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ARDAC (Antecedents Of Renal Disease In Aboriginal Children) Follow-up Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$298,268.00
Summary
Indigenous people world-wide have higher rates of kidney failure than non-Indigenous people. Aboriginal Australians have the highest rates of kidney failure in the world, especially in those living in remote areas. The reasons for this are complex, and include well-known environmental risk factors that contribute to many diseases in Aboriginal people - socio-economic disadvantage, higher rates of infection, smoking, alcohol abuse and poor nutrition. There are also biological risk factors more sp ....Indigenous people world-wide have higher rates of kidney failure than non-Indigenous people. Aboriginal Australians have the highest rates of kidney failure in the world, especially in those living in remote areas. The reasons for this are complex, and include well-known environmental risk factors that contribute to many diseases in Aboriginal people - socio-economic disadvantage, higher rates of infection, smoking, alcohol abuse and poor nutrition. There are also biological risk factors more specific to kidney disease such as low birth weight babies, reduced kidney volume, female sex, family history of kidney disease, genetic influences, over and under-nutrition and high blood pressure. Many of these risks may take effect in childhood, resulting in silent kidney damage that may become chronic in adulthood when diabetes and other influences take effect. In order to clarify the degree of risk early influences have on Aboriginal kidney disease before adult confounders complicate the picture, a unique study of early signs of kidney disease in outwardly healthy Aboriginal children was planned. These school children come from different locations across NSW, and have a non-Aboriginal comparator group. The first primary aims are complete: To determine: 1. Rates of blood and protein in the urine, and high blood pressure in Aboriginal as compared to non-Aboriginal children. These are the early markers, or antecedents of kidney disease; 2. If these antecedents differ over urban, coastal, rural and remote regions, and socio-economic areas; 3. Any association between antecedents and other risk factors such as age, gender, birth weight and growth; Secondary aims are currently underway: To determine: 1. The natural history of these antecedents of kidney disease by following these children for a further 4 years; 2. Which risk factors are more likely in children with persisting antecedents -ie the children more likely to develop serious kidney disease.Read moreRead less
Changing Heat: Direct Impacts Of Temperature On Health And Productivity - Current Risks And Climate Change Projections
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$277,915.00
Summary
We know that heatwaves kill people - some 50,000 died in the 2003 European heatwave - but little is known of the details. This project will discover those details, in three important dimensions: WHO is at risk, and where do they live; HOW are people at risk, e.g. from kidney failure; and just WHAT is it about heat that is most dangerous? We will then build mathematical models of the future risks, and explore what public health measures will best protect Australians in a warming climate.
Changing Risks Factors And Cancer Outcomes In A Transitional Thai Prospective Cohort
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$414,453.00
Summary
This study will examine the health consequences of socioeconomic development in Thailand. Patterns of diseases, including the types and rates of diagnosis of cancer, are changing in Thailand as Western lifestyle habits are adopted. The aim of the research is to investigate risk factors for common cancers at the individual level, and the economic, cultural and environmental level. Understanding these risks and the ways they are changing will assist with future planning for cancer control programs
Understandings Of Food And Weight Gain In Pregnant Women: A Qualitative Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$83,256.00
Summary
At a time when the incidence of obesity and associated chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes continues to rise and public health interventions are struggling to make an impact, this proposal has the potential to generate new insights. By using in-depth interviews to explore practices and understandings leading to excess weight gain during pregnancy this project addresses potential obesity in women and potential predisposition to obesity in their children.
NATIONAL TRENDS IN SUICIDE BY AGE, GENDER, GEOGRAPHY, SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND MIGRANT STATUS AND MENTAL HEALTH
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$148,690.00
Summary
Suicide in Australia has become an increasingly important public health problem, chiefly because of increasing rates in some population sub-groups, and to a lesser extent because declines in other external causes of death have increased the prominence of suicide. Since the 1970s suicide rates have increased in young males and have eclipsed motor vehicle accidents as the dominant cause of death in this group. Suicide in the young produces a significant impact on years of life lost from premature ....Suicide in Australia has become an increasingly important public health problem, chiefly because of increasing rates in some population sub-groups, and to a lesser extent because declines in other external causes of death have increased the prominence of suicide. Since the 1970s suicide rates have increased in young males and have eclipsed motor vehicle accidents as the dominant cause of death in this group. Suicide in the young produces a significant impact on years of life lost from premature mortality. Suicide rates have been shown to vary by socio-economic status, ethnicity, area of residence, age and sex. In NSW for example, suicide rates in young males have been found to have increased by 50% in urban areas, and by 5-6 times in isolated rural areas. Another study has shown suicide rates to vary by country-of-birth which in turn has an effect on its relationship with socio-economic status. However, not all studies have replicated findings in NSW. In Queensland, for example, it has been shown that male youth suicide rates in rural areas have not substantially exceeded those in urban areas. There have been very few studies at the national level of variations in suicide in Australia. Most studies of Australian suicide to date have been confined to state-level analyses or to very limited nation-level analyses. An additional spur to a whole-nation approach to suicide has been the nation-wide Australian Bureau of Statistics Mental Health and Wellbeing Profile of Adults and a similar mental health survey of youth. Thus for the first time it will be possible to relate population prevalence of self-reported mental illness to suicide rates. In short, the current proposal addresses the two major gaps in Australia in population suicide research: examining suicide at the national level with regard to geographic location, immigrant and socio-economic status; and correlating surveyed prevalence of mental illness with suicide rates.Read moreRead less
Determinants Of Area-level Inequalities In Colorectal Cancer Survival: A Multilevel Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$387,191.00
Summary
Survival times for people diagnosed with colorectal cancer depend on where people live; typically lower in rural and socio-economically disadvantaged areas. However we know very little about why these inequalities exist. This study, the first of its type in Australia, examines how much of the survival inequalities are due to the characteristics of individuals, and how much is due to the characteristics of the area itself. This will increase our capacity to intervene to reduce these inequalities