Background:
The rapid evolution of nicotine delivery systems is reshaping substance use behaviours among adults globally. Despite Australia’s strengthened regulatory approach to vaping products, emerging nicotine products such as disposable vapes and nicotine pouches continue to gain popularity among adults. Existing national surveillance systems provide important prevalence estimates but are often infrequent and unable to detect rapid behavioural shifts among adult populations. Universities are a key setting for surveillance due to the high prevalence of vaping among young adults.
Method:
A sentinel surveillance study with an embedded longitudinal cohort was conducted among Monash University students aged 18–25 years. Participants were recruited through Vape-Free Champions (VFC) engagement activities and University Health Services (UHS) clinics across Monash campuses and data were collected using repeated pulse surveys. Descriptive statistics summarised participant characteristics and prevalence estimates, while chi-square, McNemar’s, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used for cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Analyses were conducted using R.
Results:
A total of 1,139 university students completed the sentinel surveillance pulse survey. Overall prevalence of total nicotine product use was 18.8%, with heated nicotine product use reported by 16.9% of participants and non-heated nicotine product use reported by 7.5%. Overall susceptibility to future nicotine product use among non-users was 39.1%, and continued use of emerging nicotine products was observed.
Among the 344 (62.5%) participants who opted into the longitudinal cohort, a total of 103 (29.9%) participants completed the follow-up survey. Longitudinal analyses showed stable nicotine product use between waves (17.4% vs 16.2%), with no statistically significant changes observed across prevalence, susceptibility, or frequency analyses.
Conclusion:
Early findings demonstrate vaping behaviours among young adults have persisted despite regulatory changes to restrict access to nicotine vaping products. Sentinel surveillance offers a practical and scalable approach to capture changes in usage and social attitudes and to inform targeted health promotion action.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:
Young people are exposed to complex commercial and economic forces that shape their health and wellbeing, both positively and negatively (e.g. digital marketing, financial systems). However, their lived experiences are largely absent from policy development. This national study aimed to explore how young people in Australia understand and navigate these determinants, using a youth‑led, participatory photovoice approach.

METHODS:
Five young people from the Future Healthy Countdown 2030 led the study design and implementation, supported by senior researchers and ARACY. Nineteen participants (aged 16–25 years) were recruited nationally via the Young and Wise network. Participants completed: (1) a workshop introducing key concepts; (2) a photo‑documentation period capturing commercial and economic influences; and (3) in‑depth interviews exploring experiences and identifying actions across individual, community, organisational, and policy levels. A final participatory workshop enabled member checking, theme validation, and co‑development of actionable policy recommendations.

RESULTS:
As the young people that that conceived and delivered the study, we unpack what a ‘truly youth-led researcher structure and approach’ looks like in practice and how it can be operationalised in practice. Participants critically examined commercial environments including digital marketing, food retail, gambling advertising, and economic precarity, highlighting how these systems shape everyday health choices and opportunities.

CONCLUSION:
Findings identify priority structural and policy changes to support young people’s health and wellbeing, particularly in regulating harmful commercial exposures and addressing economic inequities. By positioning young people as active knowledge producers, this study generates policy‑relevant insights and demonstrates the value of embedding youth leadership in public health research and decision-making.

Poor oral health (dental decay) remains a globally recognised concern, especially among refugee and immigrant children. While dietary practices are known to influence oral health, less is understood about how everyday food related activities shape dietary intake and eating patterns. This study explored lunchbox preparation as a social practice and its interconnection with other social practices to understand its effect on children's dietary consumption and in turn on oral health. The study utilised focused ethnography to enable an in-depth understanding of lunchbox preparation as a social practice and its elements: materials (physical objects), meanings (purpose) and competences (knowledge). Semi-structured interviews with 35 mothers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and five service providers, along with observations, were used for data collection. Data were analysed inductively and deductively through a social practice theory lens. Findings demonstrate that lunchbox preparation is embedded within broader social and temporal arrangements of everyday family life. Decisions about lunchbox contents are often driven by convenience, emotional considerations and routine practices rather than individual dietary choices alone. Understanding these practices as socially embedded offers valuable insights for oral health promotion and highlights the need for interventions that address the wider contexts in which feeding related practices are performed.

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is associated with adverse birth outcomes, yet Australian evidence remains fragmented. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesised Australian studies examining the association between IPV during pregnancy and preterm birth (PTB), low birth weight (LBW), small for gestational age (SGA), stillbirth, and miscarriage.
Methods: Five databases (Scopus, Medline, Emcare, Web of Science, and CINAHL) were searched from inception to March 2026. Eligible studies were original, peer-reviewed, conducted in Australia, and reported IPV or DFV as the exposure with at least one specified adverse birth outcome. Study quality was assessed using Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% CIs were estimated using random-effects meta-analysis, with heterogeneity quantified by I² and Cochran's Q, and publication bias assessed using Egger's test and trim-and-fill analysis.
Results: Ten studies comprising 230,601 women (2001–2024) met the inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of IPV during pregnancy was 7.20% (95% CI: 3.75–13.37; I² = 99.9%). IPV was significantly associated with PTB (AOR 1.30; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.48; I² = 29.7%; k = 7) and LBW (AOR 1.70; 95% CI: 1.07, 2.69; I² = 36.0%; k = 3). Although higher odds were observed for the pooled evidence for stillbirth (AOR 1.29; 95% CI: 0.21, 7.86; k = 3) and SGA (AOR 1.37; 95% CI: 0.18, 10.43; k = 2), these were statistically insignificant. One study reported an unadjusted association between IPV and miscarriage (OR 2.00; 95% CI: 1.55, 2.55).
Conclusions: IPV during pregnancy is associated with increased odds of adverse birth outcomes, with significant associations with PTB and LBW in Australia, supporting the case for routine antenatal IPV screening and integration of targeted support within maternity care. Additional research is needed to investigate strategies across the upstream, midstream, and downstream continuum.

Background: Schools shape student health and nutrition outcomes through the foods and drinks provided, the surrounding food and physical activity environment, education curricula, and nutrition-related services. However, many school settings across Europe and Central Asia do not adequately support healthy diets, with limited availability of nutritious foods and persistent exposure to unhealthy products. To inform school nutrition policy and programming, UNICEF and Deakin University partnered to assess school nutrition and physical environments across seven countries in Europe and Central Asia using the Nutrition Environment Assessment Toolkit for Schools(NEAT-s).
Methods: In collaboration with UNICEF country offices and local research teams, field researchers assessed school environments in Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan between 2025–2026 using the NEAT-s. The assessment examined school meals programs, food environments within and around schools, physical activity environments, school nutrition services and nutrition education, alongside a short student survey assessing perceptions and attitudes. The NEAT-s was adapted to each country context through stakeholder consultation.
Results: The NEAT-s was completed in 387 schools across seven countries, including 10,891 student surveys. All countries had some school meals program, although funding, implementation and healthiness of foods provided varied. Few schools provided entirely healthy meals. Where food and drinks were sold at schools, unhealthy products were widely available, a pattern that extended to surrounding school environments. Marketing or promotion of unhealthy products were rarely observed within schools. While all countries provided nutrition education, the time and expertise allocated was limited. Students expressed strong support for healthy, affordable food in schools and improving existing environments.
Conclusions: This assessment identified important opportunities to strengthen school nutrition policies and support more consistent implementation across Europe and Central Asia. Integrating NEAT-s indicators into routine monitoring systems could help track progress, strengthen accountability, and support healthier school environments for children across the region.

Background:
Extreme heat is an under-recognised contributor to drowning. Older adults face disproportionately high drowning rates in both home and open water settings, with many of these incidents triggered by accidental slips, trips or falls into water. This is particularly concerning, given falls are already the leading cause of injury-related hospitalisations and deaths nationally. Moreover, people from multicultural communities often encounter systemic barriers to accessing vital water safety information. Together, these factors underscore the need for equitable, targeted public health interventions to mitigate drowning risk in a warming climate.
Methods:
This project co-designed, implemented and evaluated a culturally- and age appropriate campaign to improve extreme heat and water safety behaviours among people aged 65+ years in Victoria, Australia. A diverse community focus group informed messaging, imagery and dissemination strategies. Campaign materials were translated into priority languages (English, Greek, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese) based on population and drowning data. The campaign was delivered across summer and autumn 2025–26. Pre- and post-campaign surveys of older Victorians (n=200 each) assessed knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and campaign engagement.
Results:
Co-design participants emphasised simple messaging, clear visuals and culturally relevant representations of aquatic environments. These insights informed campaign implementation, enhancing relevance and acceptability. Over 3,500 print materials and merchandise items were distributed through partners, programs and events. While overall awareness did not significantly change, most participants reported the campaign was relevant and inclusive (85%, n=338) and felt more confident and informed about water safety after using the resources (77%, n=306).
Conclusions:
Co-designing a tailored safety campaign supports enhanced message relevance and delivery for priority populations. Longer duration of campaign delivery may be required to influence awareness and behaviours to strengthen community resilience to worsening extreme heat conditions. This campaign provides an equitable pathway to accessing safety information and empowers older people to safely enjoy the water.

BACKGROUND: Coastal drowning is a critical public health issue in Victoria, Australia, characterised by a consistently high number of summer drowning incidents, particularly in ‘blackspot’ regions such as the Mornington Peninsula and Bass Coast. Existing coastal safety signage plays an important role in risk communication; however, its effectiveness is often limited by low engagement, poor recall, and inconsistent comprehension among beachgoers, including multicultural communities.
OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and evaluate new, community‑informed coastal safety signage for high-risk beaches to enhance public understanding and support safer decision‑making at six blackspot locations in Victoria.
METHODS: A mixed‑methods approach involved community and stakeholder focus groups and virtual reality (VR) testing to underpin signage co‑design; followed by in‑situ observations, beachgoer surveys and a targeted communications campaign to evaluate and promote the new signage.
RESULTS: Three unique signage designs were developed following community and stakeholder focus groups and were subsequently tested in VR simulated beach environments. In the VR trial, participants’ intention to swim, confidence in decision-making and likelihood of seeking additional information indicated two of the signs demonstrated greater effectiveness compared to the third design. Preliminary evaluation of the two new signage designs, installed at beaches in summer 2025–26, indicated they improved beachgoer awareness and recall of specific beach hazards and modified attitudes towards planned beach activities compared to pre-installation testing. More detailed results will be available at the conclusion of the trial (June 2026).
CONCLUSION: Preliminary findings suggest that community‑informed, co‑designed coastal safety signage can strengthen hazard awareness and support safer decision‑making among beachgoers in high‑risk coastal environments. The mixed-methods, iterative approach used in this study offers a promising model for developing more effective public safety communication tools, with strong potential for adaptation and expansion to other coastal regions and inland waterways beyond the initial trial sites.