ANZCTR search results

The first five years of life is an important period for establishing children’s liking and intake of vegetables. About half of Australian children aged 2-5 years attend formal early childhood education and care, where they consume 40-60% of their daily food intake. Therefore, early care and education settings can play a pivotal role in shaping young children’s dietary intake and there is a need to better support early care settings to provide supportive environments for promoting vegetable intake. The aim of this study is to evaluate to effectiveness of a multi-component initiative package for increasing children’s vegetable intake in long day care. The multi-component initiative package will comprise initiatives developed and tested in an earlier study, which support cooks to provide more vegetables on the menu, provide training for educators to encourage children to taste and enjoy vegetables at mealtimes, and support educators to teach a sensory and experiential vegetable-focused curriculum.

Anxiety disorders affect up to 40% of children on the autism spectrum, with many more showing sub-clinical levels of elevated anxiety. As anxiety can negatively impact many areas of a person’s life, including well-being and academic performance, it is important to develop ways to minimise its occurrence. One such intervention targeting anxiety is the Cool Little Kids group parenting program. Although originally developed for typically developing pre-schoolers, this intervention has shown promise in reducing anxiety in children on the autism spectrum. To better tailor this program for this population, the intervention has been modified to incorporate topics pertinent to anxiety in autism, specifically the intolerance of uncertainty. This study aims to determine the efficacy of this modified Cool Little Kids program on the reduction (or prevention) of anxiety in young children with autism (4- to 5-years-old). It is predicted that parental participation in this program will be associated with a reduction (or prevention) in their child’s anxiety level.

Within Australia, suspected cardiac chest pain represents nearly 1 million emergency department (ED) presentations every year. Most patients are eventually not diagnosed with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Further, the clinical work-up of patients with suspected ACS is laborious and complex, often leading to unnecessary invasive tests. In an effort to improve decision-making, and thereby reduce unnecessary risk to patients and associated health-economic impacts, this study will elucidate the pivotal role of artificial intelligence (AI) as an aid in ACS diagnosis. This study will implement and evaluate the system-level intervention of AI-based decision support for clinical assessment of suspected cardiac chest pain in the reduction of death, myocardial infarction and 12-month readmissions. Further, the study will also provide the cost-effectiveness of embedding AI-based decision support in routine clinical assessment of suspected chest-pain and ACS.

This research aims to explore the relationships between mood, fatigue and physical activity through the use of a novel mobile application (ecological momentary assessment (mEMA)). mEMA is a survey method that allows data collection of participants’ behaviours, mood and perceptual experiences in real-time (momentary) and in real-life environments (ecological). Patients receiving peritoneal dialysis will be recruited from within the CNARTS catchment. This will be a intensive longitudinal observation design. Consenting participants will be met at home or during a routine clinical appointment to assist with download of the mobile app (free to participants) and instruction on correct use of this application. The application will prompt users to answer a set of pre-set questions relating to mood, fatigue at five times each day for seven days. Participants will also be asked to wear a accelerometer for the same seven day period. Accelerometers are highly valid and an objective measure of physical activity levels. The overarching research aims are to explore in real-time how fatigue levels fluctuate throughout the day, and to investigate the associations between mood and physical activity levels and fatigue in people with ESKD receiving peritoneal dialysis. The secondary aim is to explore the feasibility of using EMA in this population

The primary objective is to investigate what modifiable physical factors contribute to physical functioning in patients receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD). This 12 month longitudinal cohort study will assess physical activity levels / sedentary behaviour, muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness as predictors of physical function at three time points (baseline, six months and twelve months) in PD patients. Physical activity, sedentary behaviour, muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness have all been demonstrated as modifiable physical factors that can be positively modified through exercise based interventions. However, to best inform exercise prescription, understanding of the modifiable physical factors that contribute to physical function is required. This research project will be the first to determine the specific modifiable (physical activity and physical impairment) predictors of physical functioning in patients receiving PD. This project could significantly expand knowledge in this field, inform clinical practice and surveillance testing to improve early risk detection, and lead to future PD-specific exercise based interventions targeting physical functioning, improved quality of life and clinical outcomes.

One of the core strategies of Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) is to protect the health and wellbeing of their workforce. To ensure this safety, various operational procedures are implemented for fire-fighting scenarios. One of these instances is the physiological and cognitive recovery of firefighters from a hot or hazardous event. Therefore, the aim of this research is to assess the effect of various recovery strategies on the performance of physical, perceptual and cognitive tasks following stressful fire-fighting tasks in the heat. . Collectively, this project will further both academic and industry knowledge of the optimum recovery procedures required for a variety of fire-fighting scenarios to optimise health for our states’ emergency services.

During general anaesthesia muscle relaxant drugs are administered to make airway management and surgery easier. Muscle relaxants are usually reversed with neostigmine at the end of the operation. A newer drug, sugammadex, reverses muscle relaxants more rapidly than neostigmine, but is not clear whether sugammadex results in fewer postoperative complications than neostigmine. We are planning a large multi-centre randomised controlled trial to investigate whether sugammadex is associated with fewer postoperative lung complications than neostigmine. The current study is a pilot study that will determine if the larger trial is feasible. We will measure feasibility outcomes (e.g. recruitment rates) and pilot the main trial outcomes (e.g. postoperative pulmonary complications)

NSW Health’s Active Ageing portfolio, managed by the NSW Office of Preventive Health (OPH), provides a suite of evidence-based programs for older adults. These programs aim to increase healthy lifestyle behaviours and decrease the risk of chronic disease and falls in the older population. The Active Ageing portfolio has recently been revised to place more focus on physical activity and healthy eating. As part of this work, OPH has designed a new program Healthy and Active for Life (HAL), which targets adults aged over 60 years. The proposed research will assess the impacts of the HAL face-to-face, with a digital version of the HAL program, as well as a control condition. Participants will be randomly allocated to each arm.

Effective medical therapies for the treatment of endometriosis related pelvic pain are limited and are often associated with side-effects. Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is a food supplement that has been shown to have anti-inflammatory action. Polydatin (PLD) is also a food supplement that has antioxidant and pain inhibiting activities. There have been some small studies performed to assess if the combination of PEA/PLD is helpful for persistent pain associated with endometriosis. The results suggest it might have benefit, but further studies are required. Multiple studies that assessed PEA/PLD for pain relief in various other pain conditions have not reported any significant side effects. The aim of this study is to determine if treatment with PEA/PLD improves endometriosis associated pain. Women who are booked for surgical treatment of possible endometriosis will be offered participation in this study. Participation will not change their surgeon’s care plan. The participants will be randomised to either receive 8 weeks of PEA/PLD treatment or placebo prior to their surgery. The endometriosis will then be confirmed or excluded during the surgery. Lesions of endometriosis, endometrium, pelvic fluid and blood will be collected where possible to assess inflammatory markers. Participants will also complete a survey including pain and quality of life assessments. This survey will be completed at recruitment, after 8 weeks of treatment (pre surgery) and at 6 months (4 months after surgery). We will assess the change in pain scores and quality of life scores between the 2 groups to see if PEA/PLD is beneficial.

People with chronic psychotic disorders experience functional disability, poor physical health and incomplete recovery that can be poorly responsive to first line treatments. Research has clearly demonstrated mental and physical health improvements from exercise, however predominantly utilising aerobic protocols. There is scant evidence regarding resistance training in people with psychotic disorders, even though preliminary evidence suggests safety and preference for this type of training. We will recruit participants with chronic psychotic disorders from three mental health rehabilitation units and randomise participants to resistance training, or control (aerobic- moderate intensity interval training), three supervised sessions per week for 8 weeks in a randomised controlled trial in which outcome assessors will be blind to condition allocation. The primary aim of this study will be to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of resistance training (recruitment, retention and participation). Secondary aims will include a comparison of various mental and physical health outcomes between exercise types pre and post the intervention. We hypothesise that resistance training will be feasible and acceptable to people with psychotic disorders.