Search

Research

Children and young people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience high rates of mental ill health and stress due to the emotional and cognitive energy required to manage their condition. Our team has codesigned Wellbeing T1D, a brief trauma-informed online intervention for adolescents living with T1D. This 5-week intervention will teach skills to promote problem solving, improve emotional regulation and promote helpful thinking and coping.

Research

Childhood is a critical period for the development of movement behaviours such as physical activity, sleep and sedentary behaviour. The PLAYCE Cohort was established to investigate how movement behaviours change over early to middle childhood, across key behaviour settings and relationships with health and development. An overview of the PLAYCE cohort, summary of key findings to date, and future research opportunities are presented.

Research

Food retail and food service outlets can be part of a chain, or independently operated. Chain food outlets are likely to have the most influence over community food environments but have not been routinely identified in studies which map and monitor access to food, highlighting an important knowledge gap. This study aimed to identify the food retail and food service outlets present within metropolitan Perth, including presence of chain and independent food outlets; and examine differences across local governments. 

Research

There is an urgent need for scalable interventions to promote physical activity in early childhood. An early childhood education and care physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies (Play Active) has been proposed for scale-up in Australia. 

Research

The neonatal skin is central to early survival and immune development. Far from being a passive mechanical barrier, it integrates physical, chemical, and microbial defences that together protect the infant in the immediate postnatal period. In preterm infants, structural immaturity, reduced antimicrobial capacity, and altered microbial colonisation confer heightened vulnerability to infection and inflammation.

Research

Children are often exposed to unhealthy outdoor food advertisements during the school commute. This exposure can have negative public health consequences given childhood weight gain has been linked to the marketing of energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods. This study aimed to explore schoolchildren's lived experiences and attitudes towards outdoor advertising surrounding their schools. 

Research

To estimate the developmental trends of quantitative parameters obtained from chest computed tomography (CT) and to provide normative values on dimensions of bronchi and arteries, as well as bronchus-artery (BA) ratios from preschool age to young adulthood.

Research

Evidence indicates that multistrain probiotics benefit preterm infants more than single-strain (SS) probiotics. We assessed the effects of SS versus triple-strain (TS) probiotic supplementation (PS) in extremely preterm (EP) infants.

Research

Lung function is highly heritable and differs between the sexes throughout life. However, little is known about sexdifferential genetic effects on lung function. We aimed to conduct the first genome-wide genotype-by-sex interaction study on lung function to identify genetic effects that differ between males and females.

Research

An estimated 15 million babies (∼11%) are born preterm each year (before 37 weeks of gestation), the rates of which are increasing worldwide. Enhanced perinatal care, including antenatal corticosteroids, postnatal surfactant and improved respiratory management, have markedly improved survival outcomes since the 1990s, particularly for babies born very preterm (<32 weeks gestation). However, long-term pulmonary sequelae are frequent in preterm survivors and ongoing clinical management is often required.