The George Institute for Global Health has joined over 55 health organisations in writing an open letter to the Prime Minister urging the Australian Government for stronger action on climate. “As health experts, we are extremely concerned about the effects climate change is having on human health” said Professor Christine Jenkins, Head of Respiratory at The George Institute. “We are particularly concerned about how changes in our climate can worsen the already alarming impact of non-communicable diseases in our community. The George Institute is proud to be coming together with our health sector colleagues to ask the Government to take immediate and strong action on climate for a healthier future.”

Read the letter here.

On 28th April 2021, the United Nations adopted a historic Resolution on Global Drowning Prevention, calling on countries around the world to recognise and take action to prevent hundreds of thousands of drowning deaths each year.

The Resolution was proposed by the Governments of Bangladesh and Ireland, and co-sponsored by 79 countries, including those of Australia and India. The George Institute for Global Health warmly welcomes the Resolution as a significant milestone that builds on many years of action to make drowning prevention a priority. The George Institute’s teams in Australia and India congratulate their governments for their support.

Dr Jagnoor Jagnoor, who leads The George Institute’s drowning prevention research, said:

“The importance of this Resolution lies in the far-reaching commitment of countries individually – and together – to share knowledge, experiences and best practices for reducing drowning deaths. It creates awareness of drowning as a forgotten and avoidable epidemic, and demonstrates how drowning prevention can enable progress on climate resilience, health equity and the Sustainable Development Goals."

There have been 2.5 million preventable deaths due to drowning during the past decade; more than 90% of them in low- and middle-income countries. Children and adolescents in rural areas are disproportionately affected, with many countries reporting drowning as the leading cause of childhood mortality.

The Resolution encourages countries to develop national drowning prevention plans and programming, in line with interventions recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and to ensure enactment and enforcement of water safety laws. Other actions include the promotion of public awareness and behaviour change campaigns; research and development of innovative drowning prevention tools and technology; and capacity-building through international cooperation.

To raise awareness of the importance of drowning prevention and the need for urgent, multi-sectoral action to improve water safety and reduce preventable deaths, the Resolution proclaims 25 July as UN World Drowning Prevention Day, to be marked annually.

The George Institute congratulates the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) for its role in bringing this resolution to fruition, and in supporting research into drowning in Asia and Africa. We also acknowledge the role of our collaborators and partners - the Child In Need Institute, India, the Hanoi School of Public Health, Vietnam, and the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh - for their contribution in generating robust evidence to inform drowning prevention strategies.

Emma Feeny, Director of Global Advocacy and Policy Engagement at The George Institute, said:

“This Resolution is the result of the unwavering commitment of the drowning prevention community, including advocates, researchers, civil society organisations and government champions, over many years. It is a stamp of recognition, as well as what we hope will be the dawn of strengthened national and international action to reduce lives lost to drowning globally, particularly in those regions where the burden remains greatest.”

This historic Resolution will be formally celebrated on the inaugural World Drowning Prevention Day on 25 July 2021. Please check our website for updates on how to join in activities to mark the day. You can read the Resolution in full here, and find out more about The George Institute’s work on drowning prevention here. 

Falls are a growing and under-recognised public health issue globally. Every year more than 684,000 people die as a result of a fall, the majority of them in low- and middle-income countries. An additional 172 million people are left with short- or long-term disability.

To address the huge global burden caused by falls, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new report, Step safely: Strategies for preventing and managing falls across the life-course. The report urges governments, health professionals and practitioners to take urgent action to implement the recommendations.

Contributors to Step safely from UNSW School of Population Health, and The George Institute for Global Health, welcomed the report as a global milestone to drive much-needed action, and called for countries to implement the recommendations so they can have a real impact on lives.

Co-editor of Step safely and co-author of the evidence synthesis that informed the report, Professor Rebecca Ivers, Head of the UNSW School of Population Health and Founding Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre (CC) for Injury Prevention and Trauma Care, said:

“Falls prevention is not something that can be tackled as a one-off health issue or in silos – it requires a life-course approach. Whether you are a child or an older person, no matter where you live, you have a right to the best chance of not being injured and having a healthy life. Step safely outlines an evidence-based path to this approach.” 

Step safely was developed in response to the need for evidence-based strategies to prevent and manage falls, and is suitable for practitioners, program managers and decision-makers whose portfolios may affect falls outcomes.

According to the WHO, globally, falls result in more years lived with disability than road traffic injury, poisoning, drowning and burns combined. Contributing factors to falls, such as ageing populations, increased urbanisation and sedentary lifestyles, mean that rates of fall-related injury are predicted to drastically rise in the coming decade.

Dr Margie Peden, Head of the Global Injury Program at The George Institute for Global Health, and Co-Director of the WHO CC for Injury Prevention and Trauma Care said:

“If we are to make progress towards the United Nations SDGs and improve health and reduce health inequity, then we need evidence-based global action to reduce the growing harm that results from falls. The WHO Step safely package is a ‘step’ in the right direction but needs to be supported by multi-country implementation studies to better understand context specific priorities and which of the recommendations will have the greatest impact.”

Step safely was launched on 27 April by the WHO at a special event with a panel discussion featuring leading global injury prevention experts.

Speaking at the event, expert panel member Dr Olive Kobusingye, Senior Research Fellow, Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda and Distinguished Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health, said:

“The lack of organised emergency medical service systems to respond to falls, and of rehab systems in both rural and urban settings, means that patients that suffer falls tend to slip through the cracks - we need to do more sensitisation within the healthcare system and communities so people that suffer falls can get the appropriate care. This includes implementing policies, laws and regulations to prevent falls – especially for safer urban housing and safer workplaces.”

Falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths worldwide, second only to road traffic injury.

Co-editor of Step safely and co-author of the evidence synthesis that informed the report, Melanie Andersen, Research Fellow at UNSW School of Population Health, presented the findings at the launch event.  She said:

“The burden of falls is not equitably distributed. Step safely is based on research evidence, though research is scant about preventing falls in some groups like those working in high risk occupations. Where this is the case, Step safely also takes a pragmatic approach to recommend best practice approaches.”

The report reflects the growing evidence and awareness that many falls are preventable and that prevention efforts are effective.

In 2016, the WHO commissioned researchers from the WHO CC for Injury Prevention and Trauma Care at The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW School of Population Health to conduct a review of high-quality global evidence on falls prevention. The Evidence Synthesis report, along with a global end-user survey and extensive input from global falls experts, formed the background to Step safely: strategies for preventing and managing falls across the life-course, to which the researchers were also major contributors. 

The George Institute for Global Health is a designated WHO Collaborating Centre for Injury Prevention and Trauma Care.

• View the full report, Step safely: strategies for preventing and managing falls across the life-course

• Find more information and the Evidence Synthesis here

Effectiveness of the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership: a qualitative study

A new paper led by Emalie Rosewarne, PhD candidate and research associate at The George Institute, finds that public health partnerships can achieve better outcomes than individual action. Emalie and her colleagues at the George Institute for Global Health, VicHealth and Heart Foundation, studied the effectiveness of the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership between 2014 and 2019. The Partnership, established in 2014, is a consortium of key organisations including VicHealth, The George Institute for Global Health, Heart Foundation, Deakin University Institute of Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.

“In response to a lack of Federal government action on salt, the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership was created to coordinate actions to reduce average salt intake by 1g per day in Victoria,” explains Emalie.   

Globally, salt reduction interventions have been identified as feasible, cost-effective approaches to reduce the non-communicable disease (NCD) burden. Currently, across the world, salt intake is double the recommended daily maximum amount of 5g per day. In 2017, diets high in salt resulted in almost 3.2 million deaths. To reduce the salt related NCD burden, in 2013, United Nations member states committed to a 30% reduction in population salt intake by 2025. Despite their commitment, many countries, including Australia, are still lagging short of achieving this.

In Victoria, salt intake was estimated at 8.9g/day in adults, with men and boys consuming higher amounts than women and girls. The Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership program comprised six main action areas, including four intervention arms:

1. consumer awareness campaign,
2. generate public debate,
3. food industry engagement
4. advocacy & policy strengthening,

and

5. A strong partnership
6. A research and evaluation component

How

As part of the Partnership evaluation, semi-structured stakeholder interviews were conducted with 21 key stakeholders in 2019. The objective was to understand stakeholder perspectives on how well the Partnership had done in delivering a complex, multi-faceted salt reduction intervention in Victoria in the five-year period.

“We wanted to understand how the Partnership functioned, the process of implementation, and internal and external factors affecting intervention design and delivery. We wanted to know how these factors influenced the intervention outcomes.”

What we found: Lessons for public health partnerships

Stakeholders were of the view that the Partnership was essential to intervention planning and decision-making, and it had delivered on capacity building and collaborative action. Perceived challenges were identified as well, including alignment of individual, organisational and Partnership values, and communication between strategic and implementation teams.

In conclusion, it was found that establishing a Partnership facilitated collaborative action, capacity building and execution of the salt reduction intervention. Partnership members viewed their diversity as a strength. The Partnership brought together skills and expertise in diverse areas such as communications, campaign management, public health interventions, disease prevention and treatment, advocacy and research. By working together, an effective and diverse partnership can achieve better outcomes than any individual or organisation can alone by sharing knowledge and skills.

“What we learnt from this partnership is relevant for all public health partnerships. Effective partnerships consist of members with diverse skills and experience. They have clear allocation of Partner roles and responsibilities and strong communication frameworks to facilitate collaborative action and capacity building. They have logical, strategic plans that are supported by robust monitoring and evaluation procedures to determine how the partnership is performing and how intervention delivery is going throughout the intervention to establish if any modifications are needed.”