$75 million funding supports Australian clinical trials and cohort studies

Dr Natalie Strobel, Kurongkurl Katitjin Senior Research Fellow, and Associate Professor Dan McAullay, Director of Aboriginal Research, from Edith Cowan University received a NHMRC Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies grant for their project titled ‘A primary care provider intervention to improve early child neurodevelopment in Urban Aboriginal children.’ (Credit: Edith Cowan University). 

In clinical trials and cohort studies, researchers work with participants to establish the evidence base required for better health treatments, policies, practices and outcomes.

This round of NHMRC’s Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Scheme is notable for the success of grants that will benefit health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Close to $23.5 million will fund studies to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, representing more than 24 per cent of the 33 studies funded.

Funding includes:

• More than $2.9 million to support a trial of primary care intervention in the first four weeks of life to improve developmental needs of urban Aboriginal children in their first year. The trial, led by Associate Professor Daniel McAullay at Edith Cowan University, will address Aboriginal children’s development by improving primary health care’s ability to deliver child development services. 
• More than $3 million to continue a large Indigenous adult cohort study to track oral Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection, monitor early throat cancer and estimate cost-effectiveness of extensive HPV vaccination coverage in culturally safe ways. The cohort study is led by Ms Joanne Hedges at the University of Adelaide and provides critical information to underpin management recommendations for Indigenous Australian health and wellbeing.
• More than $2.6 million to support ‘The Next Generation Aboriginal Youth Cohort Study’ led by Professor Sandra Eades at the University of Melbourne. In partnership with young people, their families and Aboriginal community organisations, the study will examine changes in key health outcomes and factors that affect connection to culture, health behaviour and social challenges.
• More than $3.7 million to support a cohort study of First Nations People from birth to 6 years to improve lung health outcomes. First Nations children have unacceptably high rates of lung disease which means poorer adult health. The study, led by Dr Danielle Wurzel at the University of Melbourne, will look at a range of these exposures and events and study them in detail to discover ways to help improve the lung health of First Nations children.
• More than $2.5 million to support a trial to test whether giving Aboriginal children aged 6-11 months an extra (booster) dose of rotavirus vaccine will give them better protection from rotavirus. This virus can cause severe diarrhoea in children, leading to hospitalisation. Aboriginal children in remote and rural parts of Australia are up to 20 times more likely to need hospitalisation with rotavirus than non-Indigenous children. The trial is led by Professor Thomas Snelling at the University of Sydney. 

NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso AO said the health and medical research sector greatly appreciated the contributions of all participants who take part in clinical trials and cohort studies.

“Clinical trials and cohort studies obviously depend on participants. Together with researchers, they make an enormous contribution to our understanding of the factors that determine our health and the development of new interventions and therapies,” she said.

“NHMRC is also committed to building research capacity and improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. So, the success of grants for research addressing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, including studies led by and involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health researchers, is particularly important.”