School of Public Health and Interdisciplinary Studies

Permanent link for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10292/10764
The School of Public Health and Interdisciplinary Studies research institutes and centres play an important role in specialist teaching and research conducted by academic staff and postgraduate students. This places AUT students at the forefront of much of the ground-breaking research undertaken in New Zealand in the field of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Psychology, Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Public Health.

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 361
  • Item
    Short-Term Passive Greenspace Exposures Have Little Effect on Nasal Microbiomes: A Cross-Over Exposure Study of a Māori Cohort
    (Elsevier, 2024-03-28) Brame, Joel E; Warbrick, Isaac; Heke, Deborah; Liddicoat, Craig; Breed, Martin F
    Indigenous health interventions have emerged in New Zealand aimed at increasing people's interactions with and exposure to macro and microbial diversity. Urban greenspaces provide opportunities for people to gain such exposures. However, the dynamics and pathways of microbial transfer from natural environments onto a person remain poorly understood. Here, we analysed bacterial 16S rRNA amplicons in air samples (n = 7) and pre- and post-exposure nasal samples (n = 238) from 35 participants who had 30-min exposures in an outdoor park. The participants were organised into two groups: over eight days each group had two outdoor park exposures and two indoor office exposures, with a cross-over study design and washout days between exposure days. We investigated the effects of participant group, location (outdoor park vs. indoor office), and exposures (pre vs. post) on the nasal bacterial community composition and three key suspected health-associated bacterial indicators (alpha diversity, generic diversity of Gammaproteobacteria, and read abundances of butyrate-producing bacteria). The participants had distinct nasal bacterial communities, but these communities did not display notable shifts in composition following exposures. The community composition and key health bacterial indicators were stable throughout the trial period, with no clear or consistent effects of group, location, or exposure. We conclude that 30-min exposure periods to urban greenspaces are unlikely to create notable changes in the nasal microbiome of visitors, which contrasts with previous research. Our results suggest that longer exposures or activities that involves closer interaction with microbial rich ecological components (e.g., soil) are required for greenspace exposures to result in noteworthy changes in the nasal microbiome.
  • Item
    How Can Practitioners Support Citizen Volunteers in Disaster Risk Reduction? Insight From “Good and Ready” in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024-06-12) Le Dé, Loïc; Ronoh, Steve; Kyu, Ei Mon Thinn; Rive, Brigitte
    Global and national policy frameworks emphasize the importance of people’s participation and volunteers’ role in disaster risk reduction. While research has extensively focused on volunteers in disaster response and recovery, less attention has been paid on how organizations involved in disaster risk management can support volunteers in leading and coordinating community-based disaster risk reduction. In 2019, the New Zealand Red Cross piloted the Good and Ready initiative in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, with the objective to empower local people in resilience building with a focus on volunteers and community participation. This research examined the positive and negative outcomes of Good and Ready and investigated volunteers’ experiences in the disaster resilience initiative. It involved the codesign of a questionnaire-based survey using participatory methods with Good and Ready volunteers, the dissemination of the survey to gather volunteers’ viewpoints, and a focus group discussion with participatory activities with Red Cross volunteers. The findings highlight that a key challenge lies in finding a balance between a program that provides flexibility to address contextual issues and fosters communities’ ownership, versus a prescriptive and standardized approach that leaves little room for creativity and self-initiative. It pinpoints that supporting volunteers with technical training is critical but that soft skills training such as coordinating, communicating, or facilitating activities at the local level are needed. It concludes that the sustainability of Good and Ready requires understanding and meeting volunteers’ motivations and expectations and that enhancing partnerships with local emergency management agencies would strengthen the program.
  • Item
    Enhancing Child Protection Responses in Oral Health Practice: A Scoping Review of Evidence-Based Approaches
    (Wiley, 2024-10-31) Han, Heuiwon; Koziol‐McLain, Jane; Morse, Zac; Lees, Amanda B; Carrington, Samuel D
    Child abuse and neglect represent significant global health challenges with long‐lasting adverse impacts. Oral health practitioners, who often interact with children, play a key role in detecting and responding to suspected cases. Despite this, there is a notable gap in the systematic child protection measures in dental practices globally. This scoping review, utilising the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology, aims to outline current approaches for oral health practitioners and identify gaps in the approaches designed to enhance their responsiveness. Covering studies from January 2000 to May 2023, the review explored educational programmes, guidelines and interdisciplinary training modules. A comprehensive search across multiple databases, including MEDLINE, CINAHL and Scopus, along with grey literature sources, identified 1230 sources, resulting in the inclusion of 20 relevant sources. Findings highlight three main approaches: dental‐specific education programmes, practical guidelines for child protection responses and analysis of legal and professional obligations. These approaches demonstrate a mix of direct educational interventions and policy‐driven strategies aimed at enhancing oral health practitioners' knowledge, attitudes and practices towards child abuse and neglect. Given the identified variability and gaps in training and resources, future research should assess the effectiveness of these approaches and develop comprehensive, culturally safe training for oral health practitioners globally.
  • Item
    The Acute Effect of Heart Rate Monitor Projection on Exercise Effort in School Students
    (SAGE Publications, 2024-10-07) Cunningham-Rose, Rebecca; Garrett, Nick; Lonsdale, Chris; Harris, Nigel
    Heart rate (HR) monitoring during exercise represents a potentially useful strategy for teachers delivering physical education lessons. This study examined how projecting HR monitor data onto a screen acutely affected school students’ exercise intensity during a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session. Twenty students (12.3 ± 0.9 years, male = 8, female = 12) from one primary school volunteered to participate. Using a randomised crossover design within a 4-week period, participants completed four sessions of HIIT with HR projection and four sessions of HIIT with no ability to view HR. During the HR projection condition all participants viewed their HR on a class screen in real-time, with a changing colour according to HR level. Target intensity was 90% of age-predicted maximum HR. Peak HR and time above 90% HR (RED) were collected in all sessions. Student focus groups and teacher interviews were conducted to gain perceptions around the effects of the projection. Peak HR (p = 0.005, η2 effect size = 0.049) and RED (p = 0.000, η2 effect size = 0.083) were significantly greater during the projected condition. Qualitative data indicated that projection improved student motivation to reach the target, and ignited competition amongst peers to work harder. Projecting HR data onto a screen can increase the acute exercise intensity of school students during HIIT. HR projection therefore represents a useful strategy for the delivery of exercise sessions with an emphasis on intensity, within physical education classes.
  • Item
    Victim-Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence Who Are Forced to Participate in Crimes: Are They Treated Fairly in the Criminal Law?
    (LexisNexis, 2024-03-01) Smith, Rachel; Tolmie, Julia; Calderwood Norton, Jane; Wilson, Denise
    Research suggests that a portion of female offenders in Aotearoa New Zealand offend in response to intimate partner violence (IPV) victimisation. It is therefore critical to consider whether coercion because of IPV is adequately accommodated in the criminal justice response to such offending. In this article we examine the law on party liability and the defences of compulsion and duress of circumstances. We suggest that these defences are currently not capable of adequately recognising the coercive circumstances that can result in women offending or being held accountable for their violent male partner’s offending by means of the expansive doctrine of party liability. The current law therefore requires urgent reform.
Items in these collections are protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). These works may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use:
  • Any use you make of these works must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person.
  • Authors control the copyright of their works. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the work, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate.
  • You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the work.