Communicating Health: Optimising Engagement And Retention Using Social Media
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$950,060.00
Summary
In order to impact on health, young people need to be engaged and retained in health interventions. The application of social media to engage, retain and promote health behaviour change in this target group has enormous potential but is poorly researched. This project will engage young people of all incomes and education from across Australia and assess their attitudes and behaviours and determine most effective social media content and delivery to optimise engagement and retention.
An RCT To Promote Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours From Infancy: An Intervention To Prevent Childhood Overweight
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$578,631.00
Summary
In Australia, one in four school-aged children is currently overweight and childhood obesity rates are continuing to rise. In the last five years it has become clear that rates of overweight and obesity are also rapidly increasing in pre-school age children. These are issues that are of concern to health officials as well as to parents. We understand that these rising rates in fatness relate to children's diet and activity patterns, and that these patterns, once established are likely to be patt ....In Australia, one in four school-aged children is currently overweight and childhood obesity rates are continuing to rise. In the last five years it has become clear that rates of overweight and obesity are also rapidly increasing in pre-school age children. These are issues that are of concern to health officials as well as to parents. We understand that these rising rates in fatness relate to children's diet and activity patterns, and that these patterns, once established are likely to be patterns for life. To date, there has been relatively little research regarding the chance to support parents to establish the eating and activity patterns that will protect their children from the very beginning of life. This project seeks to support first-time parents to establish healthy eating and activity behaviours in their children using the highly utilised Maternal and Child Health Centres first time parents' groups. We believe that these groups will provide a strongly supportive environment in which to provide parents with strategies and knowledge for promoting healthy eating and activity patterns for their children, and in turn, promote healthy weight gain. This project will assess the effectiveness of this intervention.Read moreRead less
Improving Physical Health Outcomes For Young People With Psychotic Disorders
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$189,384.00
Summary
Enduring psychotic disorders are associated with a reduced life expectancy by 25 years, which is mainly due to cardiovascular disease. This project will produce a training package that will improve clinician’s skills and knowledge of screening and treatment for physical health risk factors in young people with psychosis. This project will result in the development of an intervention for reducing the prevalence of these cardiovascular risk factors known to contribute to this early mortality.
A Vision Of Healthy Urban Design For NCD Prevention
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$608,911.00
Summary
We are living in a new city era with new risks for health, and new ways to understand them. This project will combine state-of-the art methods in computer vision and artificial intelligence alongside co-creation of a web-based toolkit for action for use by city planners and urban designers that demonstrate practical pathways Improving our understanding of the strengths and limitations of existing city designs to ensure they are safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable.
Birth Weight, Adult Weight And Podocyte Depletion.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$796,252.00
Summary
A major role of our kidneys is to filter our blood. A key cell type in our kidney filters is an octopus-shaped cell known as the podocyte. If we are not born with enough podocytes, or if the filters grow too large after birth due for example to excessive weight gain, the podocytes cannot adequately filter the blood, and this can lead to kidney disease. We will measure podocyte endowment at birth, and assess the effects of weight gain and loss after birth on podocyte features and kidney health.
Signaling Pathways To Enhance Potency Of AMPK-targeting Drugs
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$661,966.00
Summary
Sedentary lifestyles and consumption of high energy foods has led to epidemics of obesity-related metabolic diseases that place enormous financial and medical burden on the Australian economy. An attractive drug target to treat these diseases is AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) which functions as both a cellular fuel gauge and co-ordinator of whole-body metabolism. Our goal is to improve AMPK drug potency by identifying novel processes that sensitize AMPK to drugs.
S100A8/A9 As A Target In Metabolic Diseases To Inhibit The Acceleration Of Cardiovascular Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$554,990.00
Summary
Obesity and diabetes are the leading cause of premature death, due to accelerated cardiovascular disease (CVD). The abundance of blood monocytes influences the progression and regression of CVD. We discovered that S100A8/A9 promotes monocyte production in obesity and diabetes. This project will explore how S100A8/A9 is produced in diabetes and obesity and if blocking its function using a novel drug will prevent obesity and diabetes associated CVD.
Centre Of Research Excellence In The Early Prevention Of Obesity In Childhood
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,483,243.00
Summary
One in five Australian children are already overweight or obese at age 5 years, by the time of school entry. Early childhood is a period when physical inactivity and poor eating habits become established and may persist life-long. We propose a Centre of Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood. The Centre aims to reduce the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related behaviours in the first five years of life, and their future impact.
Modulation Of Feeding Through Pharmacological Targeting Of The Relaxin-3 Receptor RXFP3
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$584,955.00
Summary
Relaxin-3 is a neuropeptide that regulates a number of physiological processes, including food intake, suggesting that the relaxin-3 receptor RXFP3 may be a new target for treatment of eating disorders such as obesity. This project will develop new selective and high-affinity ligands for RXFP3, which will be critical pharmacological tools for the preclinical studies and evaluation of this system.