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.

• Participant Information and Consent Booklet2.10 MB.

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.

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.