Bigger Health

Primary Supervisor: Dr Kate McBride (opens in a new window)

More than a quarter of the adult Australian population are obese. Obese individuals have greatly increased risk of chronic disease, yet may less likely to access health services, have lower rates of screening for chronic disease and may delay seeking healthcare. Likely reasons for this lack of participation include self-stigmatisation as well as possible negative healthcare provider attitudes and stereotypes about obese people. Negative treatment experiences and expectations of poor treatment can cause avoidance of care and mistrust of doctors among these individuals. If obese individuals avoid or delay access to primary healthcare, prevention & management of chronic disease is likely to be sub-optimal, increasing likelihood of complications, later presentations, acute presentations at hospital emergency departments and subsequent hospitalisations.

This is a major public health concern already having serious consequences for hospital capacity in Western Sydney and is the issue to be addressed within this program of research. The impact obesity has on access and utilisation of health services in the local region will be investigated during the exploratory phase of this PhD with the use of mixed methods. There is scope in the PhD for epidemiological approaches to be used to examine routinely collected and/or survey data as well as qualitative enquiry to examine both healthcare professional and health community perspectives. These data will inform the development of a much-needed evaluation framework to assess appropriate care of obese individuals in first point of contact health care services. It is also anticipated that community, social and healthcare-based pilot interventions will be developed, based on the findings of the exploratory phase, to increase access to appropriate healthcare for obese individuals.

It is anticipated that the successful applicant will have an Undergraduate or Masters degree in a health related discipline and a strong interest in population health. Ideally, the applicant will have already had some epidemiological or basic statistical training but there is scope for these skills to be developed during the course of the PhD.