Highlights of the 2024 CRE EPOCH-Translate Annual Meeting

In the heart of Sydney, at the Charles Perkins Centre, a group of 20 dedicated researchers gathered on the 7th and 8th of May for the CRE EPOCH-Translate annual meeting. This year’s focus was twofold: enhancing stakeholder engagement and addressing the needs of priority populations in early childhood obesity prevention.

This blog post reflects on the essence of the discussions and the commitment of the researchers to make a difference in the lives of children at risk of obesity.

Day One: Forging Partnerships for Childhood Obesity Prevention

The first theme of the meeting, stakeholder engagement, was brought to life through a series of enlightening presentations.

Ms Elly Ganakas set the stage with an overview of the system related to early childhood obesity prevention, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for knowledge translation.

A/Prof Rachel Laws shared her valuable experience from scaling up the INFANT program in Victoria, detailing the nuances of engaging stakeholders effectively.

PhD candidates Eve House and Dimity Dutch provided insights into their experiences with primary healthcare professionals, particularly GPs, and the role they play in obesity prevention.

Dr Brittany Johnson and Dr Jessica Appleton discussed the perspectives of population health and maternal child health policymakers, emphasizing the importance of policy in shaping health outcomes.

Dr Konsita Kuswara and Dr Penny Love spoke about engaging stakeholders within early childhood education and care, a critical setting for early intervention.

Dr Vicki Brown and PhD candidate Heilok Cheng offered their views on engaging parents, the most influential stakeholders in a child’s early years.

Dr Brittany Johnson concluded the session with a report from the Language Framing Working Group, underscoring the impact of communication on stakeholder engagement.

Interactive discussions followed, where participants delved into strategies for engaging specific stakeholder groups, setting priorities, and overcoming barriers.

Day Two: Advancing research with priority population groups

The second day centered on priority populations, those who are more affected by childhood overweight and obesity such as families experiencing social disadvantages, indigenous populations, and those from diverse cultural and linguistic (CALD) backgrounds.

Ms Maral Jano, Health Promotion Officer from Sydney Local Health District, shared about the challenges and opportunities to promote child health among CALD populations, as well as insights on effective strategies for engagement and intervention.

Ms Veronica Graham, Senior Manager at Western Public Health Unit (VIC), discussed her experience in translating INFANT program resources into 6 community languages, focusing on organisational aspects such as workforce, funding, and implementation.

PhD candidate Danielle Jawad highlighted the co-design aspect of the Healthy Beginnings website work, illustrating the importance of involving the community in the development process.

Dr. Simone Sheriff shared her experiences in co-designing interventions with First Nations families, a powerful example of culturally sensitive and effective approaches.

The panel discussion highlighted the need to build upon existing relationships to reduce duplication and share resources across researchers and practitioners, as well as across jurisdictions. The group further discussed the need to focus on emerging minority groups as well as larger and more established community groups to prevent widening the health gap.

EPOCH-Translate research relevant to priority populations showed the higher cost-effectiveness of targeted interventions, the importance of understanding context and checking assumptions of intervention design, and opportunities for trials to assess the effectiveness of targeted interventions.

Researchers continued to discuss the implications of these learnings to advance research with priority groups in areas of co-design, implementation research, economic measures, and key demographic data to identify vulnerability.

Outcomes and Next Steps

The meeting concluded with a consensus on the need for continued collaboration and innovation in stakeholder engagement and intervention design for priority populations. The discussions and presentations not only provided a wealth of knowledge but also laid the groundwork for actionable strategies to prevent early childhood obesity and reduce related inequities.

As we move forward, the insights gained from this meeting will fuel our collective efforts to advance innovation and translation to promote healthy behaviours and prevent obesity among children aged under 5 years.

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