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Research

Epigenetic Science and Indigenous health: Key Issues and Considerations for Future Research

Environmental epigenetics is a fast-growing field of scientific research attracting interest from key stakeholders in Indigenous health internationally, including researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and advocacy organisations. It is the study of how various external factors, including food, stress, and toxins, alter genetic expression, and could be biologically passed down to children (and potentially grandchildren). 

Research

The effectiveness of community friendship groups on participant social and mental health: a meta-analysis

Social disconnectedness and isolation are risk factors for poor mental health. Community-based friendship group interventions have been designed to increase an individual's social capital and consequently their mental wellbeing. Structured and unstructured friendship groups reflect two distinct approaches to friendship group interventions.

Research

HipHop2SToP a community-led health promotion initiative empowering Aboriginal youth in the Kimberley region of Western Australia: a process evaluation

For millennia, Aboriginal people's ways of knowing, doing and being were shared through art, song, and dance. Colonisation silenced these ways, affecting loss of self-determination for Aboriginal people. Over the past decade in Australia, hip-hop projects have become culturally appropriate approaches for health promotion. 

Research

Time-out for well-being: A mixed methods evaluation of attitudes and likelihood to engage in different types of online emotional well-being programmes in the perinatal period

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.

Atypical Presentations

We investigated the factors that may affect the age at diagnosis for girls and woman with Rett syndrome.

Large deletions of the MECP2 gene

We used multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification to examine the MECP2 gene sequences in 149 girls and 1 boy.

Sleep problems in Rett syndrome

Using information from the Australian Rett Syndrome study, we examined the frequency of a range of sleep issues and variation by agegroup or gene abnormalities.

Bone mineral content and density in Rett syndrome

We wanted to assess bone mineral content and bone mass density in girls and women in our Australian study, and whether specific factors had any influence.

Predictors of scoliosis in Rett syndrome

Using information provided by the Rett study, we looked at relationships of early development, genetic characteristics and the development of scoliosis.