PHRP celebrates 10 years with special issue on preventive health

The Sax Institute’s peer-reviewed journal Public Health Research & Practice is celebrating 10 years of publication with a special issue featuring contributions from Editorial Board members and other experts in public health.

The 10th Anniversary issue of PHRP includes a four-part series of commentary papers examining successes and challenges in prevention in Australia, including the role of  primary care, the meaningful engagement of First Nations people, and tobacco control.

Editor-In-Chief Professor Don Nutbeam AO said that the special issue highlights the important standing of the Journal. “PHRP has strengthened the connection between public health research, policy and practice over the past decade. That connection continues in this special issue.”

The papers focussing on Australia’s National Preventive Health Strategy include contributions from:

  • Professor Ben Smith, PHRP Associate Editor, who examines Australia’s “sporadic and disjointed policy implementation” but notes that the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030 and the Australian Centre for Disease Control are “opportunities for improving the leadership and coordination of implementation”.
  • First Nations public health experts Khwanruethai Ngampromwong and Alana Gall who call for progress in preventive health that is based on “a fundamental shift – one that centres First Nations self-determination; embeds our ways of knowing, being, and healing; and invests in community-led solutions.”
  • Professor Mark Harris AO, PHRP Associate Editor, who reflects on the role primary care has played in preventive health. He acknowledges the advances made in cancer screening, prevention of heart disease and immunisation, but says that assessment of “patients with overweight and unhealthy behaviours” needs attention and funding.
  • Professor Becky Freeman, PHRP Associate Editor, who looks back on ten years of wins and setbacks in tobacco control policy and calls for more innovative policies and stricter access to cigarettes for smoking rates to reach the national target of 5% by 2030.

Other papers in this special issue look at:

  • The lessons learned in the monitoring and management of the COVID-19 pandemic, by Editorial Board member Professor Catherine Bennett and Associate Professor Meru Sheel.
  • The evolution of the concept of planetary health, by Associate Professor Angie Bone, PHRP Associate Editor, and colleagues.
  • The potential and challenges of artificial intelligence in public health, by Editor-In-Chief Professor Don Nutbeam and Editorial Board member Professor Andrew Milat.
  • The future training of the public health workforce, by Adjunct Associate Professor Priscilla Robinson and Editorial Board member Professor Vivian Lin.

PHRP is published by the Sax Institute and produced in partnership with CSIRO Publishing. Building on the 25-year heritage of the New South Wales Public Health Bulletin, the first edition of PHRP was published in 2014 by the Sax Institute.

Over the past 10 years, PHRP has published close to 500 papers, and has attained the status of highest-ranked Australian public health and health policy journal.

In his editorial for the special issue, Professor Nutbeam said that many of the papers published in PHRP have provided evidence and supported advocacy for change in policy and practice across a wide range of public health issues, “most notably informing our understanding of and response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and internationally”.

Among the most highly cited papers from PHRP over recent years are a research paper on health literacy and disparities in COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours; a systematic review of the health risks from passive exposure to electronic cigarette vapour; and a research paper on social media campaigns and what public health can learn from the corporate sector.