SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND TROPICAL MEDICINE
Public Health and Tropical Medicine
Research interests are in health and medicine in the tropics with particular interest in public health, especially in tropical Australia and its near neighbours. The present research interests are as follows.
Indigenous Health
Attitudes and knowledge of health problems;Indigenous health workforce development and education;
Implementation and evaluation of computerised health information systems in indigenous communities;
Inequalities in health between indigenous and Caucasian Australians;
Promoting immunisation among Indigenous Australians;
Effective strategies for the diagnosis, management and control of scabies in indigenous communities;
Control of diabetes;
Breast cancer in indigenous women;
Maternal health;
Men’s health;
Training and workforce roles of primary health care workers;
Indigenous health training for the health professions;
Technology application to health worker roles;
Chronic diseases in Indigenous communities.
Public health
Screening and surveillance informatics;Evaluation and quality improvement in ambulatory care;
Nutrition knowledge of adolescents and post-partum women;
Nutritional education of adolescents;
Body image and food and weight related behaviour of adolescents;
Nutritional aspects of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in indigenous communities;
Changes in CVD risk factors of patients following coronary artery bypass graft surgery and angioplasty;
Occupational health and safety;
Public health workforce development;
Public health training in the health professions;
Injury epidemiology (identification of risk groups, development of intervention strategies, implementation of the ‘safe community’ approach);
Multidisciplinary treatment of chronic spinal pain syndromes;
Evaluation of new laboratory markers for acute coronary syndromes;
Neonatal medicine (intensive care, feeding regimens, NEC, phototherapy);
Perinatal dysphoria (intervention strategies, comparison of measurement instruments);
Veterinary public health;
Information technology strategies for public health education.
Current research projects of the Skin Cancer Research Group include:
Monitoring ambient solar UV radiation;
Modelling solar UV radiation and modelling incidence rates of skin cancer;
Personal sun exposure studies in students;
Shade audits;
Prevalence and incidence of melanocytic nevi (moles) in cohorts of children;
Incidence of skin cancer in Queensland;
Intervention studies in young children to prevent nevi;
A multidisciplinary longitudinal study of health and economic development in two contrasting Papua New Guinea communities since 1982;
Needs, assessment and intervention studies in susceptible men to prevent further skin cancer;
Studies of the role of General Practitioners in early detection and management of skin cancer.
Tropical Medicine
Prevention and treatment of filariasis and malaria;Immunological aspects of filariasis and malaria;
Vector control programs for filariasis, dengue and malaria;
Predator-host relations and biological control of Culex annulirostris;
Strongyloides in Vietnam veterans;
Risk factors and control strategies for scabies;
Strategies to control head lice;
Pyrethroid resistance in head lice, scabies mites and Aedes aegypti;
Epidemiology of leprosy;
Control program policy determinants;
Epidemiology of Lyssavirus;
Epidemiology of Salmonellosis;
Zoonotic hookworm infection in the tropics;
Zoonotic diseases in dogs;
Travel medicine;
Health in the South Pacific;
Longitudinal multidisciplinary health research in two Papua New Guinea communities.
Rural and Remote Health Care
Workforce development;Public health training for the rural and remote workforce;
Information systems in rural and remote health care;
Management of rural and remote multi-purpose health services.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy workforce
issues in North Queensland;
Appropriate therapy service delivery models
for indigenous Australian communities;
Paediatrics within indigenous populations;
Therapy and technologies for children with
disabilities;
Assessment techniques for technology prescription
for people with severe disabilities;
Delivery of accessible tertiary education to
those with disabilities;
Health professional’s knowledge of the skills and
capabilities of occupational therapists.
Institute of Sport and Exercise Science (ISES)
The ISES research focus is on
exercise and health in the tropics. Current projects include:
Exercise and obesity in postmenopausal women
resident in the tropics;
Effect of an exercise intervention program
on NIDDM/hypertension management in Indigenous subjects;
Health beliefs of regular walkers resident
in the tropics;
Biomechanical and physiological correlates
of outrigger canoeing performance;
Core stability development using fit ball
exercises;
Cardiovascular and neural changes associated with exercise
in hot and humid conditions;
Cardiovascular recording protocols;
Cardiovascular and muscular adaptations to EHEA supplementation;
Speed strength performance variables in football;
Motivational characteristics of sport officials;
Motivational characteristics of young athletes;
Predictors of chronic exercise in the amelioration of
intermittent claudication;
The role of the exercise scientist as an allied health professional
in rural/remote regions.