Child Health CheckPoint
Research area: Population Health > Prevention Innovation | Status: Active

Welcome to Growing Up in Australia's Child Health CheckPoint
Overview
The aim of the project is to learn more about the health of young Australians as they pass through the ‘checkpoint’ between being children and teenagers. Its information will help researchers and policy-makers understand how a child’s first decade determines their health as they approach the teenage years.
Professor Melissa Wake: Child Health Checkpoint overview
Professor Melissa Wake provides an insight into the research findings and impacts of the MCRI's Child Health Checkpoint.
Because health issues can run in families, we also offered a health check to the child’s parent or guardian in the same session. We hope the data will help improve prevention and treatment of illness, and the promotion of health throughout society.
Growing Up in Australia’s younger children were invited to take part as the CheckPoint moved around Australia in 2015-16. The state-of-the-art health activities measure heart, lung, kidney and bone health, fitness, strength, vision, hearing, diet, activity and more.
The Child Health CheckPoint provides:
- The first national data on heart, lung and other aspects of health for Australian 11-12-year-olds and their parents
- Insights into how children make a healthy start to adolescence - drawing on all the study participants have told us over the last decade
- Vital information on how pre-teen health paves the way to adult health and illness
- We also hope the children enjoyed health activities and learning about their body.
Why a Child Health CheckPoint?
Over the last ten years, the families in Growing Up in Australia have told us so much about themselves and their child–right since he or she was a baby. These early years build the foundations of good health for life. We are lucky in Australia that most children are healthy. Unfortunately, Australian adults still have high rates of heart and lung disease, diabetes, and many other problems.
By 11-12 years of age, children already show wide variations in their health measurements. Just like height and weight, measures such as blood pressure, lung function and blood cholesterol also vary between children even when they are fit and well. These 'normal' differences can predict future adult health. So can children's existing health problems, like asthma, obesity, and poor vision.
The Child Health CheckPoint gathered detailed information on the health of Australian 11-12-year-old children and their parents. It added the data to the Growing Up in Australia dataset in early 2019, and we hope researchers and policymakers will use it for a wide range of research for many years to come.
Visit Growing Up in Australia website to learn more about the study.
Information for participants
Families
Who joined the CheckPoint?
From December 2014, the CheckPoint team sent an invitation and subsequently telephoned all families to ascertain interest and book an appointment. We were able to assess nearly 2000 child-parent pairs, which was about half of the families still participating in Growing Up in Australia's younger cohort ten years into the study. Families could choose which parent came along to the assessment, and 87% of our parent sample are mothers. In total, 1874 children and 1874 parents participated in this detailed cross-sectional biophysical assessment.
What did the study involve?
The CheckPoint provided a one-off physical health assessment to the 11-12 year olds children and one of their parents. As the CheckPoint moved around the country in 2015-16, children and parents were invited to attend the centre nearest to their home or have a home visit. We set the CheckPoint Assessment Centres up in 16 cities, and home visits conducted in 18 cities and towns. The geographical distribution of our sample mirrored the Australian population.
Most families (n=1356, 72%) attended a 3.5-hour appointment at a large Assessment Centre. They rotated through 17 stations in activities assessing their heart and lung health, fitness, strength, vision, diet, activity and more. Up to 25 children and their parents/guardians took part each day, arriving every 15-30 minutes. Mini-centres, operating in smaller regional cities comprised a slightly shorter 2.5-hour appointment with a subset of measures. Families who could not attend an assessment centre were offered a 1.5-hour home visit. At the end of the visit, we gave parents a snapshot summary of their and their child's health.
Participant information and consent booklet
The attending parents/caregivers provided written informed consent for themselves and their children to take part in the CheckPoint.
For Students
We have hosted a large amount of student projects with a broad range of topics within CheckPoint including:
- 12 PhDs
- 8 Masters
- 12 Honours
- 17 Postgraduate Medicine 6mo research project
- 50 summer/winter students and interns
Research team
Professor Wake has played a key role in designing the health aspects of Growing Up in Australia since its inception in 2002.
Investigator team members | Affiliations |
---|---|
Professor Melissa Wake Chief Investigator |
Murdoch Children's Research Institute |
Dr Susan Clifford Project team lead |
Murdoch Children's Research Institute |
Dr Peter Azzopardi Adolescent Health |
Burnett Institute Murdoch Children's Research Institute Royal Children's Hospital |
Prof Louise Baur Nutrition & Obesity |
Children's Hospital Westmead The University of Sydney |
Prof David Burgner Infection & Inflammation |
Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne Murdoch Children's Research Institute |
Prof John Carlin Biostatistics |
Murdoch Children's Research Institute The University of Melbourne |
A/Prof Michael Cheung Cardiology |
Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne Murdoch Children's Research Institute |
Prof Jonathon Craig Renal health |
The University of Sydney |
Prof Terry Dwyer Epidemiology |
The George Institute for Global Health Oxford University |
A/Prof Ben Edwards Family Studies, Child and Youth Development and Survey Methodology |
The Australian National University |
A/Prof Lisa Gold Health Economics |
Deakin University Murdoch Children's Research Institute |
Dr Jessica Kerr Nutrition & Obesity |
Murdoch Children's Research Institute The University of Melbourne |
Dr Fiona Mensah Biostatistics |
Murdoch Children's Research Institute The University of Melbourne |
Prof Tim Olds Fitness & Time Use |
The University of South Australia Murdoch Children's Research Institute |
Respiratory Medicine | Murdoch Children's Research Institute |
Prof Markus Juonala Cardiovascular Health |
University of Turku |
Prof Richard Saffery Epigenetics & Biobanking |
Murdoch Children's Research Institute The University of Melbourne |
A/Prof Justin O’Sullivan Genomics & Micronutrients |
The University of Auckland |
Prof Michael Sawyer Child Psychiatrist |
The University of Adelaide |
Dr Peter Simm Bone Endocrinology |
Murdoch Children's Research Institute Royal Children's Hospital |
Mr Luke Stevens Data Management |
Murdoch Children's Research Institute |
Prof Tien Wong Ophthalmology |
Singapore National Eye Centre National University of Singapore The University of Melbourne |
Prof Stephen Zubrick Public Health |
Telethon Kids Institute The University of Western Australia |
Dr Helen Rogers | Australian Government, Australian Bureau of Statistics |
Prof James Sharman Cardiovascular health |
The University of Tasma |
Supporters
Postdoctoral researchers, biostatisticians and operations team
Dr Susan Clifford
Project manager
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr Katherine Lange
Data Manager
Bioinformatician
Dr Kate Lycett
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr Jessica Kerr
Postdoctoral Researcher
Susie Ellul
Biostatistician
Anneke Grobler
Biostatistician
Alanna Gillespie
Research Assistant
Publications
You can subscribe and follow projects to be notified of new Child Health CheckPoint publications, via our ResearchGate.
Lycett KM, Wijayawickrama DJ, Liu M, Grobler A, Burgner DP, Baur LA, Liu R, et al. Does an inflammatory diet affect mental well-being in late childhood and mid-life? A cross-sectional study. Br J Nutr. 2021 May 17:1-9. DOI: 10.1017/S0007114521001616.
Stormon N, Clifford S, Lange K, Mangoyana C, Ford P, Wake M, Lalloo R. Oral health: epidemiology and concordance in Australian children and parents. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology. 2021; 00: 1– 10. DOI: 10.1111/cdoe.12662.
Andraos S, Jones B, Wall C, Thorstensen E, Kussmann M, Smith D-C, et al. Plasma B Vitamers: Population Epidemiology and Parent-Child Concordance in Children and Adults. Nutrients 2021, 13, 821. DOI: 10.3390/nu13030821.
Shearer NJ, Gillespie AN, Olds TS, Mensah FK, Edwards B, Fernando JW, et al. Insights into adolescent well-being from computerised analysis of written language. Acta Paediatr. 2021;00:1–10. DOI: 10.1111/apa.15813.
Kerr JA, Liu RS, Gasser CG, Mensah FK, Burgner D, Lycett K, et al. Diet quality trajectories and cardiovascular phenotypes/metabolic syndrome risk by 11–12 years. Int J Obes (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00800-x.
If you have an important question that you think CheckPoint could answer or would like to add your CheckPoint paper, please contact us.
Contact us
Child Health CheckPoint
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
The Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road
Parkville VIC 3052
Australia
Ph: +61 3 9936 6464
Email:
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