Two Hercus fellowships for medical faculty
Tue Nov 01 2016 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Two Hercus fellowships for medical faculty
01 November 2016
Sir Charles Hercus Fellow, Melody Smith.
The impact of the built environment on children’s levels of physical activity will be studied by new Sir Charles Hercus Fellow from the University of Auckland, Associate Professor Melody Smith.
She received one of five prestigious Sir Charles Hercus Fellowships awarded by the Health Research Council (HRC) in its latest funding round, and one of four that went to University of Auckland academics.
Another Sir Charles Hercus Fellow for the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences is Assistant Professor Brya Matthews whose four year study was awarded the $500,000 fellowship to examine ‘Novel osteoprogenitor cell populations involved in bone healing.’
Dr Matthews will return from overseas to take up her fellowship with the Cell and Molecular Biology Bone Research Group in the School of Medicine.
In her four year study, Associate Professor Smith from the School of Nursing will compare changes in children’s physical activity, active travel, and body size across different outdoor conditions in Māngere.
These include where ‘intensive’ and ‘light’ infrastructural interventions have been made across neighbourhoods to make physical activity such as walking and cycling easier and safer.
“Built environments in our neighbourhoods are more likely to have a greater influence on children’s levels of physical activity in the long term than individual factors alone,” says Dr Smith.
“After smoking, insufficient physical activity is the greatest cause of chronic disease in New Zealand,” she says.
“Unfortunately, individual, education-based strategies to generate sustained improvements in physical activity have proven unsuccessful at the population level.”
Despite significant investment and public health initiatives, childhood obesity has increased in the past decade from eight percent in 2008 to 11 per cent in 2015. A third of New Zealand children are classified as ‘insufficiently physically active for health’.
“Our aim with this research is to provide evidence-based recommendations for built environment design features that support the best physical activity outcomes in children,” says Dr Smith.
HRC Chief Executive Professor Kath McPherson says, “Melody’s fellowship research specifically addresses the goals of the Government’s Childhood Obesity Plan, which places great emphasis on initiatives aimed at increasing physical activity.
“We know that physical activity is essential for healthy physical, psychological, and emotional development in children, so funding research in this area is incredibly important,” says Professor McPherson.
Three Clinical Research Training Fellowships were included in the HRC Career Development award grants made to researchers in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
Sir Charles Hercus Fellowship
Associate Professor Melody Smith, (School of Nursing), ‘Impact of built environment interventions on children's physical activity’, 48 months, $440,000
Assistant Professor Brya Matthews, (School of Medicine), ‘Novel osteoprogenitor cell populations involved in bone healing’, 48 months, $500,000
Clinical Research Training Fellowship
Dr Melissa Edwards, (Department of Surgery), ‘The effects of comorbidity on breast cancer care and outcomes’, 24 months, $166,667.
Ms Joanna Hikaka, (School of Pharmacy), ‘Medicine optimisation in older adults in primary care-multidisciplinary approach’, 48 months, $240,000.
Dr Anthony Lin, (Department of Surgery), ‘The rectosigmoid brake and its utility as a neuromodulation target’, 36 months, $250,000.
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