Obesity prevention

Current research

A dietary intervention to promote awareness of appropriate food portion sizes among older adults

VicHealth H2000 predictors study

Effect of cancer information, vegetable preparation guidance & tailored home vegetable delivery on family dietary practices

Framing dietary and physical activity messages to promote healthy body weight

Review of children's TV standards

Principal Investigator(s): Belinda Morley; Kaye Mehta (Flinders University)
Aims: To contribute to the design, analysis and reporting of a community survey of parents about food marketing to children.
Funding: Coalition on Food Advertising to Children (CFAC)
Contact: Belinda Morley at CBRC

A dietary intervention to promote awareness of appropriate food portion sizes among older adults

Principal Investigator(s): Helen Dixon, Maree Scully, Melanie Wakefield, David Hill
Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of a nutrition intervention that aims to: (1) inform older adults of dietary recommendations for all the food groups in an accessible and user-friendly form; (2) raise awareness of the importance of eating appropriate portion sizes; (3) teach older adults strategies for controlling their portion sizes through recognising what an appropriate serve looks like and ways of modifying the serve sizes they are preparing and serving. The main outcome measures to be assessed are the dietary knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of older adults.
Funding: NHMRC
Contact: Helen Dixon at CBRC

VicHealth H2000 predictors study

Principal Investigator(s): Graham Giles, Dallas English, Allison Hodge (Cancer Epidemiology Centre); David Hill; Helen Dixon
Aims: To discover what socio-demographic variables, psychometric indices, lifestyle factors, and health beliefs predict over time the:·

maintenance of optimal eating and physical activity patterns,·
improvement of sub-optimal eating and physical activity patterns;
adherence to poor eating and physical activity patterns;
extent to which changes in eating and physical activity patterns coincide in middle-aged Australians.

Funding: VicHealth
Contact: Helen Dixon at CBRC

Effect of cancer information, vegetable preparation guidance & tailored home vegetable delivery on family dietary practices

Principal Investigator(s): Helen Dixon, Robyn Mullins, Melanie Wakefield, David Hill
Aim(s): To determine whether changes in vegetable and fruit consumption, dietary knowledge, attitudes, perceived barriers, purchasing and preparation practices occur in response to:

disseminating personalised dietary feedback and information on the link between vegetable and fruit consumption and cancer prevention;
providing weekly recipes and menu plans;
providing people with fruit and vegetables in addition to dietary feedback, health information, weekly recipes and menu plans.

Funding: NHMRC - This project forms part of the ECHIDNAS Program Grant
Contact: Helen Dixon at CBRC

Framing dietary and physical activity messages to promote healthy body weight

Principal Investigator(s): Helen Dixon, Melanie Wakefield, Maree Scully, David Hill
Aims: The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of differently framed health communications in promoting healthy body weight-oriented attitudes, intentions and short-term behaviour changes in adults. Specifically, this study will explore whether focusing on:

(a) only portion size information,

(b) only energy balance information, or:

enhances people's knowledge of dietary recommendations, and the energy content of foods and energy burnt by activities; promotes more positive attitudes and intentions towards healthy eating and physical activity; and provokes short-term behaviour changes.
Funding: NHMRC - this project forms part of the ECHIDNAS Program Grant, a collaborative project between CBRC and CEC units.
Contact: Maree Scully at CBRC

Completed research

Experimental study assessing children's reactions to TV advertisements for healthy and unhealthy foods

Principal Investigator(s): Helen Dixon, Melanie Wakefield, Vicki White, David Crawford (Deakin University)
Aims: To assess the impact of varying combinations of TV advertisements for unhealthy and healthy foods on children's dietary knowledge, attitudes and intentions, in order to evaluate the potential of various regulatory approaches to children's food advertising to contribute to promoting healthy eating among Australian children.
Funding: The Financial Markets Foundation for Children
Contact: Helen Dixon at CBRC