title: Study Protocol--Alcohol Management Plans (AMPs) in remote indigenous communities in Queensland: their impacts on injury, violence, health and social indicators and their cost-effectiveness.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2002/03 the Queensland Government responded to high rates of alcohol-related harm in discrete Indigenous communities by implementing alcohol management plans (AMPs), designed to include supply and harm reduction and treatment measures. Tighter alcohol supply and carriage restrictions followed in 2008 following indications of reductions in violence and injury. Despite the plans being in place for over a decade, no comprehensive independent review has assessed to what level the designed aims were achieved and what effect the plans have had on Indigenous community residents and service providers. This study will describe the long-term impacts on important health, economic and social outcomes of Queensland's AMPs.
  
  
  METHODS
  The project has two main studies, 1) outcome evaluation using de-identified epidemiological data on injury, violence and other health and social indicators for across Queensland, including de-identified databases compiled from relevant routinely-available administrative data sets, and 2) a process evaluation to map the nature, timing and content of intervention components targeting alcohol. Process evaluation will also be used to assess the fidelity with which the designed intervention components have been implemented, their uptake and community responses to them and their perceived impacts on alcohol supply and consumption, injury, violence and community health. Interviews and focus groups with Indigenous residents and service providers will be used. The study will be conducted in all 24 of Queensland's Indigenous communities affected by alcohol management plans.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This evaluation will report on the impacts of the original aims for AMPs, what impact they have had on Indigenous residents and service providers. A central outcome will be the establishment of relevant databases describing the parameters of the changes seen. This will permit comprehensive and rigorous surveillance systems to be put in place and provided to communities empowering them with the best credible evidence to judge future policy and program requirements for themselves. The project will inform impending alcohol policy and program adjustments in Queensland and other Australian jurisdictions.The project has been approved by the James Cook University Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number H4967 & H5241).
authors.affiliation: Community-based Health Promotion and Prevention Studies Group, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University (Cairns Campus), PO Box 6811, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia. alan.clough@jcu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Alan R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Clough
authors.forename: Michelle S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Fitts
authors.forename: Jan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shakeshaft
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Doran
authors.forename: Reinhold
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: Valmae
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ypinazar
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McDermott
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sanson-Fisher
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Towle
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Margolis
authors.forename: Caryn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: West
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006293:Health Promotion; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D011793:Queensland; D014754:Violence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data