Australia's Baby Boomer Generation, Obesity and Work - Patterns, Causes and Implications. In Australia's ageing crisis, baby boomers play a key role. Not only will they double the size of the aged population and its ratio to the workforce age group but the extent to which they remain in the workforce and their health will be crucial to future national productivity and prosperity. Baby Boomers have the highest level of obesity of any Australian age cohort and this threatens to seriously reduce ....Australia's Baby Boomer Generation, Obesity and Work - Patterns, Causes and Implications. In Australia's ageing crisis, baby boomers play a key role. Not only will they double the size of the aged population and its ratio to the workforce age group but the extent to which they remain in the workforce and their health will be crucial to future national productivity and prosperity. Baby Boomers have the highest level of obesity of any Australian age cohort and this threatens to seriously reduce their workforce participation and productivity and increase chronic disease incidence. There is a narrow closing window of opportunity for intervention which will reduce obesity and improve health and workforce outcomes.Read moreRead less
Obesity, Health, Social Disadvantage and Environment in Australia : Relationships and Policy Implications. The association between excess body fat and numerous health problems has been well documented. The significant increase in the proportion of Australians obese and overweight in the last 20 years has important implications for the well being of Australians and the costs of the health system. Developing effective policies to reverse this trend is dependant upon achieving better understandin ....Obesity, Health, Social Disadvantage and Environment in Australia : Relationships and Policy Implications. The association between excess body fat and numerous health problems has been well documented. The significant increase in the proportion of Australians obese and overweight in the last 20 years has important implications for the well being of Australians and the costs of the health system. Developing effective policies to reverse this trend is dependant upon achieving better understanding of the inter-related social, economic, environmental and medical causes of obesity and its effects. This study seeks to extend this understanding through innovative analysis of a unique survey of 4,000 adults in northwestern Adelaide and develop recommendations for effective policy intervention.Read moreRead less
Effective clinical handover communication: improving patient safety, experiences and outcomes. Communication in clinical handover (transfer of responsibility for patient care) plays a causal role in many adverse events. This project will contribute new knowledge for improvements in handover communication which will be shared across hospitals and health departments nationally to improve patient safety and reduce healthcare costs.
Describing transition for people living with chronic illness. Our primary aim is to explore transition for people living with chronic illness. Understanding the nature of transition places health care professionals in an excellent position to assist the person living with chronic illness. This is important given that chronic illness has been acknowledged as the prime health concern of this era. We explore, how individuals living with chronic illness make sense of "becoming ordinary" rather than ....Describing transition for people living with chronic illness. Our primary aim is to explore transition for people living with chronic illness. Understanding the nature of transition places health care professionals in an excellent position to assist the person living with chronic illness. This is important given that chronic illness has been acknowledged as the prime health concern of this era. We explore, how individuals living with chronic illness make sense of "becoming ordinary" rather than "being ordinary", exploring how they give meaning to their sense of self and their sense of self capacity. As an interactive participatory action research program with 200 participants, we will validate the emerging transition thesis collaboratively. Resultant action has the potential to enhance participant's lives, foster collective community development, inform health care practice and advance theoretical debates.Read moreRead less
Engaging the public in healthcare decision making: quantifying preferences for healthcare through Citizens’ Juries. This project promotes public engagement and quantifies preferences in key areas of relevance to the industry partners Queensland Health and South Australia Health. These areas identified are elective surgery priorities, optimising appropriate use of emergency care, and interventions for obesity. A series of choice experiments and citizens' juries will be used. The project will f ....Engaging the public in healthcare decision making: quantifying preferences for healthcare through Citizens’ Juries. This project promotes public engagement and quantifies preferences in key areas of relevance to the industry partners Queensland Health and South Australia Health. These areas identified are elective surgery priorities, optimising appropriate use of emergency care, and interventions for obesity. A series of choice experiments and citizens' juries will be used. The project will facilitate identification and application of optimal methods for engaging the public in healthcare decision-making, provide guidance on the appropriate population groups to consider when eliciting consumer preferences, and provide direct public input to guide health policy. The approach will be able to be applied to different policy areas.Read moreRead less
Development and implementation of an evidence-based primary health care workforce planning model to support best practice chronic disease management. The workforce model will inform government health workforce and health services planning, with the promise of improving access to best practice care for persons with diabetes, and potentially other chronic conditions, that represent the dominant Australian health burden. It also will inform education and training of health professionals and support ....Development and implementation of an evidence-based primary health care workforce planning model to support best practice chronic disease management. The workforce model will inform government health workforce and health services planning, with the promise of improving access to best practice care for persons with diabetes, and potentially other chronic conditions, that represent the dominant Australian health burden. It also will inform education and training of health professionals and support a more flexible response to health workforce needs. Given projected health work force shortages, flexibility in responding to health care needs will be crucial to maintaining health system capacity. The model supports system level change that will enable improved population health outcomes, reduce preventable hospital admissions and deliver production gainsRead moreRead less
Modelling applications of nanomaterials in biology and medicine. This proposal will address fundamental issues related to nanomaterials and their applications in biology and medicine. Accurate mathematical models will be formulated, leading to new practical techniques in nanobiotechnology, safe and effective methods to diagnose and cure diseases including cancer via targeted drug and gene delivery, and detection methods for biological hazards, such as those arising from biological terrorism. The ....Modelling applications of nanomaterials in biology and medicine. This proposal will address fundamental issues related to nanomaterials and their applications in biology and medicine. Accurate mathematical models will be formulated, leading to new practical techniques in nanobiotechnology, safe and effective methods to diagnose and cure diseases including cancer via targeted drug and gene delivery, and detection methods for biological hazards, such as those arising from biological terrorism. The research facility proposed involves significant training of applied mathematicians at honours, PhD and postdoctoral levels and multidisciplinary collaboration, ensuring that Australia maintains and develops an expertise in nanobiotechnology well into the future.Read moreRead less
Food advertising to children: evaluation of diverse regulatory models. Food advertising to children on television typically portrays energy-dense, low-nutrient products as sources of fun or social acceptance. The effect of this advertising on the increasing problem of childhood obesity is a matter of concern and debate.
The current regulatory regime in Australia for such advertising does not effectively incorporate the views of all stakeholders, and so overemphasises the views of the TV indus ....Food advertising to children: evaluation of diverse regulatory models. Food advertising to children on television typically portrays energy-dense, low-nutrient products as sources of fun or social acceptance. The effect of this advertising on the increasing problem of childhood obesity is a matter of concern and debate.
The current regulatory regime in Australia for such advertising does not effectively incorporate the views of all stakeholders, and so overemphasises the views of the TV industry and the advertisers.
This study will advance the development of an effective regime for regulating food advertising to children in Australia, by analysing and evaluating models in other jurisdictions.
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Strengthening community responses to hepatitis B. Australians who have been born overseas often have high rates of chronic hepatitis B. In this project people with hepatitis B and people who provide them with health and social services will be interviewed to understand individual responses to the infection, and to identify barriers to effective health care delivery.
Weighing the impact: How do Australian families interpret and respond to population messaging about obesity, weight loss and physical activity? How do adults and adolescents - both fat and thin - respond to the range of obesity messages that they are exposed to in their everyday lives? This study investigates the attitudes and opinions of 150 families about current obesity campaigns, and will develop a practical template for improving current obesity messaging strategies.