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 March 2021


The CRE-EPOCH brings together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers from Australia, New Zealand and England to work collaboratively on approaches to prevention of obesity in children aged 0 to 5 years. For further details, please see our website: www.earlychildhoodobesity.com and follow us on Twitter @CRE_EPOCH.
Welcome to the first EPOCH Express newsletter of 2020. It’s an exciting time for the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood as we enter our sixth and final year of funding from NHMRC.

In this newsletter you can read about work by PhD student, Sarah Marshall and colleagues on the cultural adaptation of the Healthy Beginnings program for Chinese- and Arabic-speaking migrants mothers in Sydney.
 
In another recently published paper, Alison Hayes and team present novel analyses, using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which address the question of when, across the trajectory from early childhood to adolescence, obesity is likely to persist.
 
Andrew Tan and the health economics team, together with Rachel Taylor and Barry Taylor in Dunedin, have looked at the cost-effectiveness of a sleep intervention in infancy to prevent overweight in childhood. Perhaps sleep modification programs are the way to go?
 
Lene Seidler and many of the EPOCH team have written recently about the logistics of how to “deconstruct” behavioural interventions into their components, using the four original EPOCH interventions as an example. This approach is fundamental to maximising the learning from combining interventions and undertaking meta-analyses.

Finally, work by another PhD student, Lakshmi Ekambareshwar, has summarised the broader literature of the views of various stakeholders on the use of SMS and phone messages in supporting obesity prevention interventions in early life.
 
These studies span many aspects of the work undertaken by EPOCH CRE.
 
We welcome feedback from you.

 
Culturally adapting the Healthy Beginnings program
How can modifications be made to an existing health promotion program to make it more relevant and accessible for new mothers from diverse cultural backgrounds? A new study describes the process taken to culturally adapt/modify the Healthy Beginnings early obesity prevention program for Arabic and Chinese speaking migrant mothers in Sydney, Australia. Read more.
Tracking and persistence of weight status during childhood
A new study led by A/Prof Alison Hayes examined which groups of children are more likely to become overweight or have persistent overweight, in childhood and adolescence. Read more.
Cost-effectiveness of a novel sleep intervention in infancy to prevent overweight in childhood
EPOCH CRE health economics stream evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a sleep intervention in the Prevention of Overweight in Infancy (POI) trial.  The study showed the intervention was a low cost and cost effective approach to reducing childhood obesity.  Read more.



Photo by Tara Raye on Unsplash
 
Quantifying the advantages of conducting a prospective meta-analysis: a case study of early childhood obesity prevention
Prospective meta-analysis (PMA) is an innovative method to increase statistical power and minimise bias and research waste.  In this new publication, Stream 1 Research Fellow, Lene Seidler, quantify the advantages of PMA using the four EPOCH trials and provide recommendations for future PMA. Read more.


Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Process evaluations of early childhood obesity prevention interventions delivered via telephone or text messages: A systematic review
 Childhood obesity prevention intervention delivered by telephone or text messages is effective and potentially more acceptable to clients, however, this is not well reported.  Understanding participants’ acceptability of an intervention is important for successful uptake upon scaling up.  Read more.





Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
 
EPOCH Early and Mid Career Researchers (EMCRs) Webinars

EPOCH CRE EMCRs are hosting a series of free webinars (via zoom) on their work related to various aspects of
early prevention of childhood obesity in the coming months.  The next webinar will explore the economics of early childhood obesity prevention on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, 11-12 pm AEDT.        
Register Now
Past webinar recordings are available here
•    Promoting breastfeeding among culturally diverse families in Australia
•    Early Prevention of childhood obesity – moving the field forward through collaboration.
 

This year, the theme of the World Obesity Day, is Every Body Needs Everybody.  Everybody must come together, and collectively, call on decision makers to support the environmental, social and commercial roots of obesity. 
 
Join in the discussion with experts from around the country, including our director Professor Louise Baur, to explore the many different aspects of obesity.  The Obesity Collective is hosting a national virtual event on 4 March 2021, 12pm – 1:30pm AEDT.  Find out more and register here.
 
Joining forces to enhance the impact of prevention research

EPOCH CRE is part of a novel initiative to enhance the profile and impact of chronic disease prevention research in Australia.  The Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI) comprises of four Centres of Research Excellence and the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre to present a stronger voice in advocating for the translation of prevention research into policy and practice. Read more about the initiative here and a factsheet about CERI here.
Congratulations on successful academic promotions
A/Prof Rachel Laws

EPOCH CRE Stream 4 co-lead, Rachel Laws, was recently promoted as Associate Professor in Public Health Nutrition at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University. 

Rachel has been instrumental in exploring the scale-up and uptake of INFANT, an early childhood obesity prevention program that is being rolled out across VIC. As part of INFANT, Rachel is also leading the development and testing of the world first app intervention to promote healthy infant feeding practices. 
 
Follow Rachel on Twitter @rachellaws1




Dr Vicki Brown
 
Dr Vicki Brown has been promoted as Senior Research Fellow at Deakin Health Economics, Deakin University.  Vicki conducts research with Stream 3 of EPOCH CRE, on the economic evaluation of childhood obesity prevention interventions.
 
Vicki’s research focuses on advancing the economics of early childhood obesity, specifically in program implementation and scale-up.  She was recently awarded an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to determine the most policy-relevant outcomes for early childhood obesity prevention; estimate the value of these outcomes by stakeholder group; explore how these value judgements differ between groups. 
 
Follow Vicki on Twitter @Vicki_BBB
PhD Highlight
Anne Lene Seidler

Lene has been working as a Biostatistician and her PhD within Stream 1, to analyse interventions to prevent obesity in early childhood using prospective meta-analysis.  Lene’s PhD focussed on developing new methodologies for evidence synthesis.
 
Lene’s achievements are well beyond her career stage with early thesis submission (by a year!) and leading the TOPCHILD collaboration to bring researchers worldwide to address early childhood obesity prevention.  
 
Read more about Lene’s PhD journey here
Website
Email
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Funding Sources

The Centre for Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (EPOCH) is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC ID:APP1001675) from 2016-2020.

Additional funding to support the CRE - EPOCH  comes from the following agencies:
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • Flinders University
  • The University of Sydney
  • Sydney Local Health District (NSW Health)
  • NSW Ministry of Health
We would like to thank them for their contributions.
 
Copyright © 2017 - CRE - EPOCH All rights reserved.

Centre of Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood
Prevention Research Collaboration
Level 6, Charles Perkins Centre (D17)
University of Sydney  NSW  2006
Australia


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Centre for Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood · CRE -EPOCH, PRC, Charles Perkins Centre · Level 6, D17, Charles Perkins Centre · The University of Sydney, Nsw 2006 · Australia

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