Background: Rates of e-cigarette use/vaping have increased dramatically in the last 5 years, especially among children and young people. This has precipitated a strong regulatory policy response at national, sub-national, and settings levels. Sufficient evidence has been published to demonstrate that policy is an effective lever to reduce rates of vaping. However, evidence is still emerging regarding the barriers and facilitators that are commonly faced when regulatory policies are implemented. This means that we lack the required understanding to effectively translate policies between settings, or to design new policies which pre-empt challenges and maximise points of leverage.
Methods: We conducted a systematic review, searching six databases (including CINAHL, Global Health, Health Source and MEDLINE) for qualitative or quantitative studies which reported barriers and/or facilitators to regulatory policy implementation. Studies were included where they investigated policies consistent with Klein et al’s definition of regulatory vaping policy (i.e., controlling access/availability, product specifications or standards, or marketing) and reported barriers or facilitators identified by policy makers, implementers, or others directly involved in policy implementation. Barriers and facilitators will be synthesized using Bullock et al’s Integrated Theoretical Framework, and Klein et al’s regulatory vaping policy typology. This will highlight the different barriers experienced when using common policy levers available for vaping regulation. Further analyses will explore differences attributable to country-level income.
Preliminary results: After removal of duplicates 1,221 studies were screened by title/abstract, with 112 proceeding to full-text screening. 17 studies were selected for inclusion in the review. The results of the review synthesis will be available in time for presentation at AustPH 2026.
Discussion: This research has implications for both policy improvement (How can this policy be implemented more effectively next time?) and policy translation (Is our context or setting adequately prepared to overcome predictable implementation barriers for a policy of this type?).

Background: Vaping among adolescents is a major public health priority, with evidence demonstrating increased use among young people and a range of associated harms. Despite the school environment being acknowledged as an important setting for prevention and management of adolescent vaping, there is limited guidance for schools on how to effectively address vaping. A systematic desktop review was undertaken to identify and consolidate Australian and international practice guidelines relating to vaping prevention or cessation in school settings.

Methods: A structured desktop search of online guideline databases and repositories, websites of international health organisations, and Australian Departments of Health and Education websites was undertaken up to June 2025. Eligible guidelines included at least one recommendation on how to address vaping prevention, cessation or delayed uptake in a primary or secondary school setting. Additionally, guidelines for tobacco or nicotine dependence were eligible if they included or explicitly applied recommendations to vaping. Two reviewers independently screened titles and full texts for inclusion. Data were extracted by two reviewers independently, and recommendations were qualitatively synthesised using a deductive approach, with themes mapped to the Health Promoting Schools Framework. The quality of included guidelines was assessed independently by three reviewers using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) tool.

Results: Eleven guidelines published between 2022 and 2025 were included. Six provided recommendations for both prevention and cessation; five focused primarily on cessation. Consolidated recommendations will be presented according to the Health Promoting Schools Framework.

Conclusions: The consolidated recommendations offer a comprehensive guide for schools to address vaping through a whole-school approach. These findings strengthen understanding of current best practice and provide guidance for policymakers and educators to develop evidence-based school initiatives supporting vaping prevention and cessation among adolescents.

Youth vaping trends in Australia have rapidly increased, shaped by product types, industry marketing strategies, social influences and access pathways. Research has also demonstrated a gateway effect: Australian teens aged 12-17 years who vape are 5 times more likely to initiate smoking cigarettes. [Generation Vape, 2024] Responding effectively requires more than individual programs or standalone interventions. As public health challenges become increasingly complex and dynamic, prevention systems must be capable of adapting and responding across settings and sectors.

This presentation explores how systems-based and whole-setting approaches can strengthen prevention and cessation support for young people. Drawing on the complementary work of Quit and Healthy Places, a Victorian health and wellbeing framework for schools and early childhood services, the session examines how coordinated action across education, health and community systems can translate evidence into sustainable practice at scale.

Using vaping and smoking as a case study, presenters will demonstrate how synchronised action across multiple settings, sectors and levels of influence can strengthen prevention and cessation support for young people. By aligning policy, education, organisational practice, physical environments and community partnerships, prevention efforts can achieve greater reach, consistency and sustainability. This approach recognises that no single intervention is sufficient to address complex public health challenges and that lasting change requires actions across various reinforcing areas.

The presentation will highlight practical examples of implementation, including Quit’s Seeing Through the Haze vaping education initiatives and the co-development of the Healthy Places Smoking and Vaping Action Guide.

Key lessons will focus on the importance of shared ownership, cross-sector collaboration and adaptable implementation models that can respond to changing products and policy landscapes, emerging evidence and shifting social norms. Participants will gain practical insights into designing prevention and cessation approaches that are responsive, scalable and sustainable.

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains a significant public health challenge, with survival highly dependent on timely defibrillation. However, access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) remains uneven and unequitable.

The Defib In Your Street pilot in Reservoir, Victoria, demonstrates how epidemiological evidence can be translated into targeted, community-led action. Reservoir, identified as having the 5th highest number of cardiac arrests in Victoria, informed a place-based implementation approach grounded in spatial epidemiology. Using 5 years of cardiac arrest data, demographic indicators, and 400 m service area modelling, AED placement was strategically targeted to underserved and higher-risk areas.

The model combined evidence-informed site selection, community hosting, and integration with emergency response systems, with evaluation showing significant system-level improvements in access. Mean travel time to the nearest AED reduced from 5.36 to 2.74 minutes for cardiac arrest locations, with consistent reductions across 923 geographic areas (5.87 to 3.55 minutes). AEDs were successfully placed in higher-need areas, increasing coverage for older adults and culturally diverse populations, while also expanding overall population reach per device. Qualitative findings highlighted strong community ownership, with hosts motivated by civic responsibility and contributing to increased local awareness.

This work advances understanding of how spatial epidemiology can directly inform implementation at scale. It demonstrates a replicable, community-led model that informs policy and practice by balancing accessibility, capacity, and equity considerations. Participants will gain insight into applying data-driven approaches to AED placement, embedding community engagement in public health interventions, and translating evidence into scalable systems change.

Defib in Your Street provides a practical framework for turning evidence into action, supporting equitable access to life-saving interventions and contributing to improved OHCA outcomes.

Background:
Smoking and vaping remain major drivers of preventable disease, inequity and avoidable health service use. Although evidence-based cessation supports exist, many people do not receive timely brief advice, referral, follow-up or sustained support to quit. For policy makers, the challenge is no longer whether cessation works, but how to embed effective cessation pathways into routine health and community service delivery at scale.

Policy and implementation approach:
The Incentive 2 Quit program, known as I2Q, was funded by Preventive Health SA through South Australia’s Tobacco Control Strategy as a policy-led contingency management model to increase engagement with cessation support. Houd Research Group was engaged to deliver the program in partnership with Preventive Health SA, Quitline, clinical and community services, Aboriginal health stakeholders and health professionals. Through iterative co-design, stakeholders emphasised that I2Q needed to strengthen, not replace, existing services; be simple for health professionals to offer; support local ownership; and generate measurable outcomes.

The resulting model connects brief advice, referral, Quitline engagement, structured follow-up, biochemical validation and modest contingency payments within one implementation pathway. Early manual delivery tested feasibility and acceptability. Ongoing implementation feedback informed a streamlined digital model, reducing health professional workload from approximately 10–20 minutes to around one minute and improving readiness for broader scale-up.

Results:
I2Q has expanded across 49 sites and 10 health service groups in South Australia, trained 537 health professionals, and enrolled 759 participants, including more than 250 Aboriginal participants. The program has achieved 60% Quitline counselling uptake and a 30.5% biochemically validated six-month quit rate, exceeding initial implementation and cessation targets.

Conclusion:
I2Q demonstrates that contingency management can be operationalised as practical prevention infrastructure when policy leadership, service delivery expertise and local implementation are aligned. The model offers governments and health systems an implementation-ready pathway to strengthen smoking and vaping cessation, chronic disease prevention, health equity and measurable public health impact.

Background
This study aimed to examine the effect of relationship continuity with general practitioners on the development of first incident co-morbidity among residents of New South Wales, Australia with existing cardiovascular disease.

Methods
This study used data from the 45 and up longitudinal study linked with the Australian Medicare claims and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data (2005-2016). Participants living with cardiovascular disease but free of any co-morbidity were included (n=6,234). The primary exposure of interest, Continuity of Care (CoC) was measured using the Bice-Boxerman Continuity of Care Index. Marginal structural models were fitted to assess the effect of continuity of care (time-varying exposure) on time to development of a new co-morbidity or death (whichever came first).

Results
Low continuity of care (<0.75) was associated with a consistently higher risk of developing co-morbidity in the follow-up period compared with individuals with high relationship continuity. The direction of the association was consistently positive across age groups with oldest people (75+ years) showing 5 percentage points risk difference by end of follow-up. The risk was 4.4 percentage higher among female participants who had low continuity compared to female with high continuity by the end of 5 years. Among current smokers, the risk was 8.5 percentage points higher for people with low relationship continuity while it was 5.4 percentage points higher among participants who rated their health to be poor over the follow-up period. Participants living in urban area with low relationship continuity (vs high relationship continuity) had 3.7 percentage points higher risk of developing co-morbidity.

Conclusion
Relationship continuity showed a positive effect in reducing the likelihood of developing co-morbidity among people with existing cardiovascular disease. Policies and interventions promoting person-centred and integrated care should embed initiatives that strengthen relationship continuity with General Practitioners.

Introduction
Alcohol consumption is a leading modifiable risk factor for cancer, causing an estimated 7,800 cancer cases in Australia annually. It is causally linked to at least eight cancer types, including breast, bowel, liver, and cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract. However, awareness of alcohol‑related cancer risk remains low. Translating epidemiological evidence into accessible and motivating information is critical to support education and behaviour change. To address this gap, Cancer Institute NSW launched the Alcohol and Cancer Risk Tool to improve community understanding of alcohol-related cancer risk and encourage reduced consumption.

Methods
The Alcohol and Cancer Risk Tool is a digital engagement and educational tool built using Australian cancer risk modelling and analysis. The tool uses epidemiological evidence from the NSW 45 and Up Study¹ to estimate lifetime risk of alcohol‑related cancers based on user‑entered age, sex, and weekly alcohol consumption, aligned with the Australian Alcohol Guidelines. Development was informed by user testing.

Results
Evidence embedded in the tool shows that among Australian adults over 45 years, cancer risk increases by approximately 10% with every seven standard drinks consumed per week. The interactive, web‑based tool displays how changes in alcohol consumption affect long‑term cancer risk and connects users to practical supports for reducing alcohol intake. Launched in November 2025, the tool has had over 12,500 views.

Conclusion
The Alcohol and Cancer Risk Tool demonstrates how epidemiological evidence can be translated into scalable and engaging consumer‑facing prevention action. Ongoing promotion aims to maximise reach and support improved community knowledge as part of broader alcohol harm reduction and cancer prevention efforts in NSW.

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¹ Sarich P, Canfell K, Egger S, Banks E, Joshy G, Grogan P, Weber MF. Alcohol consumption, drinking patterns and cancer incidence in an Australian cohort of 226,162 participants aged 45 years and over. Br J Cancer. 2021;124(2):513-23.

Background
Dementia is the leading cause of death among Australian women and a growing public health challenge for ageing populations. Although several dementia risk prediction tools exist, few have been specifically developed and externally validated for community-dwelling older women at highest risk of dementia. There remains limited evidence on how later-life dementia risk stratification can support targeted prevention and health service planning in ageing populations.

Aim
To develop and externally validate a practical dementia risk stratification model for community-dwelling older women using routinely obtainable demographic, behavioural, and health indicators.

Methods
The DEMRISK-W model was developed using data from 1,358 women aged ≥70 years from the Perth Longitudinal Study of Ageing Women (mean follow-up 12.2 years; 237 incident dementia events) and externally validated in 761 women from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA; mean follow-up 10.2 years; 94 incident dementia events). Predictors were selected using penalised regression methods and included modifiable and clinically accessible risk factors.

Results
The final model included age, education, marital status, smoking, body mass index, grip strength, physical activity, diabetes, and hypertension. DEMRISK-W demonstrated moderate discrimination across prediction horizons and outperformed age-only prediction approaches at 10 years (AUC 0.68 vs 0.62). External validation showed consistent performance and good calibration after recalibration. Decision curve analysis demonstrated potential clinical and public health utility across relevant risk thresholds.

Implications for Public Health Practice
DEMRISK-W provides a scalable approach for identifying older women at elevated dementia risk using routinely collected measures already available in many clinical and community settings. The model supports movement toward more targeted prevention, earlier monitoring, and risk-stratified approaches to dementia care and service planning. This work also highlights the importance of incorporating modifiable risk factors into later-life dementia prevention strategies rather than relying solely on chronological age.

Background: The Social Determinants of Health Equity (SDHE) are factors that influence inequalities in health. Less is known about their impact on preventive health program implementation. Using data from the statewide scale-up of the INfant Feeding, Active play and NuTrition (INFANT) program across Victoria, Australia, this presentation will discuss the relationship between area-level SDHE and implementation of INFANT and the combinations of SDHE that may be linked with INFANT implementation.

Methods: Cross-tabulations and descriptive statistics were used to assess differences in area-level SDHE across implementation phases for each Victorian local government area (n=79). A logistic regression analysis and coincidence analysis were used to explore associations and linkages between INFANT implementation and SDHE.

Results: Regression analysis showed that INFANT is more likely to be implemented in local government areas with a high level of socioeconomic advantage (OR=4.57, 95% CI 1.05 to 19.86, p=0.042). Coincidence analysis identified four area characteristics linked with INFANT implementation: (i) high levels of socioeconomic advantage; (ii) low prevalence of overweight and obesity; (iii) moderate proportion of maternal child health nurses to births; and (iv) moderate levels of socioeconomic advantage and prevalence of overweight and obesity in regional and rural areas.

Conclusion: Multiple contextual characteristics were linked with equitable INFANT implementation, with select area-level determinants playing a key role. Findings illustrate a need for a greater consideration of context to inform the tailoring of implementation efforts for areas experiencing a higher burden of the SDHE, to ensure equality in program implementation during scale-up.