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Overuse lower limb injuries related to training are common in people who participate in regular physical activity. Foot orthoses are commonly used for the prevention of such injuries but evidence for their effectiveness is limited. In this study, participants will be randomised to using flat insoles or prefabricated foot orthosis while undertaking 11 weeks of basic training at the Royal Australian Navy Recruit School, Cerberus, Victoria, Australia. This randomised controlled trial will evaluate the effectiveness of foot orthoses for the prevention of lower limb injuries in naval recruits.

To explore the feasibility and effectiveness of group therapy for young adults who self-injure. Self-injury is commonly used to regulate and cope with intense negative emotions and can involve cutting, burning or carving the skin and hitting or banging the self or hard objects. This program aims to better understand which treatments are most effective in reducing this behaviour and improving well-being in those who self-injure. By participating in this research, you will be providing important information which will be used to assist with further development of treatments for self-injury.

Children and adults who participate in recommended levels of physical activity experience a plethora of physical and psychological health benefits. However, 80% of men and 80% of girls do not meet government physical activity recommendations in Australia. Of particular concern is that girls are less active than boys at all ages. Moreover, girls drop out of sport at a rate six times greater than boys. There are a number of biological, psycho-social and environmental factors that explain girls' lower activity levels, with many of these modifiable. For example, less than 10% of girls can perform basic sports skills (e.g. throwing, catching) by the time they leave primary school. This is alarming as research shows that these skills are strongly associated with physical activity, fitness and weight status. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop community-based interventions that engage girls in physical activity and develop the knowledge and movement skills for lifelong participation. Parents play a critical role in their children's physical activity levels through provision of opportunities, encouragement and role modelling positive activity attitudes and behaviours. Despite this, girls receive less encouragement and opportunities for physical activity from their parents than boys. Emerging research has shown that mothers and fathers differ in their physical activity-related parenting practices and that fathers who are actively engaged with their daughters impact on a host of important physical and mental health outcomes including higher levels of cognitive ability, self-esteem, social skills, and educational outcomes. However, research has shown fathers spend less time with their daughters than their sons and may discount the importance of their relationships with their daughters. Physical activity provides an exciting medium through which to develop physical, cognitive and social-emotional skills in girls and fathers may play a key role. The overall aim of this pilot project is to develop and evaluate an intervention targeting both fathers and their daughter(s) to improve the physical activity levels and social/emotional health of girls. Two major purposes are: (i) to help fathers improve their own physical activity levels and learn parenting skills to promote and role model positive behaviours relating to physical activity for their daughters (ii) to improve the physical activity behaviours, fundamental movement skill proficiency and social-emotional well-being of their daughters.

Surgical site infections are one of the most common infections that a person may acquire in hospital, and can increase the length of stay and the cost of the surgery by up to 5 times. This is a burden on the person and the community. By preventing infections in surgical sites it is hoped that a person’s health will be better after an operation. With any surgical procedure, the skin at the operation site is routinely cleansed with an antiseptic solution. This skin cleansing solution aims to reduce the number of germs (microorganisms) present on the skin and therefore reduce the chance of the surgical wound becoming infected. It is not known whether one skin antiseptic is better than the other at preventing infection, so the Research Team would like to see if there is a difference between 3 commonly used, approved skin disinfectants. The solutions are used world-wide for disinfecting the skin in surgical procedures.

This study will test two hypotheses and consist of two parts: 1. Part 1. The thickness of abdominal SCF, measured by ultrasound at 18-22 weeks gestation, predicts maternal outcomes (gestational diabetes, pregnancy-related hypertensive disorders, mode of delivery) and fetal outcomes (estimated fetal weight, birth outcome, gestational age, gender, weight, length, head circumference, large for gestational age, small for gestational age, intrauterine growth restriction). 2. Part 2. The thickness of abdominal SCF, measured by ultrasound at 18-22 weeks gestation, predicts the difficulty inserting an epidural, the difficulty palpating the landmarks of epidural insertion and the subcutaneous fat measured at lumbar interspace L3-4.

There are several established methods in Pain Medicine where a patient is able to describe the intensity of their pain. The most popular involve scoring pain intensity using a numeric scale comprising numbers from 1 to 10 and a visual scale which is 10 cm long and allows a clinician to measure the visual rating out of 10. Both these methods of pain intensity measurement carry the assumption that pain intensity increases in a predictable way as the numbers on these two measurement scales might indicate. The truth is that this is not likely to be true. The World Health Organization, for example, places great significance on a cancer pain rating that is higher than 3 out of 10, recommending that treatment for pain greater than 3 out of 10 be escalated. The most likely reason for changes in pain intensity not being even and predictable is that pain intensity is only a small part of overall pain experience. Pain intensity is influenced by many other factors, including the context of the pain (its effect on movement, sleep, mood), side effects of medications, anticipation of pain severity prior to pain experience, attitudes and beliefs relating to pain experience and satisfaction with the experience of pain management just to mention a few. There are statistical methods that can help us to explore how pain intensity changes as it increases. These complex methods can be applied though analysis of various measurements from patients, which can be easily collected in observational studies. The results of these analyses can then be used to look for steep “steps” in the pain intensity scale among populations of patients which indicate that pain level has increased to a greater degree than the gaps between the numbers on the pain rating scale might indicate. It is the numeric value where these steps occur, for example at a pain level of 3 out of 10 where recommendations to escalate pain treatment might be appropriate. Such points have already been identified in populations of patients affected by cancer pain, chronic pain as well as patients after surgery. There is only one study which examined a multiethnic population, the study involving cancer pain. A group of researchers that I have been working with have identified several factors that are very different in patients of Chinese ethnicity compared with patients of Caucasian ethnicity after major surgery. Many of these factors (Chinese people were more likely to defer analgesic management to their managing doctors, had greater expectation of severe postoperative pain, greater susceptibility to itch with morphine, lesser satisfaction with pain management) are likely to create “steps” in pain intensity scales that may differ significantly between these two races. We hope to compare two populations of 450 patients after surgery from China and Australia in order to confirm this belief as pain treatment escalation may need to be set at different levels in accordance with ethnicity.

This research aims to test the efficacy of a computerised, adaptive, cognitive training program by looking at near-transfer to executive function components and far-transfer to higher order cognitive abilities (fluid intelligence and academic achievement). This research will address previous criticisms of the existing cognitive training literature by: (a) using a cognitive training program that is more aligned to current executive function theory than previous research, by training executive level processes; (b) using multiple measures for each executive function construct to estimate latent scores of executive functions; (c) using randomly allocated experimental and active control groups that utilise similar computer-based tasks and have the same face-to-face contact time so that a realistic comparison can be made as to the efficacy of the cognitive training program; (d) determining the impact of cognitive training on executive functions, fluid intelligence and academic achievement by following a cohort of children over a period of one year; (e) measuring processing speed to determine if this is a potential mediating variable in cognitive training; and (f) assessing the impact of different training expectancies between the experimental and control group and its impact upon training gains. In addition to these student-based measures, behaviourally- based reports from teachers and parents will provide additional sources of evidence of the program’s effects. Lastly, the potential moderating effect of an individual's implicit theory of intelligence on training gains will be assessed.

Low physical activity levels and poor cardiovascular health are big problems for people with severe knee osteoarthritis. This study is the first in the world to find out if a walking program can make a difference to their knee pain and cardiovascular health.

Psycho-educational support is recommended as essential for patients undertaking self-management of their dialysis treatment An intervention such as motivational interviewing (MI), the use of the 5 As model and information giving from nurses may promote behavioural change to enhance adherence to prescribed treatments and to reduce risk factors associated with severe life threatening medical complications. This randomized controlled trial will examine the effectiveness of this intervention for people with ESKD and who live at home, undergoing either automated peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis. This intervention may improve adherence to dialysis session times; fluid and dietary intake, diet and taking prescribed medications.

This is a research study to see if the TPM (registered trademark)/Oxycodone Patch (“study drug patch”) is safe and effective in treating participants with PHN compared to a patch which contains no Oxycodone but includes all of the other non-active components of the TPM (registered trademark)/Oxycodone Patch (“placebo patch” or “vehicle patch”). Oxycodone is an analgesic (pain reliever) which has been used, in tablet form, for the treatment of longstanding (chronic) moderate to severe pain, for many years. In tablet form it acts via the blood system. The patch also contains a form of vitamin E, called Tocopheryl Phosphate Mix (TPM), which can help some medications absorb across the skin. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the study drug patch provides pain relief when applied to an affected painful area in participants with PHN when compared to a vehicle patch. The study drug patch is designed to treat the area of reported pain ‘locally’ (at the site of pain in the skin) rather than ‘systemically’ (via the blood system). This TPM helps the drug to enter through the skin. Study participants will be required to wear a patch containing oxycodone (study drug patch) on one occasion and a vehicle patch on another occasion. Participants will be required to wear each patch for 3 days (approx. 72 hours) at the site of worst PHN pain. In addition, this study will determine how safe the patch is: 1. measuring the level of oxycodone that enters into blood (this is expected to be low and thus avoiding issues associated with euphoria, sedation and addiction) 2. monitoring symptoms that may be experienced while wearing the patch 3. observing results from assessments carried out during the course of the study