ANZCTR search results

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has led to a large amount of information being made available to the community through a range of mediums. How this information is presented can have a different effect on different people in terms of how much the accept it, and how much it may influence their future behaviours. This research seeks to compare the effectiveness of different approaches that can be used to convey COVID-19 health messages. This will better inform government strategies as to how they might share COVID-19 information as well as information relevant to other future health issues in our community. Specifically this study aims to assess: a) use of animation versus 'talking head' visual stimulus approaches b) the use of a general practitioner to deliver COVID-19 relevant information (in a pre-recorded video) versus a politician to deliver other types of COVID-19 relevant information (in a pre-recorded video), versus written education (no video).

We aim to see if there is a difference between 2 injection types to treat a nerve impingement that can cause low back and buttock pain. We wish to see if a newer technique is more efficacious and has a longer lasting effect than the usual technique

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic, immune-mediated disease of the gastrointestinal tract with frequent extraintestinal involvement and high levels of fatigue, depression and abdominal and musculoskeletal pain. There are currently limited treatment options for fatigue in IBD, despite its significant impact on quality of life and disease burden. Similarly, although depression associated with IBD can be treated with antidepressant medication and psychological therapy, there is a paucity of alternative treatments for those who are unable or unwilling to take antidepressants or engage in psychological therapy. There are also limited treatments available for pain in IBD and many pain medications are contraindicated or poorly tolerated by individuals with IBD due to their impact on gastrointestinal tract. Peak age of IBD onset is during young adulthood and youth with IBD are particularly vulnerable to the effects of fatigue, depression and pain as they are individuating and developing a sense of self, and negotiating relationships. Photobiomodulation (PBM) is a novel treatment involving the use of laser-generated low-powered light therapy which has shown emerging evidence for improving fatigue, depression and pain in both healthy populations and those with chronic illness. Objectives The study aims to assess feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy of photobiomodulation in treatment of fatigue in youth with IBD. It will also assess change in in depression and pain, quality of life, inflammatory markers and microbiome profile, physical activity and physical functioning in response to photobiomodulation. Stdy hypothesis is that PBMt will be feasible and effective in reducing fatigue, depression, pain and inflammatory burden in youth with IBD.

To address inefficiencies and improve data collection, analysis and display, a bespoke clinical decision support system (CDSS) was developed - www.lymbase.com. This CDSS is now ready for implementation in the NSW public health system and this study will evaluate the implementation process. The anticipated outcome of the study will see refinement of the CDSS and processes to support implementation of Lymbase® for public health sector use.

TransformUs is a behavioural school-based intervention targeting reducing sedentary behaviour and increasing physical activity that will be rolled out across Australian secondary schools. This is an adaption of a previously registered successful trial: Scalability of the Transform-Us! program to promote children’s physical activity and reduce prolonged sitting in Victorian primary schools (ACTRN12617000204347) for the Australian secondary school setting. To determine real world effectiveness and maintenance (at the individual level), a stepped wedge waitlist control design with follow up will be used. A sub-sample of 10 schools from different socioeconomic urban and rural areas of Victoria and Tasmania will be selected. Our findings will determine the effectiveness of the program in Australian Secondary Schools so that it can be rolled out nationally and become part of routine best practice.

Despite optimal medical management, up to 60% of young stroke survivors experience impairments in cognition. These impairments adversely impact activities of daily living and quality of life. A number of treatment strategies have been proposed for therapeutically addressing cognitive impairments in stroke survivors. A promising, yet experimental, treatment strategy is environmental enrichment (EE), which involves careful modulation of the environmental setting to enhance physical, cognitive, sensory and social stimulation, as well as healthy eating and sleep routines. This approach has recently been shown to improve motor function in stroke survivors, however its effects on cognition are yet to be investigated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate, for the first time, the feasibility and therapeutic utility of a 12-week telehealth-delivered EE program, compared to lifestyle guidance, on cognition in young stroke survivors.

In this study we are trying to figure out if a vaccine against COVID-19 can be administered by an intradermal delivery system (a patch that is placed onto the skin by spring delivery) and if the vaccine is effective against COVID-19. Today most vaccines are delivered by injection using a needle (typically in the upper arm or thigh), this can be cause for anxiety for some people. Vaxxas have developed an intradermal delivery system (HD-MAP) to administer vaccines by pressing a patch to the skin of the upper arm. Vaxxas has developed a potential COVID-19 vaccine (HexaPro- modified SARS-CoV-2 spike protein) to be delivered with their intradermal delivery system. HD-MAP has been used in prior clinical trials of influenza vaccines as well as the uncoated patch, while HexaPro has not yet been given to humans.

How food is promoted, priced and made available in food retail has considerable impact on consumer behaviour and subsequently population health. In partnership with government and Aboriginal health services, the remote retail sector and policy-makers, we will codesign and test the feasibility and effectiveness of an innovative benchmarking approach to support the uptake of health-enabling best-evidence practice and policy by stores in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and identify the pathway to set this benchmarking into policy. We will test feasibility of the benchmarking model through partner organisations who work with community stores in the Northern Territory (NT) and extend our research to include stakeholders from Western Australia (WA), Queensland (QLD) and South Australia (SA) to assess its scalability.

ACTMed is a new service designed to proactively find and address medicine problems before they cause harm. Participating pharmacists will use a specially designed software program (ACTionable Medication safety dashboard) that works within health IT systems to detect medicines problems. ACTMed works by bringing pharmacists, consumers and general practitioners together to deal with medicine problems. Before the service can be tested in a trial, we have to work out how pharmacists and general practitioners want to work together and how consumers will be involved. To do this we will co-design with consumers and health practitioners, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers and health practitioners. The result of this study is anticipated to be a fully developed ACTMed intervention and trial protocol.

We aim to develop and implement a method of displaying live internal anatomical data on head-mounted display using augmented reality technology and use this data to successfully achieve renal access during Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy. Outcomes of interest are: 1. Ability to gain entry to the patient's renal calyx. 2. Number of puncture attempts 3. Ease of access 4. Time taken to achieve entry.