeting adults aged 50 years and above, this study investigates factors influencing vaccine acceptance, revealing significant associations between demographics and vaccine uptake. This highlights the importance of funding for vaccination and identifies a gap in how to best increase uptake for vaccines which are recommended but not funded.