Public Health
How can we act earlier to prevent illness before it occurs? Why is there
such a big difference between the life expectancy of Indigenous and
non-Indigenous Australians, and what can be done to close the gap? How
can we better use routinely collected data in health, education and
community services to know if policies and programs are working?
These are just some of the important questions being investigated by
members of the Public Health research concentration at UniSA's Sansom
Institute for Health Research.
The group brings together internationally-renowned research leaders with
talented early and mid-career researchers to look at how different
social, behavioural and system-level factors influence health. Working
with collaborators in governments, health systems and universities
worldwide, they use this knowledge to identify innovative ways to
prevent illness and optimise wellbeing.
With multiple major NHMRC-funded projects underway, the Public Health
research concentration has members with high-level expertise across a
range of areas including epidemiology, biostatistics, nutrition,
clinical interventions, population health interventions, and large-scale
data linkage.
People
Research leaders
Professor Robyn McDermott - data linkage and Indigenous health
Professor Kerin O'Dea - nutrition, diet- and lifestyle-related chronic
disease and Indigenous health
Research associates
Professor Adrian Esterman
Dr Rebecca Golley
Dr Matt Haren
Associate Professor Jennifer Keogh
Dr Ming Li
Dr Natalie Sinn
Dr Tom Wycherley
Research students
- Sandy Campbell is investigating the influence of pre-pregnancy health on birth outcomes in Indigenous women.
- Karla Canuto is running a randomised trial of a structured program to improve metabolic fitness in young Aboriginal women in Adelaide.
- Odette Gibson is looking at value for money in diabetes care in Indigenous communities.
- Yvette Roe is looking at cardiovascular disease and health service use by Aboriginal people in South Australia looking at cardiovascular disease.
- Sean Taylor is looking at health literacy and clinical management in Indigenous people with diabetes.
- Dr Andrew Black is a medical practitioner at an Aboriginal medical service in northern NSW examining the impact of a weekly heavily subsidised basket of fresh fruit and vegetables on health indicators in Aboriginal children
Collaborators
Sansom Institute
We work closely with and encourage collaboration between other research groups within the Sansom Institute for Health Research, including key projects in partnership with Social Epidemiology and Evaluation and Health Economics and Social Policy.
South Australia
SA Department of Health
SA Department of Families & Communities
SA Child, Youth & Women's Health Service (CYWHS) - Research and Evaluation
Unit
SA Department of Education
Discipline of Paediatrics, University of Adelaide
Discipline of General Practice, University of Adelaide
Discipline of Public Health, University of Adelaide
Centre for Intergenerational Health (SA Health, Adelaide, Flinders and UniSA)
Aboriginal Health Council of SA
Australia
University of NSW
Centre for HIV Epidemiology, University of New South Wales
Curtin University, WA
Menzies Institute School of Health Research, NT
University of Melbourne, Vic
Monash University
Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW)
University of Queensland
James Cook University, Cairns, Qld
Apunipima Cape York Health Council, Cape York, Qld
Torres Strait and NPA Health Council, Qld
Research highlights
Some of our key research interests include:
Data linkage
Indigenous health
Early life
Data linkage
Bridging research spanning epidemiology, nutrition, Indigenous health,
health economics and biostatistics, research in this area aims to better
understand what causes poor health behaviours and limits access to quality
health care.
Key projects include:
- Data Applications for Population Health Networks (DAPHNe), an electronic resource to manage routinely collected data to answer questions about the impact of clinical and population interventions on health, education and other social outcomes
- The SA/NT Data Linkage Unit, a consortium investigating a range of questions about the impact of health interventions, by linking routinely collected data
- Investigating the impact of peri-natal health on learning outcomes for children in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Indigenous health
With NHMRC grants totalling $15 million over five years, researchers are
working with Indigenous partners to better understand chronic conditions
such as diabetes and heart disease, as well as helping to develop better
diet, lifestyle and clinical interventions to improve Indigenous people's
health.
Key projects and themes include:
- Nutrition and food supply in Indigenous communities
- Diabetes in pregnancy
- Diabetes, vascular disease and kidney failure
- Improving chronic disease outcomes for Indigenous Australians: Causes, Interventions, System Change (NHMRC Program Grant 2010-2014)
- Building a cohort of Indigenous research leaders in community health development (NHMRC Capacity Building Grant 2007-2012). This program includes five Indigenous PhD students who are investigating a range of important questions in Indigenous health.\
- 'Getting better at chronic care' in north Queensland: A cluster randomized trial of patient-centred care delivered by Indigenous health professionals to Indigenous clients (NHMRC Partnership Grant 2010-2014)
- Improving metabolic fitness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women: A pragmatic controlled trial of waist loss (NHMRC Project Grant 2009-2012)
Early life
Researchers are working on a number of projects focussed on optimising
early childhood to prevent inequalities in children's later health and
educational outcomes.
Key projects and themes include:
- Effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on learning and behaviour of children in predominantly Indigenous Northern Territory schools (ARC Linkage grant 2011)
- Strategies to reduce children's intake of energy dense nutrient poor foods: what is likely to be effective? (a collaboration with CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences)
- Nutrition from ages 0-3, and later diet, cognitive function and physiological risk at age 15-16
- Improving parents skills and better understanding the transition to solid food
Contact
The Public Health Group's administrative headquarters are located at room
4-27, Playford Building, City East Campus.
p: +61 8 8302 2648
f: + 61 8 8302 2794
e: kerin.odea@unisa.edu.au
robyn.mcdermott@unisa.edu.au
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