ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9820-2617
Current Organisation
Australian National University
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In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Applied Statistics | Social Change | Sociological Methodology and Research Methods | Sociology |
Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society | Health Status (e.g. Indicators of Well-Being)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2021
Publisher: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Date: 06-03-2019
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1071/AH18196
Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to develop an effective digital survey instrument incorporating images to investigate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preferences for health clinics and hospitals, design of healthcare settings and the differences between inner regional and remote locations. Methods Design-related constructs developed from qualitative interviews informed the construction of healthcare setting images. These images were embedded in an online survey instrument to elicit data on design preferences and an area-based recruitment strategy ensured participation by Indigenous Australians from three Queensland locations. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the odds of preference for a healthcare setting design by location. Results Statistical analysis of data from 602 participants showed a preference for health care at an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clinic. The odds of preference for an in-patient room with a two- versus single-bed design was greater for participants with less education, and lower for participants with a long-term health problem. Conclusions The multidisciplinary approach to developing an online survey instrument with images and the willingness of Indigenous people of all ages to engage with the images demonstrated the effectiveness of this method in providing robust evidence for the design of culturally appropriate healthcare spaces for Indigenous users. What is known about the topic? Evidence-based research influences the design of healthcare buildings, yet the field currently provides negligible evidence on cross-cultural perceptions or experiences of conventional modern hospitals and clinics. Although recent healthcare buildings show signs of acknowledging Indigenous users, general principles in the Australian Health Facility Guidelines give limited specific information about how cultural requirements may translate into architectural design. What does this paper add? The multidisciplinary approach to research design has enabled the development of healthcare design-related constructs from consultation with Indigenous people, the presentation of these constructs as images and the inclusion of these images for comparison and selection in a digital survey instrument. Combined with a culturally appropriate recruitment strategy, this survey provides evidence from a large s le of the Indigenous population. Selected results from analyses of survey responses show the capacity of the methodological approach to address broader questions about Indigenous preferences for healthcare settings by location, age and sex. What are the implications for practitioners? A focus on in idual preferences related to healthcare clinics and the combined significance of design and setting can give practitioners a better understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s preferences and suggest ways to reduce the incidence of poor engagement with healthcare services.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-05-2022
DOI: 10.1186/S12889-022-13170-4
Abstract: Micro-level statistics on child undernutrition are highly prioritized by stakeholders for measuring and monitoring progress on the sustainable development goals. In this regard district-representative data were collected in the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019 for identifying localised disparities. However, district-level estimates of undernutrition indicators - stunting, wasting and underweight - remain largely unexplored. This study aims to estimate district-level prevalence of these indicators as well as to explore their disparities at sub-national ( ision) and district level spatio-demographic domains cross-classified by children sex, age-groups, and place of residence. Bayesian multilevel models are developed at the sex-age-residence-district level, accounting for cross-sectional, spatial and spatio-demographic variations. The detailed domain-level predictions are aggregated to higher aggregation levels, which results in numerically consistent and reasonable estimates when compared to the design-based direct estimates. Spatio-demographic distributions of undernutrition indicators indicate south-western districts have lower vulnerability to undernutrition than north-eastern districts, and indicate significant inequalities within and between administrative hierarchies, attributable to child age and place of residence. These disparities in undernutrition at both aggregated and disaggregated spatio-demographic domains can aid policymakers in the social inclusion of the most vulnerable to meet the sustainable development goals by 2030.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-07-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S11113-018-9482-4
Abstract: Australia is a major immigration country and immigrants currently represent around 28% of the total population. The aim of this research is to understand the long-term consequences of this immigration and, particularly, how migrants respond to opportunities within the country after arriving through the process of subsequent (internal) migration. The focus is on major immigrant groups in Australia, including persons born in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China and India, and how their patterns differ from persons born in Australia. To conduct this analysis, we have gathered data for a 35-year period based on quinquennial census data. We also obtained birthplace-specific mortality data for constructing multiregional life tables for the immigrant populations. Subsequent migration is important for understanding population redistribution, and the relative attractiveness of destinations within host countries. Our results highlight the importance of subsequent migration and the ersity of migration behaviours amongst different immigrant groups in the context of overall declines in internal migration since 1981.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-10-2020
DOI: 10.1186/S12942-020-00237-X
Abstract: Children’s early development plays a vital role for maintaining healthy lives and influences future outcomes. It is also heavily affected by community factors which vary geographically. Direct methods do not provide a comprehensive picture of this variation, especially for areas with sparse populations and low data coverage. In the context of Australia, the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) provides a measure of early child development upon school entry. There are two primary aims of this study: (i) provide improved prevalence estimates of children who are considered as developmentally vulnerable in regions across Australia (ii) ascertain how social-economic disadvantage partly explains the spatial variation. We used Bayesian spatial hierarchical models with the Socio-economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) as a covariate to provide improved estimates of all 335 SA3 regions in Australia. The study included 308,953 children involved in the 2018 AEDC where 21.7% of them were considered to be developmentally vulnerable in at least one domain. There are five domains of developmental vulnerability—physical health and wellbeing social competence emotional maturity language and cognitive skills and communication and general knowledge. There are significant improvements in estimation of the prevalence of developmental vulnerability through incorporating the socio-economic disadvantage in an area. These improvements persist in all five domains—the largest improvements occurred in the Language and Cognitive Skills domain. In addition, our results reveal that there is an important geographical dimension to developmental vulnerability in Australia. Sparsely populated areas in s le surveys lead to unreliable direct estimates of the relatively small prevalence of child vulnerability. Bayesian spatial modelling can account for the spatial patterns in childhood vulnerability while including the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on geographic variation. Further investigation, using a broader range of covariates, could shed more light on explaining this spatial variation.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2017
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2018
DOI: 10.1111/JPPI.12247
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 23-04-2014
DOI: 10.1111/RSSA.12008
Abstract: The effect of weather on health has been widely researched, and the ability to forecast meteorological events can offer valuable insights into the effect on public health services. In addition, better predictions of hospital demand that are more sensitive to fluctuations in weather can allow hospital administrators to optimize resource allocation and service delivery. Using historical hospital admission data and several seasonal and meteorological variables for a site near the hospital, the paper develops a novel Bayesian model for short-term prediction of the numbers of admissions categorized by several factors such as age group and sex. The model proposed is extended by incorporating the inherent uncertainty in the meteorological forecasts into the predictions for the number of admissions. The methods are illustrated with admissions data obtained from two moderately large hospital trusts in Cardiff and South ton, in the UK, each admitting about 30000–50000 non-elective patients every year. The Bayesian model, computed by using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, is shown to produce more accurate predictions of the number of hospital admissions than those obtained by using a 6-week moving average method which is similar to that widely used by hospital managers. The gains are shown to be substantial during periods of rapid temperature changes, typically during the onset of cold and highly variable winter weather.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-05-2019
DOI: 10.1111/INSR.12270
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 08-07-2019
Abstract: Student competency in science learning relies on students being able to interpret and use multimodal representations to communicate understandings. Moreover, collaborative learning, in which students may share physiological arousal, can positively affect group performance. This paper aims to observe changes in student attitudes and beliefs, physiology (electrodermal activity EDA) and content knowledge before and after a multimodal, cooperative inquiry, science teaching intervention to determine associations with productive science learning and increased science knowledge. A total of 214 students with a mean age of 11 years 6 months from seven primary schools participated in a multimodal, cooperative inquiry, science teaching intervention for eight weeks during a science curriculum unit. Students completed a series of questionnaires pertaining to attitudes and beliefs about science learning and science knowledge before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) the teaching intervention. Empatica E3 wristbands were worn by students during 1 to 3 of their regularly scheduled class sessions both before and after the intervention. Increases in EDA, science knowledge, self-efficacy and a growth mindset, and decreases in self-esteem, confidence, motivation and use of cognitive strategies, were recorded post-intervention for the cohort. EDA was positively correlated with science knowledge, but negatively correlated with self-efficacy, motivation and use of cognitive strategies. Cluster analysis suggested three main clusters of students with differing physiological and psychological profiles. First, teachers need to be aware of the importance of helping students to consolidate their current learning strategies as they transition to new learning approaches to counter decreased confidence. Second, teachers need to know that an effective teaching multimodal science intervention can not only be associated with increases in science knowledge but also increases in self-efficacy and movement towards a growth mindset. Finally, while there is evidence that there are positive associations between physiological arousal and science knowledge, physiological arousal was also associated with reductions in self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation and the use of cognitive strategies. This mixed result warrants further investigation. Overall, this study proposes a need for teachers to counter decreased confidence in students who are learning new strategies, with further research required on the utility of monitoring physiological markers.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2022
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-05-2017
Publisher: European Survey Research Association
Date: 2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-11-2013
DOI: 10.1111/INSR.12036
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-01-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S40980-022-00113-1
Abstract: Bangladesh has experienced a rapid national decline in fertility in recent decades, however, fertility rates vary considerably at the sub-national level (i.e., ision). These variations are expected to be more pronounced at lower levels of geography (e.g., district level). However, routinely conducted demographic health surveys are designed for national estimates and do not have adequate s les to produce reliable estimate of fertility rates at lower levels of administrative units, particular when considering district level age-specific fertility rates. Data extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey 2014 are used to derive direct estimates of age-specific fertility rates and associated smoothed standard errors. These are used as inputs for developing a small area model, which is expressed in a hierarchical Bayesian framework and fitted by Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. The model accounts for variation at different levels—women age-group, ision, and district. The modeling results show large reductions in the estimated standards errors and provide consistent estimates of fertility at the detailed district age-specific level. There are significant differences in the fertility levels within and between districts and at the ision level. Fertility rates are observed to be higher for Sylhet ision and for women aged 20–24 years. We use geo-spatial maps of the fertility rates to visualize the variations over districts, and identify hot and cold-spots to have better targeted local level planning and policy decision making for further reductions in fertility rates in Bangladesh.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2016
Abstract: The Australian population that relies on mobile phones exclusively has increased from 5% in 2005 to 29% in 2014. Failing to include this mobile-only population leads to a potential bias in estimates from landline-based telephone surveys. This paper considers the impacts on selected health prevalence estimates with and without the mobile-only population. Using data from the Australian Health Survey - which, for the first time, included a question on telephone status - we examined demographic, geographic and health differences between the landline-accessible and mobile-only population. These groups were also compared to the full population, controlling for the s ling design and differential non-response patterns in the observed s le through weighting and benchmarking. The landline-accessible population differs from the mobile-only population for selected health measures resulting in biased prevalence estimates for smoking, alcohol risk and private health insurance coverage in the full population. The differences remain even after adjusting for age and gender. Using landline telephones only for conducting population health surveys will have an impact on prevalence rate estimates of health risk factors due to the differing profiles of the mobile-only population from the landline-accessible population.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 08-10-2018
DOI: 10.1111/RSSA.12414
Abstract: Accounting for undecided and uncertain voters is a challenging issue for predicting election results from public opinion polls. Undecided voters typify the uncertainty of swing voters in polls but are often ignored or allocated to each candidate in a simple deterministic manner. Historically this may have been adequate because the undecided voters were sufficiently small to assume that they do not affect the relative proportions of the decided voters. However, in the presence of high numbers of undecided voters, these static rules may in fact bias election predictions from election poll researchers and metapoll analysts. We examine the effect of undecided voters in the 2016 US presidential election compared with the previous three presidential elections. We show that there were a relatively high number of undecided voters over the c aign and on election day, and that the allocation of undecided voters in this election was not consistent with two-party proportional (or even) allocations. We find evidence that static allocation regimes are inadequate for election prediction models and that probabilistic allocations may be superior. We also estimate the bias attributable to polling agencies, which is often referred to as ‘house effects’.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-08-2020
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-12-2018
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 16-09-2022
Abstract: Is geographic proximity to a fertility clinic associated with the likelihood of women of reproductive age undertaking different forms of medically assisted fertility treatment? After adjusting for socioeconomic status (SES) and other confounders including a proxy for the need for infertility treatment, women who lived within 15 km of a fertility clinic were 21% more likely to undergo ART treatment and 68% more likely to undergo IUI treatment than those who lived further than 60 km away. In most countries, patients living outside of metropolitan areas are more likely to be more socio-economically disadvantaged and to have less equitable access to healthcare. However, how a woman’s residential proximity to fertility clinics predicts utilization of high-cost/high-technology treatment (ART) and low-cost/low-technology treatment (IUI) is limited, and whether socio-economic disadvantage explains much of the hypothesized lower utilization is unknown. Australia’s universal insurance scheme provides supportive reimbursement for almost all ART and IUI treatment regardless of age or number of cycles, providing a unique setting to investigate disparities in access to infertility treatment. National population-based observation study of ART and IUI treatment utilization by women across socio-economic gradients and Australian residential locations between August 2015 and December 2017. Universal insurance claims information on female patients who underwent ART or IUI were provided by Services Australia, comprising 67 670 female patients who accessed 162 795 ART treatments, and 10 211 female patients who accessed 19 615 IUI treatments over a 29-month period. Incidence rates by SES and proximity to fertility clinics were calculated to describe the number of women undergoing at least one ART or IUI treatment cycle per 1000 women of reproductive age (25–44). Treatment frequencies were calculated to describe the average number of ART or IUI treatment cycles per woman of reproductive age who had undergone at least one ART or IUI treatment during the study period. Poisson regression analyses were used to estimate the independent effect on accessibility to infertility treatment by geographic proximity (based on small area locations) to the closest fertility clinic after adjusting for SES, childbearing delay, remoteness area, and marital status. On average, 19.1 women per 1000 women of reproductive age underwent at least one fresh or frozen ART cycle, with an average 2.3 ART cycles each, while 3.0 women per 1000 women of reproductive age received at least one IUI cycle, with an average of 1.6 IUI cycles each. After adjusting for SES and other confounders including a proxy for the need for infertility treatment, women who lived within 15 km of a fertility clinic were 21% more likely to undergo ART treatment and 68% more likely to undergo IUI than those who lived over 60 km away. Regardless of geographic location, there was a steady and independent gradient in access to ART treatment based on increasing SES, with women residing in the most advantaged residential quartile having a 37% higher rate of receiving ART treatment compared to those in the most disadvantaged quartile. The negative effect of social disadvantage on ART use became more pronounced as distance from a fertility clinic grew, indicating that the barriers to access to ART care caused by distance were further compounded by the level of socioeconomic advantage of the women’s residential location. In contrast, socioeconomic status did not modify the likelihood of using IUI over and above the distance from a fertility clinic. In relation to IUI treatment, differences in utilization by SES disappeared after adjusting for geographic proximity to a fertility clinic, childbearing delay, remoteness area, and marital status. Information is aggregated by small geographic areas and it therefore may not reflect in idual characteristics. Australia provides partial but comparably supportive reimbursement for both ART and IUI through its universal healthcare system and thus the results may not be fully generalizable to other settings. Residential proximity to a fertility clinic is a persistent barrier to accessing ART and IUI treatment, regardless of SES, even in countries characterized by supportive public funding, such as Australia. SES is less of a barrier to accessing IUI than ART, presumably driven by the lower cost and fewer clinic visits required with IUI treatment. Safe and effective fertility treatment should be available to all women regardless of where they live. This work was supported by the Australian National University Research scholarship and by the Higher Degree Research Fee Merit Scholarship. The authors have no conflict of interest. N/A.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 06-2020
Abstract: Contingency tables provide a convenient format to publish summary data from confidential survey and administrative records that capture a wide range of social and economic information. By their nature, contingency tables enable aggregation of potentially sensitive data, limiting disclosure of identifying information. Furthermore, censoring or perturbation can be used to desensitise low cell counts when they arise. However, access to detailed cross-classified tables for research is often restricted by data custodians when too many censored or perturbed cells are required to preserve privacy. In this article, we describe a framework for selecting and combining log-linear models when accessible data is restricted to overlapping marginal contingency tables. The approach is demonstrated through application to housing transition data from the Australian Census Longitudinal Data set provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-10-2020
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 19-06-2015
Publisher: Duke University Press
Date: 27-09-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S13524-018-0704-5
Abstract: Australia has one of the largest percentages of immigrant populations in the developed world with a highly regulated system of immigration control and regular censuses to track their changes over time. However, the ability to explain the population change through the demographic components of immigration, emigration, and death by age and sex is complicated because of differences in measurement and sources of information. In this article, we explore three methods for reconciling the demographic accounts from 1981 to 2011 for the Australia-born and 18 foreign-born population groups. We then describe how the immigrant populations have changed and what has contributed most to that change. We find that the sources of immigrant population change have varied considerably by age, sex, country of birth, and period of immigration. Immigrants from Europe are currently the oldest and slowest-growing populations, whereas those from elsewhere are growing rapidly and exhibit relatively young population age structures. Studying these patterns over time helps us to understand the nature of international migration and its long-term contributions to population change and composition.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-08-2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 04-02-2016
DOI: 10.1017/JGC.2016.1
Abstract: This study examined associations between loneliness, a construct associated with serious adverse mental health outcomes, and positive mental wellbeing. Validated measures of loneliness (represented by friendship-related loneliness, isolation, positive attitude to solitude, and negative attitude to solitude) and positive mental wellbeing were administered to 1,143 adolescents from urban and rural schools. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed satisfactory model fit for both measures. A structural equation model confirmed significant positive associations between positive mental wellbeing and friendship-related loneliness and positive attitude to solitude a significant negative association was found for isolation. Regression analyses provided support for significant differences in these associations according to gender, age, and geographical location (although only marginally). The implications of these findings during adolescence are reviewed.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-08-2019
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 31-01-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1237384/V1
Abstract: Micro-level statistics on child undernutrition are highly prioritized by stakeholders for measuring and monitoring progress on the sustainable development goals. In this regard district-representative data were collected in the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019 for identifying localised disparities. However, district-level estimates of undernutrition indicators - stunting, wasting and underweight - remain largely unexplored. This study aims to estimate district-level prevalence of these indicators as well as to explore their disparities at sub-national ( ision) and district level spatio-demographic domains cross-classified by children sex, age-groups, and place of residence. Bayesian multilevel models are developed at the sex-age-residence-district level, accounting for cross-sectional, spatial and spatio-demographic variations. The detailed domain-level predictions are aggregated to higher aggregation levels, which results in numerically consistent and reasonable estimates when compared to the design-based direct estimates. Spatio-demographic distributions of undernutrition indicators indicate south-western districts have lower vulnerability to undernutrition than north-eastern districts, and indicate significant inequalities within and between administrative hierarchies, attributable to child age and place of residence. These disparities in undernutrition at both aggregated and disaggregated spatio-demographic domains can aid policymakers in the social inclusion of the most vulnerable to meet the sustainable development goals by 2030.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 09-2016
Abstract: Until quite recently, telephone surveys have typically relied on landline telephone numbers. However, with the increasing popularity and affordability of mobile phones, there has been a surge in households that do not have landline connections. Additionally, there has been a decline in the response rates and population coverage of landline telephone surveys, creating a challenge to collecting representative social data. Dual-frame telephone surveys that use both landline and mobile phone s ling frames can overcome the incompleteness of landline-only telephone s ling. However, surveying mobile phone users introduces new complexities in s ling, nonresponse measurement and statistical weighting. This article examines these issues and illustrates the consequences of failing to include mobile-phone-only users in telephone surveys using data from Australia. Results show that there are significant differences in estimates of populations’ characteristics when using information solely from the landline or mobile telephone s le. These biases in the population estimates are significantly reduced when data from the mobile and landline s les are combined and appropriate dual-frame survey estimators are used. The optimal choice of a dual-frame estimation strategy depends on the availability of good-quality information that can account for the differential patterns of nonresponse by frame.
Location: Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Start Date: 2013
End Date: 2016
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2016
End Date: 2019
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 07-2013
End Date: 09-2016
Amount: $166,022.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity