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Research

“It helps and it doesn’t help”: maternal perspectives on how the use of smartphones and tablet computers influences parent-infant attachment

As families increase their use of mobile touch screen devices (smartphones and tablet computers), there is potential for this use to influence parent-child interactions required to form a secure attachment during infancy, and thus future child developmental outcomes. Thirty families of infants (aged 9-15 months) were interviewed to explore how parents and infants use these devices, and how device use influenced parents' thoughts, feelings and behaviours towards their infant and other family interactions.

Research

Planetary Health: We Need to Talk about Narcissism

Concepts of planetary health attempt to collectively address the biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors contributing to “Anthropocene Syndrome”, which encompasses the many wicked interrelated challenges of our time. It is increasingly evident that the wide array of causative factors is underpinned by attitudes, values, and worldviews.

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Clustering of psychosocial symptoms in overweight children

The aims of the present study were to (i) examine the relationship between children's degree of adiposity and psychosocial functioning; and (ii) compare patterns of clustering of psychosocial measures between healthy weight and overweight/obese children.

Research

Disease prevention in the age of convergence - The need for a wider, long ranging and collaborative vision

Our global health crisis and the pandemic of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) is clearly rooted in complex modern societal and environmental changes, many of...

Research

Urinary Ferritin as a Noninvasive Means of Assessing Iron Status in Young Children

Iron deficiency (ID) is the most common nutritional deficiency affecting young children. Serum ferritin concentration is the preferred biomarker for measuring iron status because it reflects iron stores; however, blood collection can be distressing for young children and can be logistically difficult. A noninvasive means to measure iron status would be attractive to either diagnose or screen for ID in young children.

Research

The Flourishing Child: Understanding how Adults and Children Perceive Flourishing from the Start of Life

The current narrative surrounding children’s health and wellbeing often focuses on adversity and dysregulation with a lack of positive messaging. However, promoting protective and buffering factors may be as important as reducing adverse exposures. While the concept of flourishing is commonly applied in the context of adults, defining what flourishing means for children in current academic literature remains unclear.

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“Coronavirus Changed the Rules on Everything”: Parent Perspectives on How the COVID‐19 Pandemic Influenced Family Routines, Relationships and Technology Use in Families with Infants

This study explores how the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic influenced family routines, relationships and technology use (smartphones and tablet computers) among families with infants. Infancy is known to be an important period for attachment security and future child development, and a time of being susceptible to changes within and outside of the family unit.

Research

Earth dreams: Reimagining ARPA for health of people, places and planet

Bold new approaches are urgently needed to overcome global health challenges. The proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is intended to provide rapid health breakthroughs.

Research

Probiotic peanut oral immunotherapy versus oral immunotherapy and placebo in children with peanut allergy in Australia (PPOIT-003): a multicentre, randomised, phase 2b trial

Oral immunotherapy is effective at inducing desensitisation to allergens and induces sustained unresponsiveness (ie, clinical remission) in a subset of patients, but causes frequent reactions. We aimed to investigate whether addition of a probiotic adjuvant improved the efficacy or safety of peanut oral immunotherapy.

Research

Characterization of the transient deficiency of pkc isozyme levels in immature cord blood t cells and its connection to anti‐allergic cytokine profiles of the matured cells

Cord blood T cells (CBTC) from a proportion of newborns express low/deficient levels of some protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes, with low levels of PKCζ correlating with increased risk of developing allergy and associated decrease in interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ) producing T cells.