Ms Eve House, PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney and EPOCH-Translate ECR, highlights the work of EPOCH-Translate members at the recent ESA-SRB-ANZOS 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting.

The joint conference of the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society, Endocrine Society of Australia, and Society for Reproductive Biology was held in Perth, Western Australia, from the 19^th to 22^nd of October 2025. The conference had a strong focus on paediatric obesity prevention and management, beginning with a Paediatric Masterclass featuring speakers from around the country and internationally who shared their experiences of establishing and sustaining paediatric obesity services and prevention programs. ANZOS continues to ensure that lived experience voices are central in conference programming and it was extremely valuable to hear from several members of the Weight Issues Network throughout the conference.

The first plenary of the conference was presented by Associate Professor Mona Sharifi from the Yale School of Medicine. A/Prof Sharifi shared her teams’ experiences of implementing childhood obesity interventions into paediatric primary care settings in the United States of America.

The work of EPOCH-Translate members was on display throughout the conference:

• The Early Career Researcher Public Health Abstract Award Finalist Session featured presentations from two EPOCH-Translate members – Dr Kylie Hunter and Ms Eve House. Eve shared the findings from the pilot evaluation of the Connecting the Dots primary health professional education program. Kylie presented the results from the landmark TOPCHILD systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis, and received the ECR award, congratulations Kylie!
• Professor Louise Baur opened a cross-cutting symposium, focussed on the Lancet Commission definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity, and the implications of the diagnostic criteria for practice, policy, and research.
• Professor Alison Hayes presented the findings of two recent studies – the first examining the association between health related quality of life and weight status in childhood and adolescence; and the second examining the differential cost-effectiveness of the Communicating Healthy Beginnings Advice by Telephone extension study depending on socioeconomic status.
• Ms Michelle Tran shared a poster focussed on the association between childcare arrangements and weight status in preschoolers

The final concurrent public health session of the conference focussed on implementation science and outlined important considerations for translating and sustaining obesity prevention interventions as part of routine practice. This was a fitting close to the public health program, with the conference offering important learnings regarding the need to design research with implementation in mind to work towards real-world impact.

(From left): Ms Michelle Tran, Professor Louise Baur, Professor Alison Hayes, Dr Kylie Hunter, Ms Eve House