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Research

Preterm birth (PTB) and stillbirth remain two of the most important causes of death, morbidity, and disability in childhood. Despite efforts to reduce PTB and stillbirth worldwide, rates of these adverse outcomes remain persistently elevated, independent of income setting. There is an urgent need for more effective interventions to reduce associated neonatal and early childhood morbidity and mortality.

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The growing global prevalence of autism spectrum disorder is associated with increasing costs for support services. Ascertaining the effects of a successful preemptive intervention for infants showing early behavioral signs of autism on human services budgets is highly policy relevant.

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Previous studies showed that unfavourable weather conditions discourage physical activity. However, it remains unclear whether unfavourable weather conditions have a differential impact on physical activity in children compared with adults.

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The Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ANZPID) Group of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) calls for urgent consideration of the needs and voices of children in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in planning for future pandemics.

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Children with congenital heart defects (CHDs) are at higher risk of developing an intellectual disability. However, severity of intellectual disabilities among this group of children are largely unknown. Our objective was to determine the risk of intellectual disability (ID), ID severity, and autism among children with CHDs.

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Annual estimates of seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness can guide global risk communication and vaccination strategies to mitigate influenza-associated illness. We aimed to evaluate vaccine effectiveness in countries using the 2023 southern hemisphere influenza vaccine formulation.

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Understanding hospital service use among children with a diagnosis of craniosynostosis is important to improve services and outcomes. This study aimed to describe population-level trends, patterns, and factors influencing hospitalizations for craniosynostosis in Western Australia.

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The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration approved the use of nirsevimab, a long-acting monoclonal antibody for the prevention of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), in November 2023. Western Australia (WA) implemented a combination of nirsevimab administration strategies designed to protect all infants starting in April 2024, before the epidemic season. We developed a dynamic transmission model to predict the impact of WA's RSV immunisation program on infant hospitalisations.

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Shortage of ear, nose, and throat specialists in public hospitals can result in delays in the detection and management of otitis media. This study introduced a new hospital-based telehealth service, named the Ear Portal, and investigated its role in improving access to specialist care.

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Understanding patterns of bacterial carriage and otitis media (OM) microbiology is crucial for assessing vaccine impact and informing policy. The microbiology of OM can vary with geography, time, and interventions like pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). We evaluated the microbiology of nasopharyngeal and middle ear effusions in children living in Western Australia, 11 years following the introduction of PCV13.

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Parents must rapidly adapt goals from various aspects of their lives to accommodate the demands of the early stages of parenthood. According to the self-concordance model, having autonomous goal motives (based on enjoyment or personal goal value) should foster effective self-regulation (e.g., coping strategies), better goal management, and increase the likelihood of goal attainment, compared to controlled motives (goals driven by demands/pressures).

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Physical sequelae related to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) are emerging and under-recognised global challenges. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to quantify the prevalence and the types of long-term physical sequelae associated with patients treated for MDR- and XDR-TB.

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Tuberculosis is the second most common infectious cause of death globally. Low TB case detection remains a major challenge to achieve the global End TB targets. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine whether training of health professionals and volunteers increase TB case detection.

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Although average contraceptive use has increased globally in recent decades, an estimated 222 million (26%) of women of child-bearing age worldwide face an unmet need for family planning-defined as a discrepancy between fertility preferences and contraception practice, or failing to translate desires to avoid pregnancy into preventative behaviours and practices.

News & Events

Enrolments for Australia’s first needle-free, gene-based COVID-19 vaccine study – to be led in WA by The Kids Research Institute Australia – are open.

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We investigated the suggestion that otitis-prone children have an impaired antibody response in the context of pneumococcal vaccination.

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We report vaccine efficacy against CIN3+ and adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) in the end-of-study analysis of PApilloma TRIal against Cancer In young Adults.

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Influenza is major cause of paediatric hospitalisation. Influenza vaccine was offered to all children aged 6-59 months resident in Western Australia in 2008

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Cervical cancer mortality has been reduced in Australia because of effective screening programs, but there are still about 800 new cases...