Use Of An Online Canteen Ordering System To Implement Healthy Canteen Policies In NSW Primary Schools
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$175,303.00
Summary
Given evidence that school food policies can improve children’s dietary intake, Australian state governments have launched healthy canteen policies. However, these policies are poorly implemented. This research seeks to assess the effectiveness of an online classification tool in increasing policy compliance. The tool will be embedded in an online canteen system, and will automatically assess whether menu items are compliant as they are uploaded onto the online canteen system.
Reconceptualising Health Promotion: The Role Of Ethics, Values And Evidence In Obesity Interventions
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$90,566.00
Summary
Overweight and obesity are public health priorities. Population-level programs, campaigns and regulations are required to prevent and reduce obesity. How should these interventions proceed? What is effective? What is ethical? How can we avoid doing harm? At present, we do not know. By studying current interventions, and working with experts and practitioners in health promotion and ethics, this project will develop a new framework to guide overweight and obesity intervention in the future.
National Implementation Trial Of An Evidence-informed Workplace Sitting Reduction Intervention
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$624,575.00
Summary
Long periods of sitting time are bad for health. We will conduct a three-year national trial with five workplace-health partner organizations testing a website-delivered program for reducing sitting time at work. It will be offered to over 10,000 desk-based employees. We will determine the impacts of the program as well as refinements needed for full-scale dissemination: uptake of the program, how well it can be delivered on a large scale, its impact on sitting time, and the costs involved.
Understandings Of Food And Weight Gain In Pregnant Women: A Qualitative Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$83,256.00
Summary
At a time when the incidence of obesity and associated chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes continues to rise and public health interventions are struggling to make an impact, this proposal has the potential to generate new insights. By using in-depth interviews to explore practices and understandings leading to excess weight gain during pregnancy this project addresses potential obesity in women and potential predisposition to obesity in their children.
A Randomised Trial Of An Intervention To Facilitate The Implementation Of A State-wide School Physical Activity Policy.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$586,396.00
Summary
This will be the first RCT of its kind. This study will test the effectiveness of an implementation support strategy in supporting schools to implement a physical activity policy mandated by the NSW Government. The trial could provide a model for supporting schools to implement school health or education policies, which seek to improve wellbeing of students.
Increasing The Implementation Of A Mandatory Primary School Physical Activity Policy
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$177,197.00
Summary
This will be the first RCT of its kind. This study will test the effectiveness of an implementation support strategy in supporting schools to implement a physical activity policy mandated by the NSW Government. The trial could provide a model for supporting schools to implement school health or education policies, which seek to improve wellbeing of students.
Improving Cardiac Rehabilitation In Victoria, Australia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$107,204.00
Summary
This PhD project will identify the key mechanisms for successful scale-up and sustainability of a community based diabetes prevention program - the Kerala Diabetes Prevention Program (NHMRC Project ID 1005324). Based in India where diabetes is becoming increasingly common, these findings have global relevance. Findings will add to crucial evidence gaps in how to systematically scale-up effective prevention programs in order to maximise public health impact.
Do People's Environments Influence Their Habitual Physical Activity?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$196,650.00
Summary
People seem to prefer to drive to the corner shop rather than walking. Or, they will drive the car to work instead of walking to the bus or train. Or, they send off e-mails instead of walking down the corridor at work. The result is that people are not using up the energy that they should and they get fatter. The average weight of many groups of Australians has gone up by several kilograms in the past 10 years. Active people not only have healthier weights. They are less likely to get heart dise ....People seem to prefer to drive to the corner shop rather than walking. Or, they will drive the car to work instead of walking to the bus or train. Or, they send off e-mails instead of walking down the corridor at work. The result is that people are not using up the energy that they should and they get fatter. The average weight of many groups of Australians has gone up by several kilograms in the past 10 years. Active people not only have healthier weights. They are less likely to get heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. But too many people do no exercise at all. Only about 10% of Australians adults do fitness and sporting activities three or more times a week. More than half do not walk, cycle or do anything moderately active on any regular basis. To get people to be regularly active and to stay active, promoting deliberate 'exercise' is not the answer. Making it easier for people to choose to be more active as they go about their daily lives will be more effective. Road transport researchers and geographers have a lot to offer to health researchers. They have found that where there are footpaths and cycle ways, where shops and businesses are close by or where the roads make it easy and safe to get from place to place, people are much more likely to walk or ride bikes. We can now use large, complex computerised databases (called Geographic Information Systems) to put together this type of information on peoples' local environments. We will combine these 'geographic' data with other information from surveys on people's physical activity, exercise and transport habits. Starting our research in this way, we will be able to work out whether there are factors in people's local environments that really do make them less active. Governments, health planners and local councils will use this information to find ways to create communities that are more activity-friendly. This will have real health benefits.Read moreRead less
Scalability Of The Transform-Us! Program To Promote Children's Physical Activity And Reduce Prolonged Sitting In Victorian Primary Schools
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$549,823.00
Summary
Transform-Us! is an innovative primary school program that has been found to substantially increase children’s physical activity levels, reduce sitting time and benefit health. With simple changes to the school and classroom environments and teaching practices (eg, standing lessons) we will work with partners in the education and health systems to translate this program across Victorian primary schools to determine the real-world implementation and impact of this program over 5 years.