Factors influencing community engagement approaches used in Aedes aegypti management in Cairns, Australia.

Issue addressed: An important part of preventing and managing Aedes-borne mosquito disease outbreak risk is engaging the community. Research shows that high-income countries tend to use top-down measures for Aedes mosquito management, favouring educational approaches to engage the community over participatory approaches that actively involve and empower the community in addressing disease risk. Little is known about the reasons behind the use of these approaches and how they could be strengthened. This research explores the community engagement approaches used in Aedes mosquito management in Cairns, Queensland, Australia and the factors influencing the choice of these approaches.

Methods: A case study design was used, drawing on two qualitative methods-key informant, semi-structured interviews (n = 25), and a document review (n = 20). Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and attribute meaning from the data.

Results: Various approaches were used to engage the community, including direct interaction through door-to-door inspections, broad outreach via mass media campaigns, and community participation in a novel mosquito replacement strategy. Factors influencing the choice of these approaches included government legislative responsibilities, research-related ethical obligations, work norms within local government and public health units, the perceived importance of gaining community trust, constraints on workforce capacity, time and funding.

Conclusions: There were multiple factors influencing the community engagement approaches used in this study. Resource constraints, institutional norms and prevailing attitudes and beliefs were identified as hindering the use of more empowering approaches to engaging the community. These barriers should be considered and addressed in the planning of Aedes mosquito management to better support community engagement in this setting. SO WHAT?: Community engagement is an important aspect of managing the Aedes mosquito disease threat. With the global increase in Aedes mosquito-borne disease risk, these findings can help other at-risk settings understand potential organisational impediments to engaging the community. This is particularly important when advocating for the inclusion of bottom-up approaches in policy, and to ensure sufficient resources are allocated to strengthen community engagement in Aedes mosquito management.