Supporting The Australian Arm Of The International Tobacco Policy Evaluation Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$752,250.00
Summary
An international treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobaaco Control, is scheduled to be agreed on and ratified over the coming year. This will provide huge impetus to the development and implementation of new tobacco control policies. This project is part of a large international study designed to provide the best possible scientific evaluation of tobacco control policies that are introduced in the participating countries. This project will ensure that Australia continues to be one of the count ....An international treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobaaco Control, is scheduled to be agreed on and ratified over the coming year. This will provide huge impetus to the development and implementation of new tobacco control policies. This project is part of a large international study designed to provide the best possible scientific evaluation of tobacco control policies that are introduced in the participating countries. This project will ensure that Australia continues to be one of the countries studied. This will maximise the benefits to Austraia of the larger study, not only in providing quality scientific evaluations of the impact of new Australian policies, but also providing evidence to assess the generalisability to Australia of policies adopted in other participating countries . The study will help us understand how policies impact on smokers (their main target). Tobacco policies may not achieve their aims because smokers may respond to them in unanticipated ways. Understanding actual effects helps identify policies that work, and also helps to revise policies that fail (partly or in full). It is at least as important to understand the impacts of policies that affect millions as it is to understand interventions that only touch small numbers.Read moreRead less
Prospective Study Of The Influence Of Social Networks & School Environments On Emotional Well-being Of Young Adults
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$202,200.00
Summary
It has become clearer in recent years that the role of the social environment may be as important as individual or interpersonal factors in understanding the risk and protective factors associated with disease prevention. Adolescence is the time when many preventable causes of premature morbidity and mortality arise. It is likely that the social environments encountered during early adolescence will have an impact on the development of emotional and physical well being in early adulthood. This s ....It has become clearer in recent years that the role of the social environment may be as important as individual or interpersonal factors in understanding the risk and protective factors associated with disease prevention. Adolescence is the time when many preventable causes of premature morbidity and mortality arise. It is likely that the social environments encountered during early adolescence will have an impact on the development of emotional and physical well being in early adulthood. This study will prospectively research the impact of school environment and quality of social networks in early adolescence on the emotional well being and health risk behaviours of young adults through the continued surveillance of a cohort of 2,782 students participating in the Gatehouse Project. This cohort has been surveyed four times; twice in Year 8 1997; once in Year 9 1998 and Year 10 1999. In 2002 the cohort will be on average 18 years old and will be first year post-secondary school. The major aim of the study is to investigate the prospective relationships between school environment in early adolescence and the mental and behavioural outcomes for young people in young adulthood. The continued surveillance of this cohort will allow us to assess the long term effects of school environments and adequacy of social networks at early adolescence on the emotional well being and social connectedness of older adolescents. This will contribute to our understanding of risk and protective factors in school-social environments that impact the health and well being of young adults. It will also inform further preventive intervention work that needs to take place in schools and communities to improve health outcomes for young adults.Read moreRead less
Exploring The Potential For Built Environment Intervention To Improve Adult And Child Physical Activity And Health
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$309,428.00
Summary
Health-promoting behaviours - such as physical activity - that are maintained from childhood to adulthood have a positive effect on health status. My research will examine aspects of the built environment associated with child behaviour, health and development and use these findings to formulate recommendations to key stakeholders for the design of user-friendly, active-living environments for children and interventions targeting adults.