Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research Centre

Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH)

The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) is a cohort study funded by the Australian Department of Health. With over 50 thousand participants followed-up regularly since 1996, it is one of the leading studies of its kind in the world. The data, provided by four generations of women, has contributed to a wealth of health polices and guidelines at the state and national level.

NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Women and Non-Communicable Diseases: Prevention and Detection (CRE WaND)

The National Health and Medical Research Council funded Centre for Research Excellence on Women and Non-communicable Diseases: Prevention and Detection (CRE WaND), is based around ALSWH and record linkage with administrative and other data sets including birth and death records, hospitalisation, cancer registration, pharmaceutical and other health service use.

Genetic variants, Early Life exposures, and Longitudinal Endometriosis symptoms Study (GELLES)

The Genetic variants, Early Life exposures, and Longitudinal Endometriosis symptoms Study (GELLES) aims to improve our understanding of the factors that put women at increased risk of endometriosis and delay its diagnosis. GELLES is a substudy of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health 1989-95 cohort.

International collaboration for a Life course Approach to reproductive health and Chronic disease Events (InterLACE)

The InterLACE project combines data at the individual level from more than 800,000 participants from 26 existing observational studies to investigate the role of reproductive health across the life course on future chronic disease events including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Menarche to pre-Menopause: Reproductive factors and risk of cardiometabolic and respiratory conditions (M-PreM)

The M-PreM project aims to understand how reproductive characteristics affect women’s chances of having chronic diseases and poor health later in life. The study will look at characteristics like the timing of women’s first period (menarche), period symptoms, pregnancy, and pelvic problems. M-PreM is a substudy of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health’s 1973-78 cohort.

The Mothers and their Children’s Healthcare Experience Study (MatCHES)

The Mothers and their Children’s Healthcare Experience Study (MatCHES) is investigating women’s experiences of preventive healthcare from before conception through to pregnancy and early childhood. MatCHES is a substudy of the 1989-95 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.

Mothers and their Children's Health study (MatCH)

The Mother’s and their Children’s Health (MatCH) study takes a life course approach to investigate the influence of preconception maternal health and wellbeing on the growth and development of children. This project is a substudy based on the children of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health’s 1973-78 ALSWH cohort.

Improving Australia’s Dementia Statistics

This project, funded by the NHMRC’s Boosting Dementia Research initiative, involves close collaboration with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Bureau of Statistics to produce protocols and algorithms for the on-going production of high-quality data and summary statistics on dementia in Australia.

Hysterectomy, Oophorectomy and Long-term chronic Disease – the HOLD study

Each year >27,000 Australian women have a hysterectomy for a benign condition, often with removal of one or both ovaries (oophorectomy). This surgery can profoundly affect women’s reproductive hormones and may influence risk of chronic conditions such as ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and cancer. Despite this, the long-term health effects of these procedures are unclear. The HOLD study, funded via an NHMRC Ideas Grant, will address the evidence gap by conducting a whole-of-population, cross-jurisdictional data linkage study. Unique in its size, scope, data quality, and approach, the HOLD study will provide new high-quality evidence to inform clinical guidelines and enable informed decisions about whether hysterectomy is the best treatment for a woman’s short and long-term health.

MadeHER: Origins and Impacts of Menstrual Disorders and Pelvic Pain

Menstrual disorders – irregular, heavy, or painful periods – and pelvic pain are common among adolescent girls and disrupt life activities. Not enough is known about the maternal and early life factors linked with these conditions. The MadeHer study addresses evidence gaps with new data on menstruation in adolescence, combined with previous data available from these girls and their mothers. The new knowledge on the development of these conditions will inform and guide their prevention and management. This study is funded by an NHMRC Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grant.

Moving beyond one-size-fits-all: Exploring the optimal doses of physical activity and sedentary behaviour across the lifespan for prevention of non-communicable chronic diseases

It is well known that physical inactivity is a risk factor for the development of non-communicable chronic diseases. This NHMRC funded research program will determine the optimal doses of physical activity and sedentary behaviour during childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age to prevent mental and physical health conditions. This research program will inform the development of strategies to reduce the social and fiscal burden of non-communicable chronic diseases in Australia.

Heavy Menstrual Bleeding Decision Aid (HeMBDA) Study

The Heavy Menstrual Bleeding Decision Aid (HeMBDA) Study is investigating the experiences of women with heavy menstrual bleeding.  We are particularly interested in what helps women to decide between treatments such as long-acting uterine contraceptive devices (such as the Mirena and Kyleena), endometrial ablation and hysterectomy. The study also aims to get feedback from women on tools that could be used to help them decide about treatment options for heavy menstrual bleeding.

The IVF Support Study - Improving emotional support during fertility treatment

The IVF Support Study is funded by an NHMRC Ideas Grant. This study will explore changes in coping, social support and mood across an in vitro fertilization cycle (IVF). Findings from this study will be used to develop an online coping and support intervention for patients and information resources for partners and families.

Our team are internationally recognised for their extensive experience in life course epidemiology and biostatistics, population health, and health systems research.

The centre’s research and translation activities are built on three pillars of expertise encompassing:

The AWaGHR Centre is seeking exceptional and highly motivated PhD candidates to undertake research on a range of projects associated with women and girls’ health.

The Centre conducts research on a broad range of health issues across the human lifespan and is located at the University of Queensland’s School of Public Health at the Herston Campus, Brisbane, Queensland.

The Centre has a range of projects to offer, from studying the intra- and inter- generational effects of socio-economic, behavioural, and lifestyle factors on a range of health, wellbeing and health service use outcomes. We also offer projects associated with statistical methodology in longitudinal and life course data.

PhD projects will be based on data from the following studies:

• The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) is a cohort study funded by the Australian Department of Health. With over 50 thousand participants followed-up regularly since 1996, it is one of the leading studies of its kind in the world. 
• The Mother’s and their Children (MatCH) project, based on all the mothers of the ALSWH 1973-78 ALSWH cohort, takes a life course approach to investigate the influence of preconception maternal health and wellbeing on the growth and development of all her children. 
• The Genetic variants, Early Life exposures, and Longitudinal Endometriosis symptoms Study (GELLES) aims to improve our understanding of the factors that put women at increased risk of endometriosis and delay its diagnosis. 
• The Mothers and their Children’s Healthcare Experience Study (MatCHES) is investigating women’s experiences of preventive healthcare from before conception through to pregnancy and early childhood. 
• The National Health and Medical Research Council funded Centre for Research Excellence on Women and Non-communicable Diseases: Prevention and Detection (CRE WaND), is based around ALSWH and record linkage with administrative and other data sets including birth and death records, hospitalisation, cancer registration, pharmaceutical and other health service use. 
• The Hysterectomy, Oophorectomy and Long-term chronic Disease (HOLD) study – is a data linkage study funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council to address the evidence gap on the short and long-term impacts of hysterectomy.