Search

Research

This study aimed to systematically review the literature on the associations between birth spacing and developmental outcomes in early childhood (3–10 years of age). Studies examining the associations between interpregnancy intervals and child development outcomes during and beyond the perinatal period have not been systematically reviewed.

Research

People living with rare diseases (PLWRD) still face huge unmet needs, in part due to the fact that care systems are not sufficiently aligned with their needs and healthcare workforce (HWF) along their care pathways lacks competencies to efficiently tackle rare disease-specific challenges. Level of rare disease knowledge and awareness among the current and future HWF is insufficient.

Research

This study explored whether exposure to either an ‘ambiguous consumption’ prototype (no amount of alcohol specified) or a ‘small consumption’ prototype (‘small’ amount of alcohol specified) had an impact on prototype perceptions of, and willingness to use, small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy.

Research

Positive maternal mental health during the perinatal period contributes to general well-being and positive emotional bonds with the child, encouraging an optimal developmental trajectory. Online interventions to enhance maternal well-being and develop coping skills, such as meditation-based interventions, can be a low-cost way to improve mother and child outcomes.

Research

Natural Language Sampling (NLS) offers clear potential for communication and language assessment, where other data might be difficult to interpret. We leveraged existing primary data for 18-month-olds showing early signs of autism, to examine the reliability and concurrent construct validity of NLS-derived measures coded from video-of child language, parent linguistic input, and dyadic balance of communicative interaction-against standardised assessment scores. Using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software and coding conventions, masked coders achieved good-to-excellent inter-rater agreement across all measures.

Research

Children with rare diseases experience challenges at home and school and frequently require multi-disciplinary healthcare. We aimed to determine health service utilization by Australian children with rare diseases and barriers to accessing healthcare.

Research

To describe the implementation and outcomes of a combined individual placement and support (IPS) and vocational peer work program for young people with mental ill-health.

Research

Children recovering from severe malarial anaemia (SMA) remain at high risk of readmission and death after discharge from hospital. However, a recent trial found that post-discharge malaria chemoprevention (PDMC) with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine reduces this risk. We developed a mathematical model describing the daily incidence of uncomplicated and severe malaria requiring readmission among 0-5-year old children after hospitalised SMA.

Research

Osteoporosis is a chronic skeletal condition characterized by low bone mass and deteriorated microarchitecture of bone tissue and puts tens of millions of people at high risk of fractures. New therapeutic agents like i-bodies, a class of next-generation single-domain antibodies, are needed to overcome some limitations of conventional treatments.

Research

Current differentiation protocols have not been successful in reproducibly generating fully functional human beta cells in vitro, partly due to incomplete understanding of human pancreas development. Here, we present detailed transcriptomic analysis of the various cell types of the developing human pancreas, including their spatial gene patterns. We integrated single-cell RNA sequencing with spatial transcriptomics at multiple developmental time points and revealed distinct temporal-spatial gene cascades.