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An early childhood researcher based at The Kids Research Institute Australia’s Adelaide office has been honoured at South Australia’s Science Excellence and Innovation Awards for her work revealing the link between screen time exposure and toddlers’ language development.
Food environments are significant drivers of obesity and diet-related diseases, making them key targets for interventions that support healthier food choices. The role of Local Government Authorities is pivotal in shaping community food environments.
The abundant skin commensal, Staphylococcus epidermidis, is the leading cause of late-onset sepsis (LOS) in preterm infants but rarely causes infections in term infants and adults. Staphylococcal virulence mechanisms and the role of the preterm immune responses in driving these life-threatening infections remain poorly understood.
There are scant and variable data concerning the incidence of malaria in infants in endemic areas. This study evaluated the impact of maternal antimalarial treatment given postpartum on malaria incidence and growth/development in infants from coastal Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Physical activity is crucial for young children's health and development. Many young children do not meet the recommended 3 hours of daily physical activity, including 60 min of energetic play. Early childhood education and care (ECEC/childcare) is a key setting to intervene to improve children's physical activity. The Play Active programme is a scalable evidence-informed ECEC-specific physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies to improve educators' physical activity-related practices.
The neonatal skin is central to early survival and immune development. Far from being a passive mechanical barrier, it integrates physical, chemical, and microbial defences that together protect the infant in the immediate postnatal period. In preterm infants, structural immaturity, reduced antimicrobial capacity, and altered microbial colonisation confer heightened vulnerability to infection and inflammation.
The introduction of universal newborn hearing screening has allowed for early identification and diagnosis of children with severe-profound hearing loss. This study aims to provide the first Western Australian perspective on the surgical feasibility and safety of cochlear implantation before 12 months of age.
Early detection of cerebral palsy (CP) risk is possible from 12 weeks corrected gestational age (CGA) using standardised assessments; however, up to half of children at risk are not referred early, missing out on early intervention. We investigated the barriers and facilitators to accessing early intervention from the perspective of parents of children who did not receive services by 6 months CGA.
Early childhood wheeze is a major risk factor for asthma. However, not all children who wheeze will develop the disease. The airway epithelium has been shown to be involved in asthma pathogenesis. Despite this, the airway epithelium of children with acute wheeze remains poorly characterized.
Multi-omics in combination with advanced computational methodologies synthesizes diverse omics data to provide deeper insights into molecular interactions and offers transformative potential for unravelling phenomenon behind disease complexities, improving diagnostics, disease prevention, and personalized treatments. This integrative strategy enables our understanding of gene-environment relationships, chronic disease progression, and the intricate molecular pathways involved in health.