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News April - June 2009

Controversies in Public Health. Public Lecture Series

What are the current controversies in public health and what effect will they have on you and global health? The School of Public Health is holding a 2009 public lecture series Controversies in Public Health, spotlighting the world’s foremost controversies in the field.

Professor Les Irwig opens the series on 20 May with Testing to monitor chronic disease: less is more?
“Monitoring patients with chronic conditions - for example, high blood pressure or high cholesterol – is a common reason for repeat visits to health practitioners; yet there is little evidence about what monitoring should be done and how often,” said Professor Irwig. He will present new research which suggests that visits to monitor changes in some chronic conditions are too frequent and, besides wasting resources, may result in poorer health.

Subsequent lectures in the series will be held in July, August, September, October and November. Speakers include the Hon. Tony Abbott MP, Federal Minister for Warringah, Dr Rosemary Stanton OAM, Nutritionist, Dr Derek Yach, Senior Vice-President Global Health Policy, PepsiCo – just to name a few.

Registration for these lectures has now opened.

Attendance is free.

Registration and information about the lectures and speakers can be found here.

New study gets to the bottom of Stretching

23 June 2009

A new study that examined the effects of stretching has found that stretching does not reduce the overall risk of injury, but does reduce soreness and risk of injury to muscles, tendons and ligaments. The main purpose of ‘The Stretching Study’ was to determine whether stretching reduces the risk of injury and prevents soreness in people who participate recreationally in physical activity.

The main findings were that:

(a) Stretching does not reduce the overall risk of injury, but it does reduce the risk of specific types of injuries (injuries to muscles, ligaments and tendons).
(b) Stretching produces small reductions in the risk of muscle soreness. People who stretch have about 8% less chance of experiencing soreness in any one week than people who do not stretch. Another way of saying this is that stretching will prevent soreness in any one week in one in every 13 people who stretch.

People who exercise may want to know if these findings mean they should or should not stretch. The researchers (including Professor Alexandra Barratt and Erin Mathieu from the School of Public Health, University of Sydney) summarise the findings in this way: "If you like stretching, the findings of this study support the decision to stretch. However you should not expect large effects of stretching: stretching makes only a small difference to your risk of getting injured or becoming sore. If you do not like stretching you will need to weigh the small potential benefit of stretching (a small reduction in risk of being sore and a small reduction in risk of some injuries) against the effort and time it takes to stretch".

See paper and more details here.

Death by pizza

19 May 2009

A new analysis by staff at The George Institute for International Health has revealed that 94% of pizzas sold in Australia are overloaded with salt.

Just 3 slices of takeaway pizza can contain the entire daily salt intake for an adult, which is 4 grams per day.

Salt is a leading cause of high blood pressure, and high blood pressure causes more deaths than anything else. According to experts, it’s the hidden salt in many of our every day foods that causes this serious health risk.

The pizza with the highest sodium was Pizza Hut’s BBQ Meat Lovers, which provided 327% of an adult’s recommended daily amount of salt (13 grams). More than two thirds of takeaway pizzas contained double the daily recommended amount of salt for an adult and four takeaway pizzas contained as much as three times.

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Student Graduation

4 May 2009

More than 180 students from the School of Public Health graduated in a ceremony at The Great Hall in two ceremonies on 1 May. The ceremonies included students from all of the School's disciplines including Indigenous health. Twenty-seven students graduated from the School's Indigenous health programs; the largest single cohort of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander students to graduate from postgraduate courses at the University of Sydney.

The group also includes the first graduands of the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health (Substance Use), a program which specifically targets issues relating to the prevention and treatment of alcohol, tobacco and other drug problems.

Photos

Hard evidence for SIDS babies

23 April

Sydney researchers have provided the first hard evidence of the increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) caused by exposure to cigarette smoke.

By analysing the brain tissue of babies suspected of having died of SIDS, Dr Rita Machaalani and Dr Karen Waters from the Faculty of Medicine and the University's Bosch Institute have shown that cigarette smoke induces abnormalities in babies' brains, putting them at greater risk.

They specifically found that any exposure to secondary smoke, not just smoking by the mother during pregnancy, could lead to brain cell changes.

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Professor Jonathan Craig wins TJ Neale Award for Outstanding Contribution to Nephrological Science

Professor Jonathan Craig is the winner of the 2009 T J Neale Award for Outstanding Contribution to Nephrological Science The award is presented by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology.

This prestigious award is made in memory of Professor T J (Jim) Neale, an outstanding researcher and contributor to the society who died tragically at a relatively young age.

The award is presented to the candidate who is deemed to have contributed most to the emergence or furtherance of knowledge in a particular field of Nephrology. Preference is given to applicants who are within 12 years of embarking on their own research programme, and to applicants considered to have contributed most to Australian and/or New Zealand nephrology.

Congratulations Professor Craig!

Fair go for international students

by Professor Bruce Robinson

9 April 2009

The recent study by Access Economics detailing the vital importance of international students to the viability of tertiary institutions and the broader economy, confirms what anyone working in this country's education institutions knows well.

That is, international students make an enormous contribution.

Their fees are an essential source of revenue, without which we could not provide the quality and range of courses and programs we now offer. This is particularly so this year, as we strive to maintain programs when other sources of revenue have contracted.

Their contribution, though, is far greater than just financial. International students add a welcome diversity to our education institutions, and enrich the learning experience of Australian students.

The relationships forged between local and international students also form the basis of international connections that are likely to serve this country's interests well in the future.

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Rachael Morton wins prizes at Renal Society of Australasia Conference

2 April

Congratulations to Rachael Morton, PhD student at the School of Public Health, who won prizes for the best research paper and the best oral presentation at the Renal Society of Australasia conference last week in New Zealand for her two papers:

1. A national audit of information about treatment options given to new CKD patients - results from a pilot study. Morton RL, Howard K, Webster AC, Snelling P. RSA Conference, Rotorua, March 2009.

2. "I saw people on home HD and they looked better." The views of patients and carers in treatment decision making for chronic kidney disease. Morton RL, Tong A, Howard K, Snelling P, Webster AC. RSA Conference, Rotorua, March 2009.

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