You can narrow down the results using the filters
-
ENabling VISions And Growing Expectations (ENVISAGE-Families): An intervention study of a caregiver empowerment program
ENVISAGE-Families ( ENabling VISions And Growing Expectations) comprises five weekly online workshops for caregivers of children with a neurodevelopmental disability. Workshops provide caregivers with early exposure to current thinking and best practices around childhood disability and encourage information-sharing and connections among families and service providers. Our aim is to compare the effects of ENVISAGE-Families on family empowerment compared to ‘service as usual’ experienced by a waitlist control group at 6 weeks and 18 weeks post randomisation. Our secondary objectives are to: (i) examine the effects of ENVISAGE-Families on caregivers’ self-reported measures of parenting confidence, family functioning, caregiver health, caregiver wellbeing, psychological functioning, and child’s quality of life at 6 weeks and 18 weeks post randomisation; and (ii) determine if primary and secondary effects of ENVISAGE-Families are maintained at 17-18 weeks post-randomisation. Qualitatively, we seek to understand the impact of ENVISAGE-Families on: (i) how participants describe their child and family; and (ii) how this program might be relevant to them and impact their experiences of parenting a child with a disability.
-
Sleep for hospital inpatients: Evaluation of the Implementation of routine sleep assessment and a sleep protocol
Sleep disturbance is common in both community and hospital settings, affecting adverse health outcomes such as delirium. Despite this, consideration of inpatients’ sleep quality is not universally integrated in patient treatment in most hospitals. Research aiming to improve sleep for hospitalised patients has largely focused on environmental behaviour changes rather than implementing sleep assessment and guidelines. By implementing sleep quality assessment (asking patients how they slept), the impact of interventions to improve sleep can be more accurately determined. A numerical sleep self-assessment incorporated in the electronic medical record and a comprehensive sleep guideline (e.g., creation of a nocturnal environment conducive to sleep; reducing nocturnal sleep medication prescribing; and empowering patients to practice sleep hygiene) will be implemented. Implementation will be maximised by using effective methods for changing practice. Evaluation will include patient sleep quality, prevalence of delirium, and prescriptions for sleep medications in six months before and after implementation.
-
Embolisation with NeoCast for Chronic Subdural Hematoma
The EMBO-02 study is a first-in-human study for treatment of chronic subdural hematomas, which is a collection of blood and blood breakdown products, like a blood clot. A hematoma that is subdural is located between the surface of the brain and its outermost covering (the dura). A subdural hematoma develops when tiny blood vessels that run between the dura and surface of the brain tear and begin to leak. Participants in this study may benefit from “embolisation” to stop the blood vessels from leaking. This research study is testing a new investigational device that is an embolic agent called the NeoCast Embolic System (“NeoCast”).
-
MOVE Together: Reduce falls. Evaluating a program developed Together with people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to support older people to MOVE better and Reduce Falls
Our research will evaluate the feasibility of the delivery and evaluation of a program aimed at reducing falls in older people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities (Arabic speaking, Chinese and Italian). The program that is being evaluated (MOVE Together: Reduce falls) has been designed with people from CALD communities, clinicians and researchers to optimise its potential for success. Participants who take part in the research will be older people from Arabic speaking, Chinese and Italian communities. Those in the intervention arm will receive the MOVE Together Program. The aim of the program is to support participants to achieve 3 hours of exercise per week, including exercises that challenge balance and strength through movements that are used in everyday activities (e.g. as standing up). The program includes behavior change strategies (e.g. goal setting and review, education, modelling of the behaviour, instruction, and social support) to support long term engagement. The individualized program is delivered by a physiotherapist over 10- 12 sessions. Each session will run for 30-45min in participants’ homes, either in-person via a home visit or via telehealth (video or phone call), a centre based option is also available if participants prefer to undertake their physiotherapy sessions there.
-
Effectiveness of empirically based tackle technique intervention to reduce the in-game risk of injury
No evidence exists on whether different tackle techniques could reduce injury risk such as concussion, breast or shoulder injuries. Our tackle behaviour re-education intervention is empirically-based on our pilot research (Edwards et al., 2021) and the theoretical framework of the Behaviour Change Wheel (D’Lima et al., 2020) to maximise the intervention’s efficacy (Sullivan et al., 2021). Our success to change in-game tackle behaviour will be assessed using industry standard best practice of qualitative video analysis to measure in-game tackle technique proficiency (Aim 1). We will then use gold standard 3D motion analysis to accurately measure tackle-induced forces and 3D tackle technique in the laboratory across a season (Aim 2). This will provide critical mechanistic understanding of how tackle technique influences these impulse forces to the head (i.e. inertial head kinematics), as there is limited 3D tackle motion studies. By using these technologies, we can establish if impulsive forces delivered to the head during a tackle (i.e., concussion risk exposure) can be reduced by re-training in-game and laboratory tackle behaviour. We will focus on Indigenous players, given no published injury research has taken an Indigenous athlete-centred approach despite the higher proportion of National Rugby League (NRL) players identifying as Indigenous/Pasifika (57% vs 3% general population) (League, 2017). We will employ a blended Indigenous pedagogy approach with Western ways of teaching and learning (Yunkaporta, 2009) and will be taught by an Indigenous expert rugby codes coach. The outcomes from this research will enable the translation of our empirically validated results into policy and practice in new coaching manuals on how to teach players to change their tackle behaviour that minimise their head impact exposure and injuries (including breast injuries).
-
Efficacy of an online decision aid in improving understanding of opioid use in the management of lower back pain (LBP) and osteoarthritis (OA)
The aim of this study is to evaluate if a video decision aid (VDA) will reduce patient’s intention to commence or to continue to use opioids amongst patients with low back pain, or hip or knee osteoarthritis (OA) when compared to an attention control video. Participants with low back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis will be recruited and randomly assigned to watch either an educational video or a control video. Surveys will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a VDA in reducing the intention to commence or continue to use opioids amongst patients with LBP, or hip or knee OA when compared to an attention control video. It will also assess if the VDA improves the knowledge of management options, attitudes towards opioids, and the likelihood of making an informed choice in this population. We hypothesise that participants with LBP or hip or knee OA who watch a video decision aid will report a significantly lower intention to commence or continue using opioids for pain management compared to those who watch an attention control video.
-
Scaling up an effective digital model of care to optimise child health in the first 2000 days: Is ‘opt-in’ or ‘opt-out’ the best approach?
Failure to address known risk factors in early life results in significant economic, social and health system burdens. While NSW Health is committed to enhancing child health and development during the First 2000 days (conception-5 years), child health in NSW remains poor. In NSW, Child and Family Health Nursing services provide routine Universal Health Home Visits. However, family engagement with face-to-face services are critically low, due to various health system (i.e. staff capacity) and parent challenges (i.e. incompatibility with family routines). Digital care models (e.g. text message) delivered direct to parents’ mobile phones presents an opportunity to revolutionise the delivery of universal health care across the First 2000 days. Effective models for scaling-up digital care to maximise reach and impact at the population level remains elusive. Provision of routine universal health care during the First 2000 days would be hugely valuable for this cohort and benefit all families in NSW. This research will compare two models of scaling-up an evidence-based digital program targeting child health and development in the First 2000 days (HB4HNEKids). Community and Family Health Nurse services in Hunter New England (HNE) will be randomised to receive either an automated ‘opt-out’ model or clinician initiated ‘opt-in’ model of offering HB4HNEKids to families. The automated ‘opt-out’ model will automatically enrol parents into receiving HB4HNEKids as the intervention will be integrated within existing digital clinical systems. The clinician initiated ‘opt-in’ model will use evidence-based strategies to support clinicians to implement systematic offers to parents to ‘opt-in’ to HB4HNEKids. It is hypothesised that the clinician initiated ‘opt-in’ model will be more impactful (i.e. have high reach and greater effectiveness), however we hypothesise that the automated ‘opt-out’ model will have greater reach, representative of the population and be more cost effective to deliver.
-
Evaluating the effectiveness of a fluoroquinolone-based treatment of isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis: The FLIRT Trial
Tuberculosis (TB) kills over 1.4 million people each year and has been the top infectious cause of death worldwide since 2015. Drug resistance is a major driver of prolonged morbidity and mortality, contributing to poor outcomes and allowing ongoing transmission of this airborne infection. Drug-resistant TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is resistant to at least one of the four first-line antibiotics used in combination to treat TB (isoniazid [INH], rifampicin [RIF], pyrazinamide [PZA] or ethambutol [EMB]). No trials of INH-resistant (INH-R) TB have been performed since the availability of later-generation fluoroquinolones (FQs), one of the best-tolerated and most effective group of antibiotics against TB. Safer and more effective regimens are needed. WHO called for treatment trials for INH-R TB, yet none are planned based upon our review of trial registries. The study hypothesis is that six months of an antibiotic treatment that includes a fluoroquinolone antibiotic will improve treatment outcomes for patients with isoniazid-resitsant tuberculosis. The research question to be addressed by this trial is: “What is the effectiveness and safety of a 6-month fluoroquinolone-containing intervention regimen, with 2 months of pyrazinamide, in comparison to that of a control regimen not containing a fluoroquinolone for treatment of isoniazid-resistant fluoroquinolone resistant tuberculosis?”
-
Comparing NursE recording Accuracy and Time taken for blood glucose checks with different glucose meters (NEAT) - Pilot Study
Audit comparing amount of nursing time taken and accuracy of blood glucose levels recorded in the electronic medical record for the standard Nova Biomedical glucose meter currently used for clinical care compared with the AMSL wi-fi connectivity Statstrip glucose meter. Nova Biomedical manufactures a wi-fi connectivity glucose meter which can upload its glucose data directly to the patient electronic medical record (eMR). We anticipate that using the wi-fi connectivity glucose meters will substantially save nursing time and also contribute to an increase in the accuracy of glucose recording in the eMR. We plan to compare the time taken to check and record in the eMR a finger prick glucose level using each glucose meter type and to determine the proportion of glucose levels recorded accurately in the eMR by each technique (correct patient, correct time, correct glucose level and delay to glucose being documented in the eMR).
-
Comparing outcomes between the use of autologous fascia lata graft versus synthetic polypropylene mesh for sacrocolpopexy in the treatment of apical vaginal prolapse
A study to investigate the differences in subjective, objective and quality of life outcomes between sacral colpopexy with mesh (Type 1 polypropylene) versus alternative graft (autologous fascia lata) at 6, 12, 24 month and 5 years