Kirsten Howard
Biographic Data
| ID | 3583234 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kirsten Howard |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kirsten |
| FAMILY NAME | Howard |
| SIGNATURE | HOWARD K |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0918-7540 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 22 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 33 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Drawing Wellbeing
Purpose Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are custodians of the world's oldest living cultures yet experience systemic inequities that infringe upon their rights to health, education, safety, and cultural identity due to ongoing colonisation. Despite these persistent disparities, few studies have explored wellbeing from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's own perspectives and lived experiences. This study addresses this …
Wellbeing Ways
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth belong to culturally rich and resilient communities, yet they continue to experience significant health and wellbeing disparities. Despite these challenges, there is a critical gap in culturally appropriate tools to assess and support the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in school settings. The Wellbeing Ways project addresses this gap by working with secondary schools to impleme…
Social value of a childhood Qaly - Revealed preferences from pharmaceutical funding decisions in Australia 2005–2023
Several countries now formally include at least one aspect of equity, alongside cost-effectiveness, in health technology assessment (HTA) decisions, often focusing on need. Recent literature suggests public support for prioritising health gains for children over adults. While some agencies may indirectly consider age, none explicitly apply different weights to health gains for children. This study analysed 19 years of data to quantify the additio…
Understanding wellbeing from the perspectives of First Nations Australian youth
Measures of wellbeing are increasingly used to inform critical decision making to support young people across a range of areas, including health, education, and programs and services that support them. Wellbeing is a culturally bound construct; therefore, robust wellbeing measures must ask about topics that are culturally relevant to and valued by the population of interest. Despite this, little attention has been directed at understanding the co…
Establishing cost-effectiveness threshold in China
INTRODUCTION: The willingness to pay per quality-adjusted life year gained (WTP/Q) is commonly used to determine whether an intervention is cost-effective in health technology assessment. This study aimed to evaluate the WTP/Q for different disease scenarios in a Chinese population. METHODS: The study employed a quadruple-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method to estimate the WTP/Q in the general public. The estimation was conduct…
Making recommendations to subsidize new health technologies in Australia
OBJECTIVES: To explore experiences of, and perspectives on, health technology assessment (HTA) processes used to produce recommendations about subsidizing new medicines, and medical technologies in Australia, from the perspectives of those experienced in these processes. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of 18 informants currently or previously members of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) or the Medical …
Pathways between foodways and wellbeing for First Nations Australians
Five pathways through which wellbeing is supported via foodways for First Nations peoples were identified as: connecting with others through food; accessing traditional foods; experiencing joy in making and sharing food; sharing information about food and nutrition; and strategies for improving food security. These findings offer constructive, nationally relevant evidence to guide and inform health and nutrition programs and services to harness t…
How to Use Discrete Choice Experiments to Capture Stakeholder Preferences in Social Work Research
Development of the What Matters 2 Adults (WM2A) wellbeing measure for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults
The unique combination of Indigenist and psychometric methodologies to develop WM2A ensures a culturally and psychometrically robust measure, relevant across a range of settings and applications
A Systematic Methods Review of Photovoice Research with Indigenous Young People
Photovoice is an emerging qualitative research method used to engage community members in research that highlights their lived experiences and initiate change. Photovoice offers potential benefits to research conducted by and with Indigenous communities through privileging Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. There is a lack of synthesized evidence about the usage, benefits, and challenges of conducting Photovoice research by and with Indigenou…
The Suitability and Acceptability of the Think-Aloud Method to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adults
Background There is a long history of research being conducted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that has offered questionable benefit but occasioned great distress and distrust. Using research methods that are suitable and acceptable to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a critically important step towards restoring trust and improving the accessibility and relevancy of research that better addresses the needs of Abo…
Feasibility of a best–worst scaling exercise to set priorities for autism research
BACKGROUND: The preferences of autism stakeholders regarding the top priorities for future autism research are largely unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study had two objectives: First, to examine what autism stakeholders think new research investments should be and the attributes of investment that they consider important, and second, to explore the feasibility, acceptability and outcomes of two prioritization exercises among autism stakeholders regardin…
Stakeholder perspectives on the implementation and impact of Indigenous health interventions
Evaluating genetic and genomic tests for heritable conditions in Australia
The Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) is an independent non-statutory committee established by the Australian government to provide recommendations on public reimbursement of technologies and services, other than pharmaceuticals. MSAC has established approaches for undertaking health technology assessment (HTA) of investigative services and codependent technologies. In 2016, MSAC published its clinical utility card (CUC) Proforma, an add…
The Fabric of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing
Wellbeing is culturally bound and is shaped by many aspects of life, including experiences, beliefs and values. As such, in order to accurately measure wellbeing for a specific cultural group, it is necessary to understand the experiences, beliefs and values that influence the conception and experience of wellbeing of that group. This paper presents a conceptual model of wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which was develo…
Quality of Life in the First Year of Cancer Diagnosis among Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal People Living in Regional and Remote Areas of Australia
Little is known of the quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, where healthcare delivery is geographically challenged. This exploratory study describes QoL among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cancer patients in the NT, in the first year of diagnosis. Participants were recruited from the only cancer care centre in the NT and completed the Assessment of Quality-of-Life questionnaire (AQoL-4D). The resul…
What Matters 2 Adults (WM2Adults)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience a greater range of health and social disadvantages compared to other Australians. Wellbeing is a culturally-bound construct, and to date, a national evidence base around the components of wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is lacking. Understanding and measurement of wellbeing for this population is critical in achieving health equity. This paper aims to identify and …
Population-based utility scores for HPV infection and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma among Indigenous Australians
Among a large sample of Indigenous Australians, utility for oral HPV infection and OPSCC decreased with severity of health states. Older participants, as well as males and those residing in non-metropolitan locations, had decreased utility for high-grade cytology and early invasive cancer states. Our findings are an important contribution to cost-utility and disease prevention strategies that seek to inform policies around reducing HPV infection …
What Matters 2 Adults
The new wellbeing measure will have wide applicability in assessing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new programs and services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Results will be disseminated through journals, conferences and policy forums, and will be shared with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, organisations and research participants
Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community
BACKGROUND: At least one-third of community-dwelling people over 65 years of age fall each year. Exercises that target balance, gait and muscle strength have been found to prevent falls in these people. An up-to-date synthesis of the evidence is important given the major long-term consequences associated with falls and fall-related injuries OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects (benefits and harms) of exercise interventions for preventing falls in ol…
Wellbeing intervention for chronic kidney disease (WICKD)
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry; ACTRN12617000249358 ; Date registered: 17/02/2017
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's domains of wellbeing
Public preferences for One Health approaches to emerging infectious diseases
Older people's perspectives on participation in physical activity
Men's preferences and trade‐offs for prostate cancer screening
OBJECTIVES: Prostate cancer screening using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) remains controversial. In deciding about screening, men must weigh the benefits and harms: little is known about benefit: harm trade-offs men are willing to accept. The objective of this study was to assess men's preferences for PSA screening, and the trade-offs between benefits and harms men are willing to accept when deciding about screening. METHODS: Preferences of 662…
A Synergistic Approach
No mixed methods research design blends typological and systemic approaches into a cohesive, multifaceted whole. A synergistic approach to mixed methods research uses the inherent strengths of both types of approaches, providing researchers with a comprehensive framework for making pivotal research design decisions. Grounded in both philosophy and practice, this approach enables researchers to identify what will be researched, how it will be rese…
Public preferences for One Health approaches to emerging infectious diseases
How to Use Discrete Choice Experiments to Capture Stakeholder Preferences in Social Work Research
The Suitability and Acceptability of the Think-Aloud Method to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adults
Background There is a long history of research being conducted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that has offered questionable benefit but occasioned great distress and distrust. Using research methods that are suitable and acceptable to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a critically important step towards restoring trust and improving the accessibility and relevancy of research that better addresses the needs of Abo…
HIV patient insight on adhering to medication
Research on HIV medication adherence has relied mainly on quantitative methods. The objective of this study was to explore factors associated with adherence from the HIV-infected patient's perspective. Six focus groups were convened with treatment-experienced HIV-positive individuals. The discussions focused on issues that make it easy or difficult to adhere to HIV regimens. Thirty-five patients participated in the focus groups, which were conduc…
A Synergistic Approach
No mixed methods research design blends typological and systemic approaches into a cohesive, multifaceted whole. A synergistic approach to mixed methods research uses the inherent strengths of both types of approaches, providing researchers with a comprehensive framework for making pivotal research design decisions. Grounded in both philosophy and practice, this approach enables researchers to identify what will be researched, how it will be rese…
Cervical cancer screening in Australia
Lengthening the recommended screening interval to 3 years in Australia is not predicted to result in increases in rates of cervical cancer and is predicted to decrease the number of women undergoing diagnostic and treatment procedures. These findings are consistent with a large body of international evidence showing that screening more frequently than every three years with cervical cytology does not result in substantial gains in screening effec…
Community Preferences for the Allocation & Donation of Organs - The PAraDOx Study
By providing a better understanding of current community preferences in relation to organ donation and allocation, the PAraDOx study will highlight options for firstly, increasing the rate of organ donation and secondly, allow for more transparent and equitable policies in relation to organ allocation
Test performance of faecal occult blood testing for the detection of bowel cancer in people with chronic kidney disease (Detect) protocol
The DETECT study will target the three major unknowns about early cancer detection in CKD. Findings from our study will provide accurate and definitive estimates of screening efficacy and efficiency for colorectal cancer, and will allow better service planning and budgeting for early cancer detection in this at-risk population.The DETECT study is also registered with the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12611000538943
The Study of the Prevention of Anal Cancer (SPANC)
Recruitment for the study began in September 2010 and will conclude in mid-2015, with follow up continuing to 2018. Thus far, over 350 men have been recruited from a variety of community-based settings and are broadly representative of the target screening population. The SPANC study is one of only a small number of cohort studies globally to perform HPV, cytology and HRA screening on all participants over multiple time points. The study results …
Understanding the Use of Ecosystem Service Knowledge in Decision Making
The limited understanding of how ecosystem service knowledge (ESK) is used in decision making constrains our ability to learn from, replicate, and convey success stories. We explore use of ESK in decision making in three international cases: national coastal planning in Belize; regional marine spatial planning on Vancouver Island, Canada; and regional land-use planning on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Decision makers, scientists, and stakeholders c…
Health and wealth in children and adolescents with chronic kidney disease (K-CAD study)
Findings from this study presents not only a snapshot of the current economic and social situation of the caregivers of children and adolescents with CKD but will also provide definitive evidence of determining whether a link between socioeconomic status of caregivers and outcomes of children with CKD exists
Older people's perspectives on participation in physical activity
Men's preferences and trade‐offs for prostate cancer screening
OBJECTIVES: Prostate cancer screening using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) remains controversial. In deciding about screening, men must weigh the benefits and harms: little is known about benefit: harm trade-offs men are willing to accept. The objective of this study was to assess men's preferences for PSA screening, and the trade-offs between benefits and harms men are willing to accept when deciding about screening. METHODS: Preferences of 662…
Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community
BACKGROUND: At least one-third of community-dwelling people over 65 years of age fall each year. Exercises that target balance, gait and muscle strength have been found to prevent falls in these people. An up-to-date synthesis of the evidence is important given the major long-term consequences associated with falls and fall-related injuries OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects (benefits and harms) of exercise interventions for preventing falls in ol…
Wellbeing intervention for chronic kidney disease (WICKD)
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry; ACTRN12617000249358 ; Date registered: 17/02/2017
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's domains of wellbeing
Public preferences for One Health approaches to emerging infectious diseases
What Matters 2 Adults
The new wellbeing measure will have wide applicability in assessing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new programs and services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Results will be disseminated through journals, conferences and policy forums, and will be shared with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, organisations and research participants
Stakeholder perspectives on the implementation and impact of Indigenous health interventions
Evaluating genetic and genomic tests for heritable conditions in Australia
The Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) is an independent non-statutory committee established by the Australian government to provide recommendations on public reimbursement of technologies and services, other than pharmaceuticals. MSAC has established approaches for undertaking health technology assessment (HTA) of investigative services and codependent technologies. In 2016, MSAC published its clinical utility card (CUC) Proforma, an add…
The Fabric of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing
Wellbeing is culturally bound and is shaped by many aspects of life, including experiences, beliefs and values. As such, in order to accurately measure wellbeing for a specific cultural group, it is necessary to understand the experiences, beliefs and values that influence the conception and experience of wellbeing of that group. This paper presents a conceptual model of wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which was develo…
Quality of Life in the First Year of Cancer Diagnosis among Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal People Living in Regional and Remote Areas of Australia
Little is known of the quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, where healthcare delivery is geographically challenged. This exploratory study describes QoL among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cancer patients in the NT, in the first year of diagnosis. Participants were recruited from the only cancer care centre in the NT and completed the Assessment of Quality-of-Life questionnaire (AQoL-4D). The resul…
What Matters 2 Adults (WM2Adults)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience a greater range of health and social disadvantages compared to other Australians. Wellbeing is a culturally-bound construct, and to date, a national evidence base around the components of wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is lacking. Understanding and measurement of wellbeing for this population is critical in achieving health equity. This paper aims to identify and …
Population-based utility scores for HPV infection and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma among Indigenous Australians
Among a large sample of Indigenous Australians, utility for oral HPV infection and OPSCC decreased with severity of health states. Older participants, as well as males and those residing in non-metropolitan locations, had decreased utility for high-grade cytology and early invasive cancer states. Our findings are an important contribution to cost-utility and disease prevention strategies that seek to inform policies around reducing HPV infection …
Feasibility of a best–worst scaling exercise to set priorities for autism research
BACKGROUND: The preferences of autism stakeholders regarding the top priorities for future autism research are largely unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study had two objectives: First, to examine what autism stakeholders think new research investments should be and the attributes of investment that they consider important, and second, to explore the feasibility, acceptability and outcomes of two prioritization exercises among autism stakeholders regardin…
A Systematic Methods Review of Photovoice Research with Indigenous Young People
Photovoice is an emerging qualitative research method used to engage community members in research that highlights their lived experiences and initiate change. Photovoice offers potential benefits to research conducted by and with Indigenous communities through privileging Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. There is a lack of synthesized evidence about the usage, benefits, and challenges of conducting Photovoice research by and with Indigenou…
The Suitability and Acceptability of the Think-Aloud Method to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adults
Background There is a long history of research being conducted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that has offered questionable benefit but occasioned great distress and distrust. Using research methods that are suitable and acceptable to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a critically important step towards restoring trust and improving the accessibility and relevancy of research that better addresses the needs of Abo…
Establishing cost-effectiveness threshold in China
INTRODUCTION: The willingness to pay per quality-adjusted life year gained (WTP/Q) is commonly used to determine whether an intervention is cost-effective in health technology assessment. This study aimed to evaluate the WTP/Q for different disease scenarios in a Chinese population. METHODS: The study employed a quadruple-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method to estimate the WTP/Q in the general public. The estimation was conduct…
Medicine (20 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights (10 works) · Environmental health (9 works) · Public health (9 works) · Internal Medicine (8 works) · Qualitative research (8 works) · Indigenous (7 works) · Political science (7 works)