Publication Blurbs
Dr Govinda Poudel colleagues published ‘Prognostic enrichment for early-stage Huntington’s disease: An explainable machine learning approach for clinical trial’ in NeuroImage: Clinical.
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The findings of this study highlight how an array of influences interact and can impact an adolescents choice to participate in active travel to and from school. Prof. Ester Cerin, along with Dr. Venurs Loh and colleagues published ‘Active travel, public transport and the built environment in youth: Interactions with perceived safety, distance to school, age and gender’ in Journal of Transport & Health. The built environment, gender, perceived safety, and age all interact and influence an adolescent’s choice of transport to and from school. The study found that distance to school and supportive built environment impact the choice of active travel, the safety of the environment also plays an important role.
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This study is the largest systematic review and meta-analysis regarding hypertension and HIV in sub-Saharan Africa to date.
Dr YihKai Chan and colleagues published ‘Hypertension among people living with human immunodeficiency virus in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis’ in Scientific Reports. The findings of this study suggest that ~1 in 5 individuals with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa have hypertension. These findings highlight the need to support efforts to integrate HIV and cardiovascular care into routine HIV care in sub-Saharan Africa to improve the health outcomes of patients.
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A whopping 26.5 million adolescents living in sub-Saharan Africa were estimated to have elevated blood pressure.
Dr YihKai Chan and colleagues published ‘Projected burden and distribution of elevated blood pressure levels and its consequence among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa’ in Journal of Global Health. Elevated blood pressure (BP), when untreated can lead to potentially fatal outcomes. These outcomes are more prominent in countries of Sub-Sahara Africa. Determining the number of adolescents impacted in sub-Saharan Africa could help prompt action into more proactive screening and treatment for elevated BP. This study used meta-analysis data to estimate the number of adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa living with BP.
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This study highlights the need for more research is needed to clarify the influence of air pollution on cognitive health.
Prof. Ester Cerin, along with Yu-Tzu Wu and colleagues published ‘The longitudinal associations between ambient air pollution exposure and dementia in the UK: results from the cognitive function and ageing study’ in BMC Public Health. The study did not find clear associations between air pollution and dementia, highlighting the need for future studies in order to clarify the complex influence of air pollution exposure on cognitive health.
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This publication was the first to come from the Impact of the Environment and Pollution on Cognitive Health (EPOCH) Research Project. The EPOCH Project aims to explore how built environments can support cognitive health and mitigate the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. The project uses data from several pre-existing studies in both Australia and the UK.
Read more about the EPOCH Project here.
Understanding the complex interrelationships of neighbourhood environments, socioeconomic status, and air pollution, is essential for informing targeted and effective policy changes.
Dr. Maria Soloveva and collegues published ‘Associations of neighbourhood attributes with depression in mid-age and older adults: the moderating role of traffic-related air pollution and neighbourhood socioeconomic status’ in Cities and Health. This study is the first to show that the relationship between commercial land use and depressive symptoms can be impacted by neighbourhood status and air pollution.
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Prof. Ester Cerin and her colleagues had a book chapter published in the Handbook of Quality of Life Research. Their chapter was titled ‘Assessing alternative air quality measures and their impact on quality of life: the case of Hong Kong. The chapter explores how deteriorating air quality is impacting livability and quality of life.
To conduct worldwide city comparisons or urban environment generalised methods are paramount.
Prof. Ester Cerin and colleagues previously published ‘A Generalized Framework for Measuring Pedestrian Accessibility around the World Using Open Data’ in Geographical Analysis in 2021. The study provides a generalised method to consistently meaure pedestrian accessibility. This can allow for both within and between city analysis. This data is open source and can be used in cities worldwide.
Geographical analysis has just listed this publication as one of their top 10 most cited publications! This achievement highlights the impact of their work within the community
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Living in denser neighbourhoods could be beneficial to mental health, but only when air pollution levels are low.
Prof. Ester Cerin and colleagues published ‘Cities and mental health: the role of the built environment, environmental and lifestyle factors in Barcelona’ in Environmental Pollution. The study investigates how built environment characteristics (population density, intersection density, green space, etc.) and related environmental exposures (road traffic noise, air pollution) and behaviours (walking) can impact participants mental health.
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New disease burden data for Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Dr. Yih-Kai Chan and colleagues published ‘Clinical to Population Prevalence of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Phenotype: Insights From the National Echo Database Australia’ in Heart, Lung and Circulation. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) can cause heart failure and premature death. Better identification of those living with HCM is needed to reduce the risk of these outcomes. This study aimed to estimate the number of Australians presenting with HCM each year and the prevalence data provided in this report suggests that HCM is not a rare disease. This information is particularly relevant as new treatment options for HCM are emerging that can target varying levels of HCM severity.
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New study underscores the need for more robust research on visibility graph use for fMRI data.
Dr. Govinda Poudel and colleagues published ‘Network Representation of fMRI Data Using Visibility Graphs: The Impact of Motion and Test-Retest Reliability’ in Neuroinformatics. fMRI is an imaging technique that shows areas of activity in the brain and Visibility graphs (VG) are an excellent approach for analysing time-series data. VG graphs for fMRI data will enable a more robust exploration of the complex relationships within the brain that are present in fMRI data. This study explored the reliability and reproducibility of VG of fMRI data and found that even small movement in fMRI data can influence their reliability.
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Family life satisfaction is an important contributor to the mental health of mothers.
Prof. Ester Cerin and colleagues published ‘Socioeconomic characteristics and domestic work as correlates of family satisfaction in Hong Kong mothers of young children’ in BMC Public Health. This new research explored how domestic work and socioeconomic status can impact family satisfaction in mothers. The study discovered that mothers with part-time employment and who participate in housework and child tutoring have the lowest levels of family satisfaction.
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People living in areas with lower area level socioeconomic status (ASES) are at higher risk of poor mental health, such as depression and insomnia, and have lower cognitive function.
Prof Ester Cerin and colleagues published ‘Lifestyle factors as mediators of area-level socioeconomic differentials in mental health and cognitive function: The Tromso Study’ published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. This study explored the associations between ASES with mental health and cognitive function and examined the mediating role of lifestyle behaviours.
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The presence of wall motion abnormalities (WMA) is associated with increased mortality, with inferior and apical WMA faring the worst overall.
Dr. Yih-Kai Chan and colleagues published ‘Pattern and Prognostic Impact of Regional Wall Motion Abnormalities in 255 697 Men and 236 641 Women Investigated with Echocardiography’ in the Journal of the American Heart Association. WMAs after myocardial infarction are associated with increased mortality in the short to medium term. This study explores short to long-term mortality associated with specific WMAs and the underlying prevalence, distributions, and characteristics of WMA on an age- and sex-specific basis.
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Understanding the impact that air pollutants and socioeconomic status have on the relationship between the built environment and cardiovascular health is an important step in reducing health disparities.
Prof. Ester Cerin and colleagues published ‘Associations of the neighbourhood built environment with cardiometabolic health indicators: A cross-sectional analysis of environmental moderators and behavioural mediators’ in Environmental Research. The purpose of this study was to improve the quality of evidence on the association between the built environment and CVD risk factors. The study includes air pollution levels and the socio-economic status of the neighbourhood, two research variables that are often not considered in similar studies.
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New-onset pulmonary hypertension is associated with an increased morality risk even among those with mildly elevated eRVSP.
Dr. Yih-Kai Chan and collegues published a “Incident pulmonary hypertension in 13 488 cases investigated with repeat echocardiography: a clinical cohort study.” in ERJ Open Research. Pulmonary hypertension, as indicated by elevated eRVSP, is common among older patients without left heart disease followed-up with echocardiography. This phenomenon is associated with an increased morality risk even among those with mildly elevated eRVSP.
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Accurately estimating annual average daily traffic (AADT) on minor roads is essential for assessing traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) exposure.
Dr. Miguel Alvardo-Molina and colleagues published ‘Improving traffic-related air pollution estimates by modelling minor road traffic volumes’ in Environmental Pollution. With traffic being a major contributor to air pollution, accurately assessing road traffic is critical to enhancing the accuracy of air pollution exposure assessments to improve public health outcomes. The study assessed the direct and indirect external validity of three methods used to estimate AADT on minor roads in Melbourne, Australia.
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Our neighbourhoods can have a conflicting impact on older adults quality of life.
Associate Prof. Anthony Barnett and collegues published ‘Associations of neighbourhood environmental attributes and socio-economic status with health-related quality of life in urban mid-aged and older adults: mediation by physical activity and sedentary behaviour’ in CITIES. The study explores how interrelated aspects of the built and natural environment can influence the lifestyle behaviours of older adults, and impact their quality of life. Results suggest that neighbourhood walkability features may influence older adults’ quality of life by promoting or hindering lifestyle behaviours that are beneficial or detrimental to our health.
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How we perceive our neighborhood can influence our lives more than we know.
Prof. Cerin and colleagues published “How the perceived neighbourhood environment influences active living in older dwellers of an Asian ultra-dense metropolis” in CITIES. Researchers found that those who perceived their neighbourhoods to be walkable with well-connected streets, aesthetically pleasing, and having good access to public sitting facilities were more likely to lead an active lifestyle. The study helps to highlight features of the neighbourhood environment that urban planners should aim to integrate into their designs to ensure older adults maintain a healthy lifestyle
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High prevalence of elevated blood pressure indicates need for better health programs.
Dr. Kai Chan with collaborators published “Elevated blood pressure among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and Meta-analysis” in The Lancet Global Health. This systematic review explored the prevalence of high blood pressure in adolescents aged 10-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study highlights the urgent need to improve preventative heart health programs across the region, with findings indicating ~1 in 10 adolescents had elevated blood pressure.
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Dr Govinda Poudel colleagues published ‘Conscious but not thinking—Mind‐blanks during visuomotor tracking: An fMRI study of endogenous attention lapses’ in Human Brain Mapping.
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