ANZCTR search results

This project will develop and test a new online tool to help people with low health literacy make decisions about reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. We will develop a more user-friendly version of our existing patient decision aid to improve understanding of CVD risk, intentions to change lifestyle, and self-reported behaviour after 1 month. We will test different versions of the tool in a diverse online community sample with varying levels of health literacy, using a randomised trial design. This will compare health-literate design to standard information, and explore whether 'heart age' is a useful addition to 5-year CVD risk.

The Illicit Project is a neuroscience-based, drug education program designed for High School students aged 16-19years. The three-class program aims to upskill and empower young people to make informed health decision and reduce the harms of substance use. We hypothesise that the program will help to reduce the risky use of alcohol and other drugs and the associated harms over the short-term.

In this statewide study we aim to test a tool that has been designed for incentivising and educating vaccination among the school age population. The primary outcome will measure the proportion of vaccination rates of those incentivised to do so with the collection of the vaccine card game ‘Vaxcards’. Secondary outcome measures will assess the effectiveness for the tool to increase knowledge and move attitudes towards behaviour change among school age vaccine recipients and their parents. We hypothesise that consent form return rates for community school vaccination will increase to those offered a pack of vaxcards. We also hypothesized that children and parents who receive a pack of vaxcards will show improved knowledge, attitudes and behaviors towards vaccination. We will be testing several arms of the intervention to see the most effective means of delivery and timing of the intervention.

Research to date has found variable success in using attentional bias modification training (ABMT) procedures in pain samples. Several factors could contribute to these mixed findings, including boredom and low motivation. Indeed, the training paradigm is repetitive, which can lead to disengagement and high drop-out rates. A potential approach to overcome some of these barriers is to attempt to increase engagement and motivation through gamification (i.e., the use of game elements) of this task. This clinical trial aims to investigate the effects of a gamified web-based ABMT procedure in a sample of adults with chronic pain. One hundred and twenty adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain, recruited from a hospital outpatient waiting list and the wider community, will be included in this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 3-arm trial. Participants will be randomly assigned to complete six online sessions of dot-probe non-gamified sham control ABMT, non-gamified standard ABMT, or gamified ABMT, across a period of three weeks. Active ABMT conditions will aim at training attention away from pain-relevant words. Participant outcomes will be assessed at pre-training, during training, immediately post-training and at 1-month follow-up. Primary outcomes include pain intensity, pain interference, behavioural and self-reported engagement. Secondary outcomes include attentional bias for pain, anxiety, depression, interpretation bias for pain, and perceived improvement.

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is a preparation of autologous plasma enriched with a platelet concentration above that normally contained in whole blood. PRP can be used to treat orthopaedic conditions including osteoarthritis, bursitis, muscle strain, tendinitis, and tendinosis. The aim of the present study was to compare the response of knees and ankles following platelet rich plasma (PRP) treatment. It was hypothesised that the application of PRP treatment to non-specific ankle pain cases would result in a significant reduction in self-reported pain.

The aim of this trial is to determine the impact of the use of surgical masks and P2 respirators compared to outdoor air avoidance on adverse respiratory outcomes during bushfire season in Australia. The research questions/hypotheses that this study seeks to address are: During or after smoke exposure does the use of masks or P2 respirators by patients with asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), compared with outdoor air avoidance, 1. Reduce the incidence of exacerbations? 2. Reduce respiratory symptoms? 3. Improve quality of life? 4. Cause adverse effects? This research will provide the first clinical efficacy data on mask and respirator use for prevention of smoke-induced exacerbations of asthma and COPD in the world, and will be key to informing appropriate use of such devices for Australians affected by increased frequency of exposure to bushfires and hazardous smoke.

In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 80 adults with mild cognitive impairment will be randomly assigned to receive capsules containing either an Oroxylum indicum extract (1000 mg a day) or placebo for 12 weeks. A computer-based assessment and several validated clinician-administered and self-report measures (to be completed at various time points throughout the study) will be administered to assess change in cognitive performance and quality of life. We will also examine changes in blood concentrations of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Long-term impact of COVID-19 on neurological, pulmonary, renal, liver function and health-related quality of life is unknown. We theorise that COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU will have various degrees of organ dysfunctions up to 2 years post ICU discharge, which could result in an impaired quality of life and prolonged recovery. This is a multi-centre international prospective study in survivors of COVID-19, who required admission to the intensive care unit, to assess the health-related quality of life, the dynamics of organs dysfunction and recovery, cognitive outcome and pulmonary function.

Academic stress is common in secondary school students in the final year of school. This stress increases throughout the academic year and is heightened in the lead up to the major examination period. No interventions have been developed or evaluated to specifically reduce academic stress in this period. This project evaluated Study without Stress, a cognitive behavioural therapy program compared to a wait list control in four Sydney based secondary schools in a randomised controlled trial. The effective of the program was examined at post treatment, as well as at a three month follow up in an intent to treat analysis. The results will provide evidence for the effectiveness of the Study without Stress program for reducing academic stress in final year secondary school students.

Flinders University has a long history of delivering education and training to develop the Northern Territory health workforce. In 2016, Flinders University was awarded a national federal government grant (the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Expansion Program) to provide Territory-wide support for work integrated learning placement students from nursing and allied health professions. The grant encourages rural/remote placements as a strategy for recruitment of health professions to the rural/remote workforce. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this program, this study will track the career location decisions of former placement students and explore the impact of their NT placement on their work choices. This research is a tracking study of the work practice locations of all nursing and allied health students annually for five years after completing a Northern Territory work integrated learning placement. The study will also investigate the factors that contribute to the work location decisions of the participants; and to determine if, and how, a Northern Territory placement influenced career decision-making.