Prevention Innovation
Our vision is that the pace, scope and versatility of children’s population research steps up to understand “how healthy development happens, how it can be derailed and what societies can do to keep it on track”.
We seek faster solutions to today’s ‘wicked’ childhood problems, such as obesity, language and learning problems and mental health issues. We seek better health and wellbeing, both for our children now and for the older adults, they will become.
We innovate via:
- Flexible, multi-use platforms that span cell to society and conception to grave
- Methods to precisely measure multiple health domains within the same population study
- Bringing rigorous trials and observational research together in the same platforms
- Making our datasets available for all researchers.
We are closely linked with the Generation Victoria (GenV) initiative and the Policy and Equity and Health Services groups.
Our projects
About the Child Health CheckPoint
This national study is the cross-generational biophysical module for the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). In 2015-16, it measured multiple health domains relevant to diseases of ageing in nearly 2000 parent-child pairs when the children were aged 11-12 years old. Its first data release in May 2018 is available now linked to the LSAC dataset. The biological and digital repositories are held at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. We welcome enquiries regarding further data derivation and use.
Growth and metabolic risk in the first decade
Obesity affects one in four children and is strongly implicated in adult “diseases of ageing”, especially heart disease and diabetes. Using the novel CheckPoint data, we are exploring which early growth patterns (measured biennially in Growing Up in Australia) are most damaging to adolescent cardiometabolic health (lipids/inflammation). Ultimately, we hope that better prediction will avoid unnecessary intervention, while targeting research and treatment to those children with most to gain.
GENO
The New Zealand-Australia Collaboration on Genes, Environment, Nutrition & Obesity: Good nutrition begins in early life and lies at the heart of health. Yet Australia and New Zealand face a crisis of overnutrition and malnutrition: too much of the wrong foods, with resulting epidemics of obesity and inflammatory diseases of ageing. This systems biology partnership with the Liggins Institute (the University of Auckland) is building population micronutrient platforms and leading discovery in networks between genes, environment, molecular physiology and health across early- and mid-life.
VicCHILD: The Victorian Childhood Hearing Impairment Longitudinal Databank
VicCHILD is a research databank to support advances in prediction, treatments, prevention (and perhaps even reversal) for childhood hearing loss. It is continuously open to all children born with hearing loss in Victoria, in partnership with the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program. With >1,100 participants as of 2021, it provides an ever-growing base of biological, psychosocial, clinical and service information across the life course.
ANCHOR - Australian National Child Hearing health Outcomes Registry
Building on newborn hearing screening success: towards national standards & data management.
CHAMP consensus guidelines on managing childhood hearing loss
The Childhood Hearing Australasian Medical Professionals (CHAMP) network is a group of paediatricians, otolaryngologists, geneticists and neurologists who care for children with hearing loss in Australasia. Establishing national consensus guidelines to help clinicians manage these children optimally is CHAMP’s priority. The CHAMP guidelines have been translated into resources for parents and audiologists.
Early Awareness and Recognition of congenital CytoMegaloVirus
Children born with congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) can be faced with issues such as hearing loss and cerebral palsy. Our research study explores parents’ experiences of their child’s diagnosis of congenital CMV.
HearS-cCMV: Hearing Screening for congenital CytoMegaloVirus (cCMV) project
Congenital CMV (cCMV) is the most common infectious and potentially preventable cause of hearing loss and neurodisability, such as cerebral palsy. HearS-cCMV was a pilot targeted cCMV screening program demonstrating early saliva screening in newborns to be feasible and acceptable. HearS-cCMV is a collaborative project with the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP), the Royal Women’s Hospital, the Mercy Hospital for Women, Monash Medical Centre and Sunshine’s Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital. In 2023/4, HearS-cCMV will, in partnership with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Resarch (WEHI), test a rapid point-of-care saliva test using CRISPR technology.
GenV-cCMV project
Congenital CMV (cCMV) is the most common infectious and potentially preventable cause of hearing loss and neurodisability such as cerebral palsy. The GenV-cCMV project aims to find out the statewide population prevalence of cCMV to determine whether universal cCMV screening should occur in Australia. The GenV-cCMV project will collect and test saliva samples from approximately 110,000 newborns born in Victoria who are part of GenV. The project is a partnership with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Resarch (WEHI).
Victorian Congenital CMV Register
Congenital CMV (cCMV) is the most common infectious and potentially preventable cause of hearing loss and neurodisability, such as cerebral palsy. The MCRI/RCH is partnering with the Australasian Congenital CMV Register, funded by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, to create a Victorian register for children born with CMV. This helps to collect national information about outcomes of early diagnosis and potential treatment.
Mild Matters
Hearing aids help babies with moderate-to-severe hearing loss, but the benefits are less clear cut for babies with mild losses. Mild Matters has shown that clinical management and decision-making around hearing aid fitting for babies with mild hearing loss are challenging and burdensome for families. The Mild Matters trial, a collaborative study with the National Acoustic Laboratories, Hearing Australia and the University of Melbourne, could not determine how much early hearing aids help babies with mild hearing loss. The research team is now looking at other ways to improve early clinical management of mild hearing loss.
Hearing screening for newborns of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families
The Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program delivers hearing screening to >99.5% of newborns in Victoria. This project aims to understand the challenges and barriers faced by culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families whose newborns do not pass their hearing screening. It aims to understand the experiences of CALD families whose newborns are referred for formal hearing testing.
Early uptake and use of sign language
Universal newborn hearing screening enables early detection of hearing loss and early referral to speech and language therapy, including sign language. However, data from the Victorian Childhood Hearing Impairment Longitudinal Databank shows only a tiny proportion of families use sign to communicate with children with hearing loss. This project aims to explore the factors influencing parental use of sign language to communicate with their children with hearing loss. It is a collaborative project with the University of Melbourne.
CHIC Clinic RCH Portal Project
The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Caring for Hearing Impaired Children (CHIC) Clinic offers paediatric medical and developmental care to children with permanent hearing loss. Families complete a questionnaire before the first appointment to report on basic information about the child and family. This helps the clinic doctors to focus on what matters most to families during the appointment. The RCH Portal is a website and mobile app that gives RCH families access to information in the RCH medical record. This project pilots the use of the RCH Portal to help families fill in the pre-clinic CHIC questionnaire hoping to streamline processes and improving patient experience, as well as facilitating research through routine clinical care.
What research questions matter most to families of deaf and hard of hearing children?
Child hearing research projects are designed to find answers and solutions to important issues for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Understanding what research questions matter most to parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing children is important in deciding what research should be done. Our project involves families of deaf and hard-of-hearing children in shaping our research agenda. It is a collaborative project with Deaf Children Australia.
The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC, Growing Up in Australia)
Designed to examine “the impact of Australia’s unique social, economic and cultural environment on the next generation”, LSAC is Australia’s largest and only nationally representative children’s longitudinal study. Since 2004, it has collected eight biennial waves of social, economic, and physical health data. The dataset is accessible to all researchers, linked with health, education and social datasets and (as of 2018) the MCRI’s Child Health Checkpoint. Melissa Wake has been its Health Design Leader since inception.
Provision of an information video prior to an infant’s diagnostic audiological assessment: a randomised controlled trial.
Through a randomised controlled trial, this study aims to assess if, besides usual care, providing information about infant audiological assessment to parents/caregivers of newborns via a pre-appointment information video impacts parent/caregiver anxiety, parent/caregiver knowledge and understanding about the diagnostic process, and the number of newborn diagnostic audiology appointments required to reach a diagnosis.
The journey toward Universal Newborn Hearing Screening in Victoria, Australia
This project will describe the establishment and evolution of infant hearing screening in Victoria over the last three decades. It will involve interviews with clinicians, researchers and academics who have been involved in the program over that time. This project will describe the steps, processes, setbacks and triumphs along the journey of this important public health initiative. It will also describe the evolution of the Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP) from the two-tier neonatal risk factor referral and behavioural screening program implemented in 1992 to the universal state-wide screening program of today.
Is there an association between hearing loss and SARS-CoV-2 infection?
Many viruses have been implicated in the pathogenesis of both congenital and acquired hearing loss (HL). This study aimed to explore the association between SARS-CoV-2 and HL in adults and neonates via a narrative review of existing literature. Results to date suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may be associated with HL. However, more high quality large prospective cohort studies are required to better establish and explore this association.
Funding
- National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
- NZ Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE)
- National Centre for Longitudinal Studies
- Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation
- Cure Kids New Zealand
- Foundation for Children
- The Royal Children's Hospital Foundation
- Mercy Hospital for Women
- Healthy Hearing, Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service
- Deaf Children Australia
Collaborations
- Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
- Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), University of South Australia
- National Centre for Longitudinal Data, Australian Department of Social Services: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children Consortium Advisory Group
- Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Department of Paediatrics, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI)
- Hearing Australia / National Acoustic Laboratories
- Healthy Hearing, Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service
- Cerebral Palsy Alliance
Featured publications
- Webb E, Gillespie AN, Poulakis Z, Gartland T, Buttery J, Casalaz D, Daley AJ, Donath S, Gwee A, Jacobs SE, Phuong LK, Pszczola R, Purcell R, Saunders K, Kadambari S, Jones CA, Sung V. Feasibility and acceptability of targeted salivary cytomegalovirus screening through universal newborn hearing screening. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.15705
- Lin JJ, Gillam L, Smith L, Carew P, King A, Ching TYC, Sung V. Mild Matters: Parental Insights Into The Conundrums of Managing mild Congenital Hearing Loss. Accepted July 2021 International Journal of Audiology 2021 DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2021.1954248
- Ching, TYC, Saetre-Turner M, Marnane V, Scarinci NA, Chiok C, Tulloch K, Sung V. Audiologists’ perspectives on management of mild bilateral hearing loss in young children. International Journal of Audiology 2021 DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2021.1961170
- Sung V, Williams K, Perlow E, Hu, YJ, Ahern, S, Said, JM, Karanatsios, B, Hopper, JL, McNeil, JJ, Donnan, L, Goldfeld, S, Wake, M. Enhancing value and uptake for whole-population cohorts of children and parents: Methods to integrate registries into the Generation Victoria cohort. Children 2021,8,285. https://doi.org/10.3390/children8040285
- Wang J, Quach J, Sung V, Carew P, Wake M. Ear infection trajectories and academic, behavioral and quality-of-life outcomes: A population-based longitudinal study. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics. March 23, 2021 - Volume Publish Ahead of Print - Issue -doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000931
- Downie L, Halliday J, Burt R, Lunke S, Lynch E, Martyn M, Poulakis Z, Gaff C, Sung V, Wake M, Hunter M, Saunders K, Rose E, Lewis S, Jarmolowicz A, Phelan D, Rehm HL, Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, Amor DJ. Exome sequencing in infants with congenital hearing impairment: a population based cohort study. European Journal of Human Genetics 2019. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-019-0553-8
- Wang J, Liu M, Sung V, Lycett K, Grobler A, Burgner D, Wong TY, Wake M. Associations of retinal vessel calibre and hearing status in childhood and in mid-life: Cross-generational population-based study. JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery 2020. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2019.4484
- Sung V, Smith L, Poulakis Z, Burt RA, Carew P, Tobin S, Wake M. Data Resource Profile: Victorian Childhood Hearing Impairment Longitudinal Databank (VicCHILD). International Journal of Epidemiology 2019, dyz168, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz168
- Sung V, Downie L, Paxton G, Liddle K, Birman C, Chan W, Cottier C, Harris A, Hunter M, Peadon E, Peacock K, Roddick L, Rose E, Saunders K, Amor DJ. Childhood Hearing Australasian Medical Professionals (CHAMP) network: consensus guidelines on investigation and clinical management of childhood hearing loss. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 2019, 55: 1013-1022. doi:10.1111/jpc.14508
- Wang J, Quach J, Sung V, Carew P, Edwards B, Grobler A, Gold L, Wake M. Academic, behavioural and quality of life outcomes of slight to mild hearing loss in late childhood: A population-based study. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2019 Nov;104(11):1056-1063. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2019-316917. Epub 2019 May 11. PMID: 31079073.
- Wang J, Sung V, Carew P, Liu RS, Burgner D, Wake M. Inflammation and hearing status in mid-childhood and mid-life: A population-based cross-sectional study. International Journal of Epidemiology 2019, dyz023, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz023
- Wang J, Sung V, Carew P, Burt RA, Liu M, Wang Y, Afandi A, Wake M. Prevalence of childhood hearing loss and secular trends: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Academic Pediatrics. 2019; 19(5):504-514
- Wang J, Nguyen M, Sung V, Grobler A, Burgner D, Saffery R, Wake M. Associations between telomere length and hearing status in mid-childhood and mid-life: Population-based cross-sectional study. Ear & Hearing. 2019; 40(5):1256-1259.
- Wang J, Sung V, le Clercq CMP, Burt RA, Carew P, Liu RS, Mensah FK, Gold L, Wake M. High prevalence of slight and mild hearing loss across mid-life: a cross-sectional national Australian study. Public Health 2019;168:26-35
- Wang J, Sung V, Lycett K, Carew P, Liu R, Grobler A, Zubrick S, Olds T, Wake M. How body composition influences hearing status by mid-childhood and mid-life: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. International Journal of Obesity 2018; 42(10): 1771-81
- Wang J, le Clercq C. M. P, Sung V, Carew P, Liu R, Mensah F, Burt R, Gold L, Wake. Cross-sectional epidemiology of hearing loss in Australian children aged 11-12 years old and 25-year secular trends. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2018; 103(6): 579-85.