Can Self-management Education Programs Improve Outcomes Of People With Osteoarthritis?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$343,874.00
Summary
Arthritis is a very common disease associated with pain, disability and poor quality of life. An important way that people with arthritis can deal with the disease is through using a variety of self-management behaviours and coping strategies as well as becoming well informed about the best available treatments. A specific course was developed in he US to help people self-manage. It has been available in Australia for 20 years through Arthritis Foundations and has become their core business. Tre ....Arthritis is a very common disease associated with pain, disability and poor quality of life. An important way that people with arthritis can deal with the disease is through using a variety of self-management behaviours and coping strategies as well as becoming well informed about the best available treatments. A specific course was developed in he US to help people self-manage. It has been available in Australia for 20 years through Arthritis Foundations and has become their core business. Treatment guidelines used by doctors to treat people with arthritis regularly recommend that patients should be referred to such courses. Although the course is widely distributed, the evidence scientific evidence regarding its effectiveness is patchy, and some overviews suggest it is not useful at all. Confusion exists regarding the value of the course. While treatment guidelines advise doctors to refer patients to the program by very few GPs, Rheumatologist or Orthopaedic surgeons do refer. The proposed study is a large controlled trial which will provide essential evidence to inform patients, doctors and policy makers on the benefits of the course. It will involve people with well defined moderate to severe arthritis who have consulted a surgeon or rheumatologist. People will be randomised to receive the intervention (two hours per week, six session course including an 'arthritis self-help' book) will be compared with people in a control group (who only receive the book without instruction). People will be followed for 1 year to see if the course improves quality of life, health behaviours, and whether less health care resources (ie attendance at doctors or less medication use) are used. The results of this study will be influential in determining government policy as the number of people with chronic diseases like arthritis is rapidly growing and the acute healthcare system, including hospitals, are poorly equipped to deal with this growing problem.Read moreRead less
A Cluster RCT Of Educational Interventions To Improve The Treatment Of Acute Poisoning In Rural Asian Hospitals
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$757,717.00
Summary
This project aims to identify simple, cheap and effective training methods that can be delivered to doctors and health care workers practicing in remote areas or in situations of professional isolation. It particularly targets poisoning as this is a common cause of death in rural Asia and consumes a large amount of health resources. The potential benefits will be a reduction in deaths and health care costs and an identification of training methods that can be used for other health problems.
Extending The Australian Arm Of The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$881,295.00
Summary
This project is to provide for the Australian arm of a large multi-national study to determine how tobacco control policies work. It is being conducted in the context of the implementation in 2005 of the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which Australia is a party. We will provide new knowledge on the impacts of specific policies which are being implemented in Australia, as well as ones that occur in other countries that are part of the larger study. These i ....This project is to provide for the Australian arm of a large multi-national study to determine how tobacco control policies work. It is being conducted in the context of the implementation in 2005 of the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which Australia is a party. We will provide new knowledge on the impacts of specific policies which are being implemented in Australia, as well as ones that occur in other countries that are part of the larger study. These include the adoption of graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging, removal of misleading constituents levels information from packs, bans of misleading descriptors such as Light and Mild, and implementation of smoke-free bars. In addition it will advance our understanding of how policy effects persist over time, their equity, and the means by which they contribute to increased cessation and reduced relapse. We do this by following smokers every year in each of the countries and asking them about their thinking and actions with regard to smoking, as well as about their awareness of the policies. By comparing the responses of smokers exposed to policies with those from other countries that are not exposed, we can work out the contribution of the policies to changes in smoking. Understanding policy effects on smokers and smoking cessation will lead to improved policies in Australia and the likelihood of improved dissemination of policies that work here to other countries. Similarly policies found to work in other countries, can be best adapted to Australia if we understand how they work. Taken in total, it should advance our efforts to reduce the burden of smoking-related harm both in Australia and the rest of the world.Read moreRead less
The Comparative Health System Efficiency For Treating Chronic Physical And Mental Disorders
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$58,500.00
Summary
Mental disorders account for 15% of the burden of disease in Australia, and are the largest cause of disability. Effective treatments are available for all mental disorders, however the majority of sufferers in Australia do not receive these treatments that work. Hence the burden of disease due to mental disorders in Australia persists. Why is this so? Is there something unique about mental disorders that means little can be done with direct treatment? The feasibility and affordability of mental ....Mental disorders account for 15% of the burden of disease in Australia, and are the largest cause of disability. Effective treatments are available for all mental disorders, however the majority of sufferers in Australia do not receive these treatments that work. Hence the burden of disease due to mental disorders in Australia persists. Why is this so? Is there something unique about mental disorders that means little can be done with direct treatment? The feasibility and affordability of mental health treatment can only be truly understood in comparison with other chronic disorders. Such comparisons are particularly significant as mental health remains a stigmatised area of the health sector. Without comparative data it would be easy for critics to argue for decreased funding for people with mental disorders. Project Outcomes: For three chronic physical disorders in Australia (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma) this project will define the cost-effectiveness of current care, the cost-effectiveness of optimal care (everyone getting treatments that work), and the amount of disease burden that can be averted with high-quality health care. These findings will be compared to similar calculations we have produced for mental disorders, to determine if it is mental disorders or chronic disorders per se that require much more effort by the health care system in Australia.Read moreRead less
Investigation Of Tobacco Industry Efforts To Counteract Tobacco Control In Australia, 1970-2000
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$333,225.00
Summary
Tobacco use continues to be both the most important preventable cause of premature death and a key determinant of health inequity in Australia. Tobacco is a legally sold product which addicts many of its consumers, mostly as adolescents, and then kills half of them when used as intended. Comprehensive policy change, product regulation and litigation is required to put a halt to the tobacco industry's decades of avoidance, delay and disruption of tobacco control. In an interview for the Wall Stre ....Tobacco use continues to be both the most important preventable cause of premature death and a key determinant of health inequity in Australia. Tobacco is a legally sold product which addicts many of its consumers, mostly as adolescents, and then kills half of them when used as intended. Comprehensive policy change, product regulation and litigation is required to put a halt to the tobacco industry's decades of avoidance, delay and disruption of tobacco control. In an interview for the Wall Street Journal in 1995, Stan Glantz, from the University of California at San Francisco, equated the tobacco industry with other disease vectors: If you want to do something about malaria, you have to study mosquitoes and if you want to do something about lung cancer, you have to study the tobacco industry. Regulatory changes can only be justified by specific local evidence of both the private plans and knowledge of the tobacco industry to attack tobacco control and their public statements and actions designed to mislead consumers and effectively prevent or delay tobacco control. This study will document the public actions and statements of the tobacco industry in Australia between 1970 and 2000. It will draw on interviews with and personal records of tobacco control experts and former state and federal health ministers; as well as tobacco retail trade publications; print media reports; material obtained via Freedom of Information from State and Federal Health Departments; Federal Cabinet papers released under the 30 year rule (ie papers are available from prior 1972); and radio and television reports. It will complement a parallel study of the tobacco industry's internal documents. The outcome will be provision of strategically vital evidence to support effective tobacco control advocacy, policy formation, regulation and litigation in Australia, in the face of continuing industry countermeasures.Read moreRead less
An Econometric Investigation Of Harmful Drinking And Price Response By Alcoholic Types To Inform Alcohol Tax Policies
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$449,157.00
Summary
This study will quantify the price responsiveness of alcohol consumption by types of alcoholic drinks and patterns of use, and the association of harmful drinking with physical and mental health. These estimates will then be used to analyse the impacts of a range of alcohol tax policies and education programs, and potential flow-on effects on health and other drug use, providing a guide to future alcohol policy.