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Amidst the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the transmission dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is key to providing peace of mind for the community and informing policy-making decisions. While available data suggest that school-aged children are not significant spreaders of SARS-CoV-2, the possibility of transmission in schools remains an ongoing concern, especially among an aging teaching workforce. Even in low-prevalence settings, communities must balance the potential risk of transmission with the need for students' ongoing education.

This study provides the first evidence on the determinants of uptake of two recent public dental benefit programs for Australian children and adolescents from disadvantaged families. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative survey linked to administrative data with accurate information on eligibility and uptake, we find that only a third of all eligible families actually claim their benefits.

Increased allostatic load is linked with racial discrimination exposure, providing a mechanism for the biological embedding of racism as a psychosocial stressor. We undertook an examination of how racial discrimination interacts with socioecological, environmental, and health conditions to affect multisystem dysregulation in a First Nations population.

This study tested a new program for helping smokers with severe mental illness to reduce their tobacco use, together with determining the feasibility of such research in community mental health settings in Australia.

To investigate the prevalence of, and associations between, prenatal and perinatal risk factors and developmental vulnerability in twins at age 5.

Despite potentially harmful consequences, people routinely encounter alcohol adverts designed to increase consumption of alcohol in preference to safer alternatives. However, individuals differ in the degree to which such adverts elicit preferential alcohol consumption. This study builds upon and extends prior research by testing hypotheses concerning the impact of biased processing during advert viewing on subsequent alcohol craving and consumption.

Socio-economic inequality and vaccination inequity have long been critical issues. However, no studies have explored the gap in influenza vaccination uptake between public and private schools. Importantly, the extent to which socio-economic inequality translates into vaccination uptake inequity has not been quantified.

Steve Zubrick FASSA, FAAMHS, MSc AM PhD Honorary Emeritus Research Fellow 08 6319 1409 Stephen.zubrick@thekids.org.au Honorary Emeritus Research

In Australia, infants have the highest rate of child protection involvement. Many jurisdictions in Australia and internationally have introduced policies for prenatal planning and support, however little is known about outcomes of infants reported prenatally. This study is the first to use cross-jurisdictional, individual-record data to examine child protection pathways associated with prenatal and infant reports. 

People with intellectual disability experience higher rates of physical and mental health problems than those without intellectual disability. Health literacy includes accessing, understanding, appraising and applying health information. Improving health literacy is associated with better health outcomes. The internet is a primary source of health information for many people. This study aimed to evaluate available online health resources for people with intellectual disability and their families to understand information gaps.