One of the 12 key priorities that the New South Wales government has committed to is reducing overweight and obesity rates of children by five percent over 10 years. This project aims to estimate the costs associated with achieving this target.

Background End stage kidney disease (ESKD) occurs when kidney function has deteriorated to the point that dialysis or a kidney transplant is required to stay alive.  Research undertaken by the George Institute published in the Lancet in March 2015 shows that the burden of ESKD around the world is growing, and that most of the expected increase will be in low and middle income countries. Dialysis is a safe and effective treatment for ESKD, but it is expensive, well beyond the means of the average patient and their families.  For this reason, in wealthy countries the cost of dialysis treatment is borne by the health care system.  In India there is no national system for paying for dialysis, and in many cases patients and their families must bear the cost themselves.   Many countries maintain a national registry of the treatment of ESKD so that clinical outcomes can be measured, improvements over time tracked, and benchmarking across services in different regions and countries c

Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in up to 20% of patients treated in intensive care units (ICU). When severe, it requires renal replacement therapy (RRT) and is associated with high healthcare costs and a high mortality. Beyond the acute high mortality, survivors of AKI carry long-term greater risks of mortality, requirement for institutional care and the development of chronic and end stage kidney disease. There are currently no proven treatments that reduce the burden of morbidity or mortality with AKI. The acute delivery of RRT to critically ill patients with AKI is common practice; yet there have been controversies regarding the optimal delivery of RRT for these patients. A number of randomised clinical trials have examined the delivered dose/intensity of RRT, RRT modality and RRT clearance mode. However, characterisation of the optimal time to initiate RRT, in particular whether earlier initiation translates into improved clinical outcomes, remains uncertain, and is a clear priority for higher quality

BackgroundAn increasing number of elderly patients are reaching end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in developed countries including Australia. The outcomes for elderly patients entering dialysis programs are poorer than that of younger patients, with lower survival rates, significant impacts on quality of life and high burden of time spent in hospital. There is also a comparably large number of elderly patients with ESKD who do not enter onto dialysis programs, some of which are managed in combined palliative care/renal supportive care clinics and some of which are solely managed in primary care. An understanding about differences in survival and other important patient outcomes including quality of life, symptom burden and time spent in hospital is limited, due to a lack of high-quality prospective data. In turn, individualised decision-making about treatment pathways for elderly ESKD patients is challenging and highly variable. The ELDERLY Program consists of the 4 sub-studies: OUTLOOK, TIMELY, CONTE

Salt reduction lowers blood pressure and reduces cardiovascular disease including stroke, heart attack and heart failure. Research has shown that if people reduced their salt intake by 15% it could prevent 8.5 million cardiovascular deaths over 10 years in 23 developing countries and result in major cost savings. The UK has reduced salt by 15% from 2003 to 2011 due to a successful salt reduction program leading by Professor Graham MacGregor, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH). In 2005, WASH (World Action on Salt and Health) was initiated by Professor MacGregor, with a mission of reducing salt globally. WASH has helped many countries develop a salt reduction strategy. Reaching China China is the largest developing country with one fifth of the world’s population. Due to Chinese traditional cooking and dining habits, salt intake in China is very high and about 80% of the salt is added by the consumer to food. Hypertension and strokes which are often directly related to high salt intake are among

The global burden of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) has increased dramatically over the last 2 decades. Globally 2.5 million people receive dialysis for ESKD; however, outcomes for these patients are still poor. Therapies that improve outcomes in the dialysis population are urgently needed.Cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure, is the leading cause of death in dialysis patients. In the general population the use of mineralocorticoid antagonists, such as spironolactone, have been shown to reduce mortality and hospital admissions. However, this standard therapy is rarely used in patients with ESKD.The ACHIEVE study is a multicentre double-blinded randomised, controlled trial that examines the effect of spironolactone (an aldosterone antagonist) compared to placebo. It will determine whether Spironolactone decreases cardiovascular death and heart failure in dialysis patients. This is an international collaboration with the Population Health Research Institute (based in Canada). To date, 2,477 patie