UNICEF estimates that in the East Asia and Pacific region, 90 million children and adolescents are overweight or obese, including 11 million children under the age of five. Changes in retail food environments have contributed to this trend by increasing the availability, accessibility, and marketing of highly-processed, unhealthy foods.

UNICEF and the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition at Deakin University are collaborating to promote healthier retail food environments in the East Asia and Pacific Region and encourage healthy diets of children and their parents.

Beginning in 2021, impact to date includes:

• using new research to understand the way that retail food environments are changing in the East Asia/Pacific region, and what this means for the diets of children and their families;
• developing collaborations between UNICEF, governments in the region and other public health advocates committed to transforming retail food environments for improved population health;
• informing more than 27 large food retailers of the research, and actively working with ten so far across four countries to design and implement healthy food retail initiatives, making it the first of its kind in the region to support retailer actions in promoting healthy diets;
• giving UNICEF country offices a deeper understanding of how retail food environments impact consumer behaviours, and increasing their confidence in engaging with retailers to progress the agenda to tackle unhealthy food environments in the region; and paving the way for further transformation in the retail food sector.

Dr Tailane Scapin from Deakin University says: “We are just in the early stages of seeing the impact of this initiative. Long-term transformation requires commitment from a wide range of actors. One of the main things we would like to see going forward is more government involvement in this agenda. Having government offices setting clear policy regulations that will help to prioritise healthier foods in retail environments will be a significant step in the prevention of childhood obesity going forward.”

People living with diabetes not only deal with physical symptoms and possible complications such as cardiovascular disease; they also experience challenges relating to their emotional and mental health, such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders.

The LISTEN program, developed by the research team at the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (ACBRD) – a partnership between Diabetes Victoria and Deakin University, within the Institute for Health Transformation – was designed to address the mental health aspects of living with diabetes.

LISTEN stands for Low Intensity mental health Support via Telehealth Enabled Network, and provides a telehealth solution for integrated mental health and diabetes self-management support. A recent trial of the program highlighted the significant benefits of LISTEN for the emotional wellbeing and quality of life of people living with diabetes, as well as its potential benefits for Australia’s healthcare system. It found:

• LISTEN reduced diabetes distress in participants and led to greater improvements in their general emotional wellbeing and coping self-efficacy over the 6-month trial.
• LISTEN also provided broader benefits such as improvements in diabetes self-management, physical activity, healthy eating habits and health-related quality of life.
• Health economic analyses show that LISTEN is likely to be a cost-effective option for diabetes care.

Lead researcher, Dr Edith Holloway, said: “The LISTEN program has the potential to enhance the lives of more than 700,000 adults living with diabetes who are experiencing mental health challenges, including diabetes distress. Our goal is to ensure community-wide access to this important and practical telehealth program.”

A comprehensive study into osteoporosis, osteopenia, and related fractures in Australia has been released, showing an urgent need for enhanced government commitment to bone health.

Prepared by Deakin Health Economics, the report highlights the substantial burden of poor bone health on Australia’s healthcare system, and the high likelihood that it will increase with an ageing population unless prevention is prioritised.

Titled, Osteoporosis and fractures in Australia. A burden of disease analysis 2023-2033, the report found that by 2033, 7.7 million Australians aged 50 years and older are predicted to have osteoporosis and osteopenia—an increase of 23% from 2023 and 69% since 2012.

It also found that total cost of osteopenia and osteoporosis equated to $4.8 billion in 2023 and is estimated to climb to $8.3 billion per year by 2033.

“The key takeaway from the report is that poor bone health is common, costly, and preventable,” said research lead Dr Julie Abimanyi-Ochom.

The report outlines several key recommendations, including:

• Encouraging the inclusion of bone mineral density checks in regular General Practitioner health check-ups for high-risk groups.
• Targeting both men and women aged 50 years and older with low bone mineral density in fracture prevention awareness
• Increasing funding towards public awareness and education programs on osteoporosis and osteopenia prevention

As a result of the report, policy makers are already considering a subsidy for bone medications for people aged 50 and over (until now, the subsidies have been for people over 70). There has also been a shift in clinical focus from fracture management to fracture prevention.

In late 2019, Deakin Distinguished Professor Catherine Bennett first heard chatter in public health channels about an unusual illness circulating in Wuhan, China. Instantly, her epidemiologist radar went up.

Just a month before, she had fallen ill upon returning home from an international research trip, accompanied on the flight from Dubai by a very unwell-looking fellow passenger curled up on the seat behind her. A few days later, Catherine was diagnosed with pneumonia. A month later, the research collaborator she had been visiting in Denmark came to Australia via Dubai and he too was bedridden for a week with ‘some weird respiratory thing’.

Within a few short months, as the viral illness that became known as COVID-19 swept the world, she was a household name, sought by the media and acknowledged as a voice of reason for her calm provision of facts over opinion and reassurance for the public. She got used to being recognised in her local shops.

By 2024, she had written or featured in 45,000 media items in Australia alone, and many more around the world, including contributions to Science, Nature, The British Medical Journal, Forbes, The Economist, BBC, Associated Press, CNN, Bloomberg, Aljazeera, Europe Now, Inside Story and Reuters. At the height of the pandemic, she was conducting 20 or more interviews a day from her dining room or front garden, while worrying whether her morning live cross would pick up her audio over the background noise of the grocery delivery or rubbish collection.

With the intense focus on Catherine’s COVID-19 response work, including being invited by the Prime Minister to lead the health component of the Independent Inquiry into the Australian Government COVID-19 Response, it’s easy to forget she was already established as one of Australia’s leading epidemiologists, specialising in community transmission of infectious diseases. Her leadership as a Head of School between 2010 and 2019 built Deakin’s School of Health & Social Development into one of the most successful research schools at the University. By the end of her term, she helped Deakin to move into the top 100 Public Health universities globally for the first time.

A common debilitating experience for people with cancer is the fear of cancer returning or progressing. This fear can endure long after the patient has received treatment and been cleared of the disease.

To help improve the wellbeing of cancer patients and survivors, researchers at Deakin devised an online mindfulness program for people living with breast, bowel or prostate cancer. In 2020-2024, they conducted a randomised control trial of the nine-week MindOnLine program, which included weekly education videos and twice-daily mindfulness audios promoting mind awareness and emotion regulation.

The study found:

• People living with breast and bowel cancer had significant reductions in fear of cancer recurrence after using the mindfulness-based program, MindOnLine.
• People living in metropolitan and rural and remote areas all had a reduction in fear of cancer recurrence overall after using the program, however there was a larger improvement for those living in metropolitan areas.
• Online mindfulness programs are a viable way to deliver care to people living with breast, bowel or prostate cancer, and can significantly improve their wellbeing.
• MindOnLine has the potential to be scaled nationally and reach people living in rural and regional areas.

Project manager Natalie Winter said: “This project is exciting because it gives us the evidence of how interventions can be brief while still having a big impact on people’s wellbeing following life after cancer. Being able to support people beyond their treatment, where they do have less frequent interactions with the healthcare system, is important.”