Learning health systems approach to optimise implementation of prevention programs
Status completed
Start Date
End Date
Poor nutrition, inadequate activity and obesity are the primary risk factors for the development of chronic disease. Reducing these risk factors in young children are the cornerstone of national strategies to reduce preventable deaths from chronic disease.
Childcare centres are a key setting for the delivery of population-wide interventions targeting nutrition and physical activity. This research project will assess barriers to selected high-impact and scalable childcare-based nutrition and physical activity prevention interventions.
About
Applying learning health systems methods in community-based prevention: using novel methods to understand dynamic barriers to implementation of chronic disease prevention programs
Project titleWhat is the issue?
Despite being recommended by state guidelines, national accreditation standards and supported by systematic review evidence, there is a considerable and longstanding gap between what interventions are recommended, and what childcare centres are implementing in Australia and internationally.
How will the project address the issue?
This project will describe population changes in dynamic barriers to the implementation of priority nutrition and physical activity interventions over time in NSW childcare centres. It will create a ‘living’ system to facilitate the rapid analysis of dynamic barriers data, and co-produce recommendations to address barriers and optimise implementation support.
What are the expected outcomes?
The generation of important proof-of-concept data on how to apply learning health systems methods to chronic disease prevention efforts, and the value of such systems from a prevention perspective will help co-develop practice guidance on the use of dynamic barriers assessment systems to inform implementation practice and scale up.
What is the relevance for policy and practice?
The outcomes from the project will offer guidance to address both a research and practice gap in prevention and will generate an important resource to build the capacity of future prevention researchers and practitioners.
This project will be supported by a collaboration of researchers and policy makers from the Prevention Centre, Hunter New England Local Health District, Hunter Medical Research Institute, NSW Centre for Population Health, University of Newcastle, University of Western Australia and Deakin University.
