Understanding how users of home-based aged care services with cognitive impairment rate their social care related quality of life.

Background: Over the past decades, self-directed models of care have been implemented throughout the world to support older people, including those with dementia, to live at home. However, there is limited information about how self-directed home care is experienced by older people with cognitive impairment and dementia, and how their thinking informs their care choices and quality of life.

Methods: We used the ASCOT-Easy Read, a staggered reveal method, talk aloud techniques, probing questions, and physical assistance to support users of self-directed home care in Australia with cognitive impairment and dementia to discuss their Social Care Related Quality of Life (SCRQoL).

A cross-sectional study assessing barriers and facilitators to the sustainability of physical activity and nutrition interventions in early childhood education and care settings.

Background: Effective evidence-based physical activity and nutrition interventions to prevent overweight and obesity and support healthy child development need to be sustained within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services. Despite this, little is known about factors that influence sustainability of these programs in ECEC settings. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the factors related to sustainability of physical activity and nutrition interventions in ECEC settings and examine their association with ECEC service characteristics.

Health checks for autistic adults: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: Autistic people commonly have physical and mental health conditions. They also frequently experience barriers to accessing healthcare, contributing to problems identifying and treating health conditions. These factors may lead to increased and earlier morbidity and lower average life expectancy for autistic people.

The Gift of Time, How Do I Want to Spend It? Exploring Preferences for Time Allocation Among Women with and without a Breast Cancer Diagnosis.

Background: Women's preferences for time allocation reveal how they would like to prioritise market work, family life, and other competing activities. Whilst preferences may not always directly translate to behaviour, they are an important determinant of intention to act.

Objective: We present the first study to apply a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to investigate time allocation preferences among women diagnosed with breast cancer and women without a cancer diagnosis.

Dental Health Services Victoria health promotion messages for oral health: A modified Delphi study.

Issue Addressed: The 2022 Oral health messages for Australia were reviewed, revised and published in 2023. This study adapted these messages from a value-based communication perspective to support Dental Health Services Victoria population health programs and resources.

Methods: A modified Delphi RAND/UCLA appropriateness method was adopted.

Economic evaluation of a community dental care model for people experiencing homelessness.

Aim The study aims to conduct economic evaluation of the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise (PDSE) programme for people experiencing homelessness over an 18-month period, when compared to a hypothetical base-case scenario ('status quo').Methods A decision tree model was generated in TreeAge Pro Healthcare 2024. Benefit-cost analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis were performed using data informed by the literature and probabilistic sensitivity analysis (Monte Carlo simulation with 1,000 cycles).

Identifying effective obesity prevention intervention components: An umbrella review mapping systematic review evidence.

This overview of reviews synthesizes the effectiveness of obesity prevention interventions in children and adults on BMI/zBMI, following JBI and Cochrane Handbook guidelines. The protocol was prospectively registered in OSF in September 2020. Searches for eligible reviews were run in five databases and gray literature in May 2022.

"Placing community in the driver's seat": Key strategies and critical enablers of an equitable place-based COVID-19 vaccination response.

Addressing health inequities requires both national and local-level action. In the case of COVID-19, locally-led place-based programs were instrumental in addressing vaccination inequities that resulted from implementation gaps in national and state-level universal COVID-19 vaccination programs. To prepare for future pandemics, understanding which local strategies are effective and the conditions that enable their effectiveness is crucial.

Examining Changes in Implementation of Priority Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Practices, and Related Barriers, Over Time in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care Services: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study.

Promoting healthy eating and physical activity in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is recommended within guidelines and supported by health promotion programs; however, implementation is suboptimal. Evidence suggests implementation within the sector varies over time; however, this has not been empirically examined in relation to implementation barriers. This study aims to: (1) describe changes in the prevalence of, and barriers to, implementation of priority healthy eating and physical activity practices; and (2) explore the associations between such barriers and implementation.

Promoting oral cancer screening by general practitioners in Australia: Strengthening primary healthcare.

Background: Oral cancer remains a significant public health issue. General practitioners (GPs) can play an important role in raising awareness of oral cancer.

Objective: This paper explores why providing advice relating to modifiable risk behaviours associated with oral cancer and undertaking routine oral cancer screening are important for GPs in clinical practice.

Occupational therapy in overweight and obesity care: Australian perspectives from a mixed methods study.

Background: Obesity and being overweight can hinder participation in daily activities and impact engagement. Occupational therapists offer a unique perspective on this issue, yet their practice is seldom described in the literature.

Aim: To explore how Australian occupational therapists use their occupational perspective when working with people who are obese or overweight.

Australian Communities That Care (CTC) intervention: Benefit-cost analysis of a community-based youth alcohol prevention initiative.

Background: Internationally, adolescent alcohol consumption has been a major community concern for decades. Globally, there is a growing array of interventions aimed at preventing youth alcohol-related problems. Notably, the Communities that Care (CTC) process in the USA has proven to be a cost-effective intervention, leading to a reduction in adolescent alcohol-related problems.

Food environments in the Pacific region and efforts to improve them: a scoping review.

Objective: To understand the characteristics of food environments in the Pacific region, and the broader economic, policy and sociocultural surroundings that influence food choices and interventions to improve food environments for Pacific communities.

Design: Systematic searches were conducted for articles related to food environments or factors influencing food choices from 1993 to 2024 in five academic databases, Google, Google Scholar and relevant organisations' websites. Studies were included if they meet the eligibility criteria.

How supermarket retailers value business outcomes of healthy food retail strategies: a discrete choice experiment.

Background: Supermarkets are businesses, and any voluntary changes to increase the healthiness of their food offerings must align with retailers' commercial needs. Business outcomes of healthy food retail strategies are important non-health factors that may influence retailers' decisions to implement these strategies. Although there is growing evidence on the significance of various business outcomes, such as net profit and customer satisfaction, it remains unclear how retailers value and trade-off these outcomes against each other.

Body Composition and Incident High-Intensity Back Pain and/or High Disability: A 10-Year Prospective Population-Based Male Cohort.

Background: Back pain poses a significant global burden, within which individuals with more severe symptoms consume higher healthcare expenses than those with lesser back pain. Whether measures of body composition predict high-intensity back pain and/or high-disability in population-based cohorts is unknown. This study aimed to examine the association between body composition at baseline and their change in the prior 5 years (between 2001-2005 and 2006-2010) and incident high-intensity back pain and/or high-disability in long-term follow-up, 10 years later (2016-2021) in a population-based cohort of men.

Umbrella review of systematic reviews to inform the development and translation of community-based childhood obesity prevention interventions.

Community-based interventions (CBIs) can be effective and feasible for the prevention of childhood obesity. The aim of this umbrella review is to determine if systematic reviews report sufficient information to guide replication or adaptation of CBIs to a variety of contexts and aid in further development of childhood obesity prevention CBIs. Six databases were searched for systematic reviews including obesity prevention CBIs involving 0-18 year olds and reporting weight-related outcomes.

Utilization of early therapeutic supports by autistic preschoolers in Australia: A cross-sectional study following implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

There are many types of support for young autistic children and their families, but service use in this population is not well understood. In this study, primary caregivers of autistic preschoolers were surveyed (n = 95) and a selection were then interviewed (n = 19) to understand how early, therapeutic supports were accessed by families in Australia following the establishment of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This article presents the quantitative data from surveys and interviews.

Mapping gaps and exploring impairment and disability prevalence in South Asian (SAARC) countries: a scoping review.

Despite the considerable health and economic burden of disability in the South Asian (SA) region, there is limited evidence of impairments and disabilities prevalence and the need for Assistive Technologies (ATs). This scoping review aims to synthesise the evidence of the impairments and disabilities in SA countries. This review followed Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework.

The prevalence and effect of poor sleep amongst paramedics: a systematic review.

Background: Sleep of inadequate quality, duration or regularity has potential negative physical and mental health outcomes. The impacts of poor sleep within the paramedic occupation are not well understood.

Aims: This review aimed to determine the prevalence of insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness and poor sleep quality amongst paramedics, and to identify any relationships between insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, poor sleep quality and other health-related outcomes.

Measuring characteristics of wild and cultivated food environments: a scoping review.

Background: Global food systems are essential to sustain life; however, unhealthy diets are the leading cause of poor health and death worldwide. Natural food environments are a critical source of healthful food such as fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat and aquatic foods, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and Indigenous food systems. Understanding and monitoring natural food environments is critical to protecting the supply of healthy food, and the land and water it comes from, for current and future generations.