Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. (Source - World Health Organization)
The HMRI Public Health Program seeks to improve the health of the community through population health interventions to promote healthy behaviours and enable effective, integrated and equitable health care for all.
Examining when and the way people use health care, people’s health risk behaviours and the social and environmental factors that affect their health, researchers in the public health research program can explore ways to encourage better health decisions and environments.
Research in this group encompasses a wide and diverse range of health needs at all stages of life – from pregnancy and birth, through to childhood and adult health, as well as ageing and end of life decisions. The research extends from methodological and descriptive research, through trials of strategies to improve health, to studies involving the translation and monitoring of proven programs, surveillance of health risks, and measurement of health system performance. The research is conducted in a wide variety of clinical and community settings, with a strong focus on engagement with industry partners.
Under the guidance of two of Australia’s most experienced public health experts, Professor John Wiggers and Professor Julie Byles, researchers in the HMRI Public Health program work collaboratively to address a variety of topics, such as: ageing, reproductive health, mental health, nutrition, obesity, smoking, alcohol, and prevention of chronic illness including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and communicable diseases.
Working in conjunction with the University of Newcastle’s Priority Research Centre for Gender Health and Ageing, Priority ResearchCentre for Health Behaviour, and the Hunter New England Area Health Service, researchers in the HMRI Public Health research program focus on the individual, societal and health care factors. The Program brings together researchers from a variety of fields including; public health, epidemiology, psychology, statistics, economics, medicine, nutrition and dietetics, health promotion, pharmacology, physiotherapy, nursing and occupational therapy.
Research Focus Areas:
A dedicated team of educators within the Public Health program is researching ways to increase the effectiveness of tertiary education about public health. Evidence based strategies are being developed to increase the understanding of, and the capacity to carry out, interdisciplinary public health measures. Enhancing the capacity of academic staff to teach about social disadvantage across the tertiary sector is a key public health initiative.
Alice Grady
Internationally, 41 million children aged 0-5 years were overweight or obese in 2016(1). Poor nutrition is one of the most important risk factors for the development of obesity(2). As early childhood is a formative time for developing healthy eating behaviours, population health strategies that support children to eat better are of upmost importance(3).
moreAsthma affects one in eight children in Australia and is the leading cause of hospitalisations and emergency visits, with an estimated annual health care cost of more than 24 billion Australian dollars in 2015. Asthma is the most common medical complication in pregnancy and is strongly associated with the development of childhood asthma. ntion strategy for asthma.
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Laureate Professor Robert Sanson-Fisher, Dr Mariko Carey, Dr Elise Mansfield, Dr Chris Oldmeadow, Ms Natalie Dodd
Despite innovative programs to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening amongst people >50 years of age, such the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP), current screening rates are low.
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Kathryn Reilly
I am an Early Career Researcher with a passion for improving the health of children, specifically through nutrition school-based policies and practices. My PhD project focused on the development of a scalable policy implementation support program for a state-based school healthy eating strategy.
moreLaureate Professor Robert Sanson-Fisher, Dr Mariko Carey, Dr Elise Mansfield, Dr Chris Oldmeadow, Ms Natalie Dodd
Despite innovative programs to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening amongst people >50 years of age, such the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP), current screening rates are low.
moreMs Natalie Dodd, L/Prof Rob Sanson-Fisher, Dr Mariko Carey, Dr Elise Mansfield, Dr Chris Oldmeadow
Improving uptake of colorectal cancer screening among primary care attendees
moreMs Jacklyn Jackson, A/Prof Mark McEvoy, Dr Amanda Patterson
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) claims the life of one Australian every 12 minutes and is the leading cause of death worldwide. Statistics from the Hunter New England Local Health District show that this region very much follows this alarming trend.
moreMs Jessica Ferguson, Professor Manohar Garg
Heart disease is highly prevalent worldwide and remains the leading cause of death. It is well established that high cholesterol is a major modifiable risk factor for heart disease because left unmanaged it contributes to blocking of arteries causing stroke, heart attacks and haemorrhages, however, this is only one side of the story. Chronic low-grade inflammation goes hand-in-hand with high cholesterol as a silent, but major contributor to the development of heart disease by means of fatty plaque formation in the arteries.
moreMr Tesfay Feyissa, Dr Melissa Harris, Professor Deborah Loxton
In the last decade, there has been improvement in life expectancy of people living with HIV due to improved drug therapy and care and support programs. However, along with better prospects for a healthy life, comes the desire to have children. Women living with HIV who intend to have children need information and services focused on safe conception strategies while those who do not desire a child need access to effective family planning methods.
moreDr Nicole Nathan, A/Prof Luke Wolfenden, Dr Rachel Sutherland, Dr Sze Lin Yoong, Prof John Wiggers
Children’s participation in at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day is essential for their healthy growth and development[ and the prevention of future chronic disease. Despite this, international research indicates that many school-aged children, in particularly girls, are not sufficiently active. It is estimated that girls are between 17-19% less active than boys with differences beginning from as young as 8 years. Improving physical activity during childhood, particularly among girls, has been identified as a public health priority.
moreNatalie Dodd
Professor Billie Bonevski, Professor Amanda Baker, Dr Ashleigh Guillaumier, Professor Adrian Dunlop
In Australia, up to 95% of people entering AOD treatment smoke tobacco which is five times the national smoking rate. Although treatment clients are interested in quitting and make quit attempts, they find it difficult to remain quit in the long-term. Novel relapse prevention approaches are required for this high smoking prevalence population.
moreRutger De Zoete, Associate Professor Susan Snodgass
Zachery McPherson, Associate Professor Mark McEvoy, Laureate Professor Nick Talley
Glaucoma is a blinding neurodegenerative illness that is responsible for a significant proportion of the worlds blindness. World wide its prevalence is growing, as the population ages, and the number of people with glaucoma is expected to reach 80 million world wide by the end of the decade.
moreA/Prof Mark McEvoy
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Nitric oxide is a major signaling molecule in the circulatory system, and is a key blood vessel dilator. Reduced nitric oxide (NO) availability in the circulatory system is thought to have a major role in cardiovascular disease development.
moreJacqueline Coombe
Jacqueline’s PhD is focussed on better understanding contraceptive use in Australia. While broad patterns of contraceptive usage are clear, in Australia particularly, we know little about women’s preferences for certain methods, how women make decisions about what method to use and how this translates to contraceptive practices in real life.
moreCan miners at risk of long-term low back pain be identified and provided with a low back pain prevention intervention to prevent the development of persistant pain co-existing lifestyle health risks?
moreLaureate Professor Robert Sanson-Fisher, Dr Mariko Carey, Dr Elise Mansfield, Dr Chris Oldmeadow, Ms Natalie Dodd
Despite innovative programs to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening amongst people >50 years of age, such the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP), current screening rates are low.
moreDr Craig Dalton
Nicole Byrne
Nicole will use the Equal Futures grant funding for individual academic writing coaching for publication and grant applications to enable her to achieve her goal of moving from a clinical role to an academic role in speech pathology research.
Gillian will use her Equal Futures funding for 3-4 one-on-one sessions with an external professional mentor and also to travel to New Zealand to build and strengthen her collaborations with Maori researchers to enable Gillian to reach her goal of being a national and international leader in Indigenous Health research.
Professor Chris Doran, Dr Rod Ling
Most deaths by suicide are among young people.
moreTravel support for Dr Yoong to attend & participate in the 2015 Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (TIDIRH) supported by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, July 26-31, 2015.
moreMr Zachary McPherson, Dr Mark McEvoy, Professor Nick Talley
Due to Visa Restrictions and to meet the requirements of the confirmation year for the PhD program at the University of Newcastle, this travel will be broken into two segments from 4 March 2015 to 21 June 2015 and Early July 2015 to Mid November 2015. This attachment at NTU is under the supervision and tutelage of Professor Sven Pettersson.
moreDr Alexis Hure, Dr Amina Khambalia, Dr Amanda Patterson, Dr Elizabeth Holliday, Associate Professor Deb Loxton
Iron deficiency is particularly common in women during pregnancy because of the increased iron needed to grow a healthy baby.
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Dr Lisa Mackenzie
Lisa has made substantial contributions to a number of competitive research grant applications, research projects and position papers in public health and health behaviour epidemiology.
moreDr Elizabeth Holliday, Rodney Scott, Christopher Levi, John Attia
Genetic risk factors, gene expression and ischaemic stroke
moreLaureate Professor Robert Sanson-Fisher, Dr Mariko Carey, Dr Flora Tzelepis, Ms Alison Zucca, Ms Alix Hall, Ms Lisa Mackenzie
What do cancer patients think about the quality of their care?
moreDr Alexis Hure, Associate Professor Deborah Loxton, Catherine Chojenta, Amy Anderson, Melissa Harris
This project will identify maternal health factors (demographic, health bejaviour, physical and mental health, perceived stress and life events) that are risk factors for low birth weight.
moreLaureate Professor Robert Sanson-Fisher, Ian Olver, Charles Douglas, Jamie Bryant, Mariko Carey, Gill Batt, Frans Henskens
Associate Professor Christine Paul, Flora Tzelepis, John Wiggers, Patrick McElduff, Jenny Knight
Tobacco use is responsible for more than 5 million deaths per year globally.
moreJohn Wiggers, Elizabeth Campbell, Luke Wolfenden, Jennifer Bowman, Megan Fruend
The project aims to reduce the number of disadvantaged adolescents across the Hunter New England region from taking up smoking and using alcohol and illict drugs.
moreDr Flora Tzelepis
John Wiggers, Elizabeth Campbell, Luke Wolfenden, Jennifer Bowman, Megan Fruend
Rebecca Dyson
Dr Flora Tzelepis, Dr Mariko Carey, Associate Professor Christine Paul, Dr Tclinton-McHarg, Ms Alison Zucca
Associate Professor Lynne Parkinson, Professor Julie Byles, Dr F Blyth, Associate Professor H Pollard
Conjoint Professor David Durrheim, Mrs B Paterson
Elizabeth Holliday
Dr Alexis Hure, Dr David Mossman, Professor Roger Smith, Professor Clare Collins
Ms Aoife McGarvery
John Wiggers, Elizabeth Campbell, Luke Wolfenden, Jennifer Bowman, Megan Fruend
Dr Kelly Avery-Kiejda
Sylvie Lambert
Dr Erica James, Lorraine Paras, Phil Morgan, Marita Lynagh
John Wiggers, Elizabeth Campbell, Luke Wolfenden, Jennifer Bowman, Megan Fruend
Professor John Attia, Milton Hasnat, Mark McEvoy, Amanda Patterson, Shamasunder Acharya, Steve Bowe
Ms Paula Wye, John Wiggers, Jenny Bowman, Amanda Baker, Megan Freund
Dr Luke Wolfenden, John Wiggers, Phil Morgan, Megan Freund
Dr Christine Paul, Robert Sanson-Fisher, Dr Mariko Carey, R Courtney, C D'Este, Associate Professor Mark McEvoy
Dr John Wiggers, P McElduff, M Freund, K Gillham, E d'Espaignet
Dr Craig Dolton, D Durrheim, E d'Espaignet, H Kelly
Ms Marline Squance
Prof Robert Sanson-Fisher, Tara Clinton-McHarg
Associate Professor John Wiggers, Associate Professor J Bowman, Associate Professor Amanda Baker
Professor David Henry, Ms Amanda Wilson, Billie Bonevski
Dr Kypros Kypri, Professor Robert Sanson-Fisher
Professor Sandra Capra, Dr Lynne Parkinson, Professor Julie Byles, Dr David Sibbritt
Mr Richard Fletcher, Dr DR Keatinge
Mr Mark McEvoy, Associate Professor P Schofield, Professor W Smith, Dr J Duke, Associate Professor John Attia
Professor Afaf Girgis
Dr Lynne Parkinson, Professor Julie Byles
Dr Sue Outram, Dr B O'Toole, Professor SV Catts
Dr Janine Duke, Professor Wayne Smith
Dr Jiong Li, Associate Professor Afa Grirgis, Dr Chris Paul and Ms Allison Boyes
Ms Clare Johnson
Dr Jon Adams, Associate Professor A Girgis, Dr D Sibbritt, Dr J Duke
Associate Professor Julie Byles , Dr L Parkinson, Associate Professor CD Este & Dr P Warner-Smith
Professor Nikolai Bogduk
Dr Usha Parvathy, Dr J Wadams, Dr D Sibbritt
Ms A Prigg, Dr G Vimpani
Professor Jill Cockburn
Dr Anne Duggan, Dr S Tiley
Dr Ben Ewald, Dr J Lowe
Dr John Wiggers, Ms R Considine
Dr Lynne Hancock
