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We explore the contemporary landscape of housing investments and initiatives seeking to improve health outcomes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, as well as the dearth of quality evidence and agreed approaches to evaluation.
Otitis media (OM) is the leading cause of childhood hearing loss but its burden in low-middle-income countries like Papua New Guinea (PNG) is poorly understood. We aimed to determine the proportion of children aged ≤15 years attending clinics in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, PNG with OM and associated risk factors.
One third of children require repeat ventilation tube insertion (VTI) for otitis media. Disease recurrence is associated with persistent middle ear bacterial biofilms. With demonstration that Dornase alfa (a DNase) disrupts middle ear effusion biofilms ex vivo, we identified potential for this as an anti-biofilm therapy to prevent repeat VTI. First, safety and tolerability needed to be measured.
Describe the ear and hearing outcomes in Aboriginal infants in an Australian urban area. Aboriginal infants enrolled in the Djaalinj Waakinj prospective cohort study had ear health screenings at ages 2-4, 6-8 and 12-18 months and audiological assessment at ∼12 months of age. Sociodemographic, environmental characteristics, otoscopy, otoacoustic emissions, tympanometry and visual reinforcement audiometry data were collected.
There is limited but consistent evidence that suggests prenatal factors, including maternal stress, may contribute to susceptibility for otitis media. We aimed to determine the effect of multiple life stress events during pregnancy on risk of acute and recurrent otitis media in offspring at three and five years of age.
Tamara Chris Valerie Veselinovic Brennan-Jones Swift BSc(Hons) MClinAud PhD PhD Clinical Research Fellow Head, Ear and Hearing Health Aboriginal
With cochlear implantation becoming increasingly performed worldwide, an understanding of the risk factors, preventive measures, and management of cochlear implant (CI) infection remains important given the significant morbidity and cost it conveys.
Honorary Emeritus Fellow
We investigated the suggestion that otitis-prone children have an impaired antibody response in the context of pneumococcal vaccination.
Reviewed in this article these studies have identified positive association at 21 genes with association at five of these replicated in independent populations.