Health literacy is an important social determinant of health and crucial for cancer prevention and early detection. Health literacy empowers consumers to make informed decisions and is critical to reduce health inequity and promote informed decisions on healthy lifestyles to prevent cancer. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to be diagnosed with cancers associated with preventable risk factors, such as lung cancer. Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, compared with the third most common for non-Indigenous Australians.[1]

Greater cancer awareness and increased knowledge about healthy lifestyle behaviours and/or symptoms to reduce cancer risk will strengthen protective lifestyle practices, increase risk recognition, reduce stigma and potentially improve engagement with health services, particularly screening and early detection services.[106]

Co-designed, locally tailored, culturally safe and responsive strategies could address specific healthy lifestyle behaviours of particular significance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Strategies could include:

• increased access to tailored, evidence-based nutrition and physical activity programs to prevent obesity and support healthy diet
• increased access to smoking cessation programs to prevent tobacco use and vaping
• campaigns to promote immunisation uptake, particularly for HPV, and the importance of regular health check-ups, including participation in national cancer screening programs
• increased participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in screening programs and public health campaigns and policies that improve nutrition and health at the community level (such as price controls and subsidising fruit and vegetables for remote communities)
• promotion of culturally targeted resources and training to communities and service providers
• local partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations working across education, housing, and childhood development to ensure strategies are well-integrated into other support and social services that intersect with health.

Co-design and implementation should be in partnership with the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Delivery of this action should be trauma-aware, healing-informed and, where possible, on Country and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Cancer prevention strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be evidence-based, tailored, in-language and accessible. The implementation of this action should align with existing lifestyle strategies and their scalability into other locations and domains of cancer control as well as implementation of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap,[8]National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023[107] and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Framework.[108]

This action is complemented by strategies in the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030[18], including those addressing the wider determinants of health that contribute to an increased risk of developing cancer.