February news about Epidemiology for Policy and Practice

8 February 2018

Welcome to new members of the EPP group:

  • Melonie Martin is the Deputy Research Manager for EPP Group and  project manager on several projects related to cardiovascular disease. 
  • Alyson Wright is in a Project Coordinator role on a grant extension for the Mayi Kuwayu national study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing. Alyson will coordinate the recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants in remote areas.
  • Danielle Butler is an EPP Research Fellow based in Brisbane.  She will be working on the absolute risk approach to CVD in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
  • Songhuizi Peng has recently joined the Family and Community Safety (FaCtS) Study for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as a Research Assistant.
  • Emily Banks and Grace Joshy were awarded an NHMRC Project Grant to investigate how large-scale data can be used to understand person-centred outcomes in cancer survivors
  • Emily Banks, Grace Joshy, Cathy Day and Rosemary Korda’s NSW CVRN Women and Heart Disease Grant application was successful. This grant will allow the team to add a gender dimension when assessing absolute risk of CVD.
  • Lachlan Russel was awarded the Joint Colleges of Science Rising Star Award.
  • Ray Lovett’s “Indigenous health data and the path to healing” article in the Lancet attracted substantial media coverage.
  • Emily Banks appeared in the cross-institutional video 'STEMM's got talent, but nearly lost it', which captures the stories of successful individuals who have pursued careers in science; how at times, they nearly turned away from STEMM, and how a range of obstacles were overcome along the way. See: http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/anu-supports-stemm-video-on-women-in-science
  • Cathy Day was interviewed at length on ABC Radio National regarding the history of marriage, during the postal survey on marriage equality. The broadcast had a live audience of 450 000 people. See: http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/overnights/history-of-marriage-cathy-day/9115670
  • Kamalini Lokuge was an invited speaker at the Prince Mahidol awards Conference- Making the world safer from infectious diseases, in Bangkok. She spoke in a session on the importance of community leadership in addressing EID on behalf of the ANU and Medecins Sans Frontiers.
  • Ellie Paige spent three weeks (30th Oct – 17th Nov) visiting collaborators at the University of Cambridge, working on several collaborative projects related to cardiovascular disease. Achievements during this time included re-submission of a paper, work on a draft of another paper, submission of a study protocol and data request form, meetings with collaborators and initial development of future funding proposal ideas.
  • Kamalini Lokuge and Polly Wallace are currently working on a relatively long and successful period of fieldwork in Sri Lanka, working on a large-scale community trial of domestic violence prevention.  
  • Alice Richardson visited a pair of Year 10 maths classes at Brindabella Christian College in August 2017, to mentor them in the National Statistics Poster Competition. She described her biostatistical work in Population Health and guided students to identify suitable topics for their posters. She was accompanied by her mentee Sophie Ellis, an undergraduate mathematics student with interests in statistics. One of the projects was announced in December 2017 to be a Year 9-10 National Winner, and three more received Honourable Mentions. https://www.ssaipostercomp.info/winners.html
  • Jason Agostino, Ray Lovett, Lily O'Donoughue Jenkins, Kirstie McLoughlin and Emily Banks attended a roundtable with the Australian Department of Heath on 2 Nov. The subject was absolute CVD risk in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
  • Alice Richardson and Aparna Lal from the Environment, Climate & Health Group entered a poster in the ANU Early Career Network end of year symposium “Collaboration across boundaries” on 7 December 2017. Their globe poster attracted sufficient attention to win the Audience Choice Award.

  • Cathy Day was invited to speak at the “Relating Histories: Studying the Family” conference which was organised by the National Centre of Biography. She gave a presentation on her work on cousin marriage in a historical context.
  • Dr Jill Guthrie, Professor Michael Levy, and Cowra Mayor Bill West made a joint submission to the NSW Legislative Assembly’s Committee on Law and Safety Inquiry into the adequacy of youth diversionary programs in NSW.  Their submission emanates from the ARC-funded research project that explored Justice Reinvestment in Cowra, NSW.
  • CVD inequalities partnership investigator meeting held on 13th December. The group discussed the year ahead.
  • Congratulations to Alice George on her wedding in Hamilton Island.
  • Nick Grange submitted his MPH(advanced) thesis.
  • Congratulations to Amanda Daluwatta, who has accepted her PhD (Clinical Psychology) offer from Swinburne University of Technology.

 

  • Accepted and Published Papers:
  • McNamara B, Gubhaju L, Jorm L, Preen D, Jones J, Joshy G, Shepherd C, McAullay D, Eades S on behalf of the Defying the Odds project investigators. Exploring factors impacting early childhood health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities. Protocol for a population-based cohort study using data linkage (the ‘Defying the Odds’ study). BMJ Open. In press 5 Jan 2018.
  • Angela M Wood, Stephen Kaptoge, Adam Butterworth, Peter Willeit, Samantha Warnakula, Thomas Bolton, Ellie Paige…..Emily Banks, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, John Danesh. Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption: combined analysis of individual-participant data on 599,912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies. The Lancet [accepted 6th Dec 2017].
  • Lovett, Thurber, Wright, Maddox, Banks et al. Deadly progress: changes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander daily smoking from 2004-2015. PHRP. Dec 7.
  • Banks E, Korda R, Stavreski B. Author’s reply: Absolute risk of cardiovascular disease events and blood pressure – and lipid-lowering therapy in Australia. Med J Aust 2017: 206 (1): 51 DOI:10.5694/mja16.00789.
  • Welsh J, Korda R, Joshy G, Butterworth P, Brown, Banks E. Mental health and CVD. JECH. Accepted 01/09/2017.
  • O'Keeffe L M, Ramond A,Oliver-Williams C, Willeit P, Paige E, Trotter P, Evans J, Wadström J, Nicholson M, Collett D, Di Angelantonio E. Mid- and long-term health risks in living kidney donors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Annals of Internal Medicine. Jan 2018. DOI: 10.7326/M17-1235
  • Lovett R, Thurber K, Maddox R. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smoking epidemic: What stage are we at, and what does it mean? PHRP 2017;27(4).
  • Hasan M, Quazi A, Richardson A. Dynamics in child undernutrition in Bangladesh. Indian Journal of Public Health. Accepted 20/10/2017 to appear issue 2, 2018.
  • Banks E. Smoking is the new smoking. Cardiology Today. 2017;7:20-21.
  • Ju A, Hanson C, Banks E, Korda R, Craig J, Usherwood T, MacDonald P, Tong A. Patient beliefs and attitudes in taking statins: systematic review of qualitative studies. Br J Gen Prac. Accepted 25 Oct 2017.
  • Eades S. Banks E. 50 years since citizenship: successes and challenges in Indigenous health (editorial). Public Health Research & Practice. 2017;27: pii: 2741730. doi: 10.17061/phrp2741730.   
  • Kent S, Green J, Reeves G, Beral V, Gray A, Jebb S, Cairns B, Mihaylova B; Million Women Study Collaborators (includes Banks E). Hospital costs in relation to body-mass index in 1.1 million women in England: a prospective cohort study. Lancet Pub Health 2017;2:e214-22.
  • Gaitskell K, Green J, Pirie K, Barnes I, Hermon C, Reeves GK, Beral V. Million Women Study Collaborators (includes Banks E). Histological subtypes of ovarian cancer associated with parity and breastfeeding in the prospective Million Women Study. Int J Cancer 2017; 142(2): 281-289. doi: 10.1002/ijc.31063.
  • Hanly M, Falster K, Chambers G, Lynch J, Banks E, Homaira N, Brownwell M, Eades S, Jorm L. Gestational age and child development at age five in a population-based cohort of 97,989 Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. Paed Perinatal Epidemiol 2017; 2018; 32:114-125.  Doi: 10.1111/ppe.12426
  • He E, Lew J, Egger S, Banks E, Ward R, Beral V, Canfell K. Factors associated with participation in colorectal cancer screening in Australia’s National Bowel Cancer Screening Program: results from the 45 and Up Study cohort. Prev Med 2018; 106: 185-193. doi 10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.10.032.
  • Thurber K, Burgess L, Falster K, Banks E, Moller H, Ivers R, Cowell C, Isaac V, Kalucy D, Fernando P, Woodall C, Clapham K.  Relation of child, caregiver, and environmental characteristics to childhood injury in an urban Aboriginal cohort in New South Wales, Australia: findings from the Study of Environment of Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH). ANZ J Publ Health 2017 Dec 13. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.12747. [Epub ahead of print]  
  • Paige E, Barrett J, Stevens D, Keogh RH, Sweeting MJ, Nazareth I, Petersen I, Wood A. Landmark models for optimizing the use of repeated measurements of risk factors in electronic health records to predict future disease risk. American Journal of Epidemiology (accepted 19/01/2018)
  • McNamara B, Banks E, Gughaju L, Joshy G, Williamson A, Raphael B, Eades S.  Factors relating to high psychological distress in Indigenous Australians and their contribution to Indigenous-non-Indigenous disparities. ANZ J Pub Health (accepted 13 Nov 2017).
  • Karki S, Muscatello D, Banks E, MacIntyre R, McIntyre P, Liu B. Association between body mass index and laboratory-confirmed influenza in middle aged and older adults: a prospective cohort study. Int J Obesity (accepted 11 Dec 2017).
  • Calabria B, Korda R, Lovett R, Fernando P, Martin T, Malamoo L, Welsh J, Banks E. Absolute cardiovascular disease risk and use of lipid-lowering therapy among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: evidence to optimise prevention. Med J Aust (accepted 25 Jan 2018)
  • Thurber K, Joshy G, Korda R, Eades S, Wade V, Bambrick H, Liu B, Banks E. Obesity and its association with sociodemographic factors, health behaviours, and health status among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults in New South Wales, Australia. J Epidemiol Community Health (accepted 2 Feb 2018) 

 

Published Reports:

  • Paige E, Agostino J, Phillips C, Wade V, O'Donoughue Jenkins L, McLoughlin K, Ford L, Pennings S, Daluwatta A, Korda R, Greaves K, Lovett R, Banks E. Review of evidence for the alignment of guidelines on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander absolute cardiovascular disease risk, 2017.