Public health nutrition messages are a powerful way to convey population-wide information and advice to support individual food choices. Food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) are one example of public health nutrition messaging that translate scientific evidence into easy-to-understand food-based recommendations. Nonetheless, not everyone in Australia finds the Australian FBDG messaging helpful or useful. The current Australian FBDGs assign responsibility of food choices to individuals, yet for contemporary Australians, food choice is significantly impacted by many barriers, some of which operate at the structural level e.g. food availability, accessibility and affordability. Hence, FBDG messages must be carefully reviewed to ensure cultural acceptability, relatability, usability, as well as earn trust of the general public. Consumer testing can be a way to achieve this.
The presentation will 1) present evidence from FBDG development globally, highlighting the countries that have incorporated consumer testing in the development or revision of FBDG messaging; 2) use case studies of two selected countries to illustrate how consumer testing was done; and 3) discuss the impact of consumer testing on the final FBDG messaging of these countries.
Our presentation seeks to demonstrate the importance of consumer testing in any FBDG development or revision, call for the current Australian FBDG revision to include consumer testing as a non-negotiable part of the process, and for greater transparency of the consumer testing process and associated outcomes on final FBDG messaging as a means of building consumer trust.

Cancer rates are increasing in younger people both in Australia and globally, with Australia recording one of the highest incidences of early-onset colorectal cancer.1,2 Alongside this, there is a proliferation of misinformation online regarding cancer risks and the benefits of cancer screening for individuals in this age group.

This presentation will focus on how trusted public health organisations can respond with clear, practical, evidence-based communication that empowers people to take action to reduce their cancer risk. Drawing on Cancer Council Australia’s suite of national cancer prevention policies, the presentation will highlight priority areas for action which address modifiable risk factors. As approximately 33% of all cancer cases in Australia are attributable to modifiable risk factors including tobacco smoke, alcohol use, ultraviolet radiation exposure, overweight and obesity, and dietary factors,3 these prevention opportunities remain critical.

Public messaging must strike a careful balance between increasing awareness of early-onset cancers without unintentionally fuelling anxiety, misinformation, or demand for screening among younger populations where there is insufficient evidence of its efficacy. The presentation will explore the importance of communicating both the benefits and potential harms of screening, while helping the public understand when medical advice or assessment is appropriate.

Our presentation will outline how we are advocating for the implementation of national policies to reduce the burden of early-onset cancers, including calling for government action to create supportive environments which promote healthy lifestyles. We will highlight gaps that must be addressed to strengthen prevention and reduce their impact, including the need for regular evaluation of cancer screening programs, increased awareness among healthcare professionals on the issue, and an improved evidence base. By directing public focus on evidence-based prevention and practical actions people can take now, we can respond to growing concern about early-onset cancers by reducing misinformation, building trust, and empowering young people to reduce their cancer risk.

References
1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Cancer data in Australia. Canberra: AIHW; 2025.
2. Sung H, Siegel RL, Laversanne M, Jiang C, Morgan E, Zahwe M, et al. Colorectal cancer incidence trends in younger versus older adults: an analysis of population-based cancer registry data. The Lancet Oncology. 2025;26(1):51–63.
3. Wilson LF, Antonsson A, Green AC, Jordan SJ, Kendall BJ, Nagle CM, et al. How many cancer cases and deaths are potentially preventable? Estimates for Australia in 2013. International Journal of Cancer. 2018;142(4):691–701.

Public interest in menopause has grown rapidly, accompanied by an expanding marketplace of products and services promising relief, support, or ‘solutions’ for menopausal symptoms. While research has begun to map this commercial landscape, far less attention has been paid to how women themselves interpret these developments, or how commercial activity shapes (mis)information about menopause. This study explored the perspectives of 509 Australian women aged 45–64 about the factors influencing their engagement with menopause related products and services, the perceived risks of intensified commercial promotion, and views about pharmaceutical industry involvement in women’s health events.
An online qualitative survey was used, and data were analysed reflexively to construct three themes. First, participants described a commercial environment that amplified anxieties about ageing and wellbeing, often through dramatic or emotive messaging. Many felt that companies positioned themselves as attentive to women’s needs while simultaneously leveraging fear and uncertainty, making it difficult to distinguish genuine information from marketing claims. Second, women highlighted how accessibility, cost, and personal experiences of menopause intersected with targeted advertising to heighten susceptibility to commercial persuasion. These dynamics shaped who they trusted how they evaluated competing claims and a broader concern about misinformation in a crowded and commercially driven information ecosystem. Third, views about pharmaceutical sponsorship of women’s health events were divided. Some participants questioned the credibility and motives behind industry involvement, expressing concern about biased or incomplete information. Others valued increased visibility and access to resources, even when commercial interests were present.
Overall, the findings illustrate how commercial determinants shape women’s understandings of menopause and influence trust, communication, and exposure to misinformation. Strengthening public health responses requires critical attention to these dynamics to ensure women have access to credible, independent, and equitable sources of information.

Aim/s
Effective diabetes prevention systems rely on scalable risk stratification tools to identify populations at high risk of type 2 diabetes, particularly in resource-constrained settings where large-scale laboratory testing is impractical. The Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS) is a low-cost non-invasive tool based on age, waist circumference, physical activity and family history. IDRS is widely implemented in community screening, with a threshold of ≥60 indicating high risk. However, its long-term predictive performance has not been formally validated. This study evaluated whether baseline IDRS predicts incident diabetes over 9 years.

Methods
A secondary analysis of the Kerala Diabetes Prevention Program (K-DPP) was conducted among adults without diabetes at baseline (n=1508). Associations between baseline IDRS and 9-year incident diabetes were assessed using logistic regression. Discriminative performance was evaluated using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC). Linear regression examined the association between change in IDRS from year 2 to year 9 (ΔIDRS) and concurrent change in fasting plasma glucose (ΔFPG).

Results
Higher baseline IDRS was associated with increased odds of incident diabetes, suggesting a graded relationship across the score distribution (continuous IDRS: adjusted OR 1.041, p<0.001; IDRS ≥60 threshold: adjusted OR 1.72, p=0.080). However, overall discriminative performance was poor (AUC-ROC=0.577). At the ≥60 cut-off, sensitivity was moderate (71.2%) and specificity was low (34.7%). ΔIDRS was not associated with ΔFPG (β=0.050, p=0.513); although the low-risk group had a 9.6 mg/dL smaller change in FPG compared to the high-risk control group.

Conclusion
IDRS identified a substantial proportion of individuals who later developed diabetes, supporting its use for population-level risk stratification. However, the traditional ≥60 threshold showed limited precision for distinguishing between individuals who did and did not develop diabetes. While IDRS appears to capture between-person differences in diabetes risk, it showed limited utility for monitoring glycaemic progression. These findings suggest caution when using IDRS for individual-level risk prediction or monitoring and highlight the importance of ongoing evaluation of screening tools to support effective and equitable allocation of prevention resources.

Background: Smoking and vaping remain major public health challenges in South Australia, particularly among populations experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. Financial incentive interventions have demonstrated effectiveness for smoking cessation internationally; however, translation into routine Australian health service delivery has been limited. The Incentive 2 Quit (I2Q) pilot is a world-first South Australian Government-funded smoking and vaping cessation program embedding financial incentives within existing public health services.

Model of care: I2Q facilitates referral pathways to Quitline, behavioural support resources, and staged financial incentives linked to engagement and abstinence outcomes. Program outcomes were evaluated using implementation and effectiveness indicators informed by the RE-AIM framework between March 2023 and December 2025.

Results: As of December 2025, sites spanning four NALHN health services, substantially exceeding original targets. Among participants who reached the 6-month milestone (n=331), 30.5% achieved abstinence (intention-to-treat), with participants lost to follow-up considered continuing to smoke. The highest quit rates were observed in Aboriginal health services (34.0%). Overall, 52% of participants engaged with Quitline counselling, with an average of 2.3 sessions per participant. The program demonstrated strong adoption across participating services, despite implementation challenges including workforce turnover and inconsistent training uptake among some staff.

Conclusion: I2Q demonstrates the feasibility and potential effectiveness of embedding financial incentive smoking and vaping cessation interventions within routine Australian public health services. The program provides an implementation-ready model with strong potential scalability across diverse healthcare settings and population groups, while contributing to South Australia’s Tobacco Control Strategy priorities and broader preventive health reform initiatives.

Introduction
Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, and skin cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting younger people¹. The Cancer Institute NSW’s Skin Cancer Prevention Strategy aims to reduce the incidence of skin cancer in NSW by embedding prevention across sectors and increasing the adoption of sun protection behaviours. Population‑level surveillance, including the NSW Population Health Survey (PHS), is critical to informing evidence-based decision-making, identifying priority populations and guiding implementation of the Strategy.

Methods
The PHS is an annual survey of approximately 10,000 NSW adults. The Sun Protection Module (included in 2016, 2018, 2022, & 2024) is used to establish trends in sun exposure, sunburn, and adoption of recommended sun protection behaviours (Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide) in the four weeks prior to survey. Subgroup analyses are conducted by age, gender, geography, and skin type.

Results
In 2024, 10% of adults reported a recent sunburn, a reduction from almost 15% in 2022. However, frequent sun exposure during peak UV hours (11am-3pm) remained consistent across years (42.4%). While most adults reported using at least one sun-protection behaviour, adoption of multiple protective behaviours remained low and varied by demographic group. Nearly one in five 18–24-year-olds (18.5%) reported a recent sunburn and were less likely to adopt some protective behaviours. Higher levels of sun exposure were more commonly reported among people living in regional/rural and coastal areas, and among men aged over 40 years.

Conclusion
By identifying trends, the findings inform the implementation of the NSW Skin Cancer Prevention Strategy and support the scale up of targeted sun protection initiatives, including mass‑media behaviour change campaigns and cross-sector partnerships across workplaces, schools and community settings.

References
¹Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2016. Skin cancer in Australia. Cat. no. CAN 96. Canberra: AIHW.

Introduction: Alcohol price promotions can make alcohol substantially cheaper and may drive purchasing and consumption, yet these practices remain largely unregulated. Evidence on how discounting varies across products and locations is limited. This study examined the extent and patterns of alcohol price discounting across metropolitan and remote retail markets in New South Wales over time.

Methods: Quarterly price data were collected between July 2023 and April 2025 for all alcohol products on websites of five major alcohol retailers, sampling one store per retailer in a capital city and a remote NSW location. Products were classified as discounted if they were sold below base price through multi-pack discounts, promotional discounts, or multibuy promotional offers (e.g., “2 for $x”). Analyses compared discount prevalence and discount type by financial year, location, beverage type and subtype.

Results: Analyses of 123,943 product observations showed that beer and cider had the highest prevalence of discounted products (approximately 80–88%), followed by premix beverages, while spirits had the lowest prevalence (27–34%). Wine discounting was substantially more common in the capital city location, although discounting increased over time in both settings. Beer, cider and premix were predominantly discounted through multi-pack discounts, whereas wine and spirits were mainly discounted through promotional and multibuy promotional offers. From 2023/24 to 2024/25, discounting decreased for beer, cider and premix, while promotional and multibuy discounting increased, particularly for wine in remote areas.

Discussion: Alcohol discounting was common across major beverage categories, with distinct differences in discounting strategies by beverage type and location. The increasing use of promotional and multibuy discounts, particularly for wine products in remote areas, may contribute to greater alcohol affordability and increased consumption risk.

Implications: These findings highlight the need for ongoing monitoring of alcohol pricing practices and consideration of regulatory approaches targeting volume-based and promotional discounting strategies.

BACKGROUND
Navigating existing population health data resources to obtain appropriate information is a challenge for the regional public health network. To address this, as part of the Barwon South West (BSW) public health strategic actions, we aimed to create a regional population health directory that collates and highlights the scope and strengths of publicly available data resources, which can be used by local government, health and community sector partners.

METHODS
Data resources relating to demographics and key population health areas were identified, covering items within Municipal Health and Wellbeing plans from the region’s local government areas, and as identified through stakeholder consultations. An interactive, user-friendly Power BI interface was developed and is available to the public on the BSW Public Health Unit website.

RESULTS
The directory includes topic areas such as mental health, physical activity, sexual and reproductive health, smoking and vaping, and healthy eating and food systems. Data resources identified use a range of data types, including Census, population health surveys, administrative data collections, and modelled estimates and projections. The tool continues to be expanded. We provide links for accessing publicly available data resources, highlighting strengths and data considerations for each resource. The tool allows users to filter the resources to data for specific priority populations and by geographic level, as well as by gender, age or health topic dis-aggregation. The platform has enabled a range of workforce capacity building opportunities to enhance data usage within the region and identify gaps in the existing data for future collection and advocacy.

CONCLUSION
The population health data directory is valuable for supporting BSW ecosystem partners’ data needs and is open to others state-wide. It enables partners to easily access comprehensive local data sources to support and optimise effective public health planning, implementation and evaluation.

Abstract
Sentinel surveillance systems are widely used to monitor disease trends, yet systematic evaluation of their population coverage and geographic representativeness rarely occurs. We have developed and applied a replicable methodology, using hepatitis C as a test case, that enables jurisdictions to assess sentinel surveillance coverage, identify recruitment priorities, and prioritise strategic expansion, using data they already hold.

Using hepatitis C notification data from the NSW Notifiable Conditions Information Management System (NCIMS, 2016-2023; n=21,589 notifications), we matched diagnoses from ACCESS (the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Sexually Transmissible Infections and Blood Borne Viruses) participating clinics against all NSW notifications in this retrospective study. Notifying clinic addresses underwent systematic standardisation before matching against the ACCESS site registry; ambiguous cases, including hospital settings where department and facility address differed, were reviewed manually. Addresses were mapped using geographic identifiers and classified as major city or regional using Australian Bureau of Statistics remoteness classifications. Annual notification counts were converted to proportions per 1,000 state notifications to account for year-to-year variation, with high, intermediate, and low volume thresholds calculated from the distribution of non-zero notification rates, stratified by remoteness. Non-participating sites classified as high volume were identified as strategic recruitment targets, with prioritisation based on the persistence of high notification rates across 2016-2023.

ACCESS coverage in NSW rose from 13.9% in 2016 to a peak of 80.9% in 2019, before declining to 39.2% in 2022. The classification methodology identified 76 high-volume locations not currently in ACCESS, of which 17 were consistently high-notifying across at least three years and are now prioritised as recruitment targets.

Beyond the hepatitis C context, this framework addresses a persistent gap in surveillance practice, providing a systematic, replicable approach for assessing sentinel surveillance system performance directly transferable to other jurisdictions and disease surveillance systems working toward elimination.