Research for Impact
Family planning organisations lead and/or contribute to key research and consultancy projects that aim to generate social change as well as deliver sexual and reproductive health outcomes. We value our connection to universities, institutes and students.
| Family Planning Organisation | Project Name | Description | University/Partner |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | National Survey of Secondary School Students and Sexual Health | A national study exploring the sexual health and well-being of school-age young people in Australia. The study explores young people’s experiences of sex, relationships, sexual health and school-based relationships and sexuality education (RSE). | LaTrobe University |
| All | Writing Themselves In | This survey asked 6,418 LGBTQA+ people aged 14 to 21 about their experiences with education, homelessness, harassment, assault, mental health, community connections and more. This is the largest ever study on the experiences of LGBTQA+ young people aged 14-21 in Australia. | LaTrobe University |
| All | Building an Integrated Approach to Supporting Sexual Health Promotion and Education Among Young People. | Buidling an evidence-base to enhance capacity for parents/carers and build a multi-sector integrated approach. | LaTrobe University |
| All | The Australian Contraception and Abortion Primary Care Practitioner Support Network (AusCAPPS) | The Australian Contraception and Abortion Primary Care Practitioner Support Network (AusCAPPS) improves equitable access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) and early medical abortion (EMA) services in primary care. To support the expansion of best-practice service delivery across Australia, the AusCAPPS Network connects EMA and LARC providers through peer-networking opportunities and access to resources and training. | Monash University |
| FPA (NSW) | Very early medical abortion clinical trial (VEMA) | Clinical trial to investigate if the efficacy of VEMA is non-inferior within a non-inferiority margin of 3 percent to delayed abortion treatment initiated when an intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) can be confirmed on ultrasound | Karolinska Institute |
| FPA (NSW) | A pilot study to identify microbial and immune biomarkers for improved diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease | A pilot case-control study comparing the pathogenic, immunological and cervical microbiome factors in women with PID compared with those in controls (n=60). The results of the pilot study will be used to inform an application for a larger nationally funded study which would potentially lead to the development of immunological and microbiological diagnostic tests and other predictive tools for the development of PID. | University of Technology Sydney |
| FPA (NSW) | COMPASS - A randomised controlled trial of primary HPV vs. cytology screening for cervical cancer in HPVunvaccinated and vaccinated women in Australia | Compass is a randomized controlled trial to compare 2.5-yearly cytology-based cervical screening with 5-yearly primary HPV screening in Australian women aged 25-69. Currently, eligible participants are women, aged 25-38 years (born after 30th June 1980), attending for routine screening at Participating Health Practices. | Cancer Council NSW |
| FPA (NSW) | Clinician Attitudes, Knowledge and Practice following Implementation of Universal Self Collected Cervical Screening Pathway | Identify attitudes, knowledge, and practices of cervical screening clinicians regarding self-collected cervical screening. Inform ongoing targeted education campaigns and resources to address identified gaps. | |
| FPA (NSW) | Young migrant and refugee women and the contraceptive implant | Qualitative study to investigate the factors that influence and inform young migrant and refugee women’s views, experiences and decision-making in relation to the contraceptive implant. Aim is to identify opportunities for strengthening contraception counselling, resources and messaging for young migrant and refugee women in order to facilitate contraceptive choice | |
| FPA (NSW) | ScreenEqual | A multi-institute collaboration which aims to identify facilitators and barriers to participation in the national cervical screening program among people with intellectual disability, and to co-design and evaluate the impact of multifaceted interventions to improve access and uptake. | WSU, UNSW, USYD |
| FPA (NSW) | Improving counselling for emergency contraception: A unique job aide for pharmacists in Fiji | UTS, Fiji National University | |
| FPA (NSW) | Increasing cervical screening in Tuvalu | A multi-year program (2019-2024) to increase the cervical screening and treatment in Tuvalu. Uses a train-the-trainer model to build capacity in nurses, midwives and medical personnel | |
| FPA (NSW) | Sustainable and Equitable Access to Reproductive Choices (SEARCH) | A multi-year program (2021-2024) to establish and implement a service model that will build the capacity of local service providers in regional and rural areas over three years to provide high quality clinical services that are financially sustainable supplemented by fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) services where necessary. Focused on improving access to LARC and termination of pregnancy | |
| Jenny Cao (FPPA Board Director) | Migrant mums and maternity care: community-based participatory research project | The University of Melbourne | |
| Jenny Cao (FPPA Board Director) | Prevalence, burden, treatment and barriers to accessing treatment of contraceptive-induced menstrual changes in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review | Burnett Institute | |
| Jenny Cao (FPAA Board Director - Youth/IPPF | L-arginine and L-citrulline supplementation during pregnancy for the prevention and treatment preeclampsia and related adverse outcomes: A systematic review and meta- analysis | Burnett Institute | |
| Jenny Cao (FPAA Board Director - Youth/IPPF | Self-collection of samples for group B streptococcus testing during pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis | Burnett Institute | |
| Jenny Cao (FPAA Board Director - Youth/IPPF | Evaluating sustainability of the WHO Labour Care Guide in routine clinical care in Karnataka, India: a multi-methods follow-up study | Burnett Institute | |
| Jenny Cao (FPAA Board Director - Youth/IPPF | The state of abortion services in five Pacific Island Countries: a scoping review and legisative analysis | Burnett Institute | |
| Jenny Cao (FPAA Board Director - Youth/IPPF | Maternal and Child Health Nursing: A golden opportunity to integrate screening for reproductive coercion and increase effective contraception use | LaTrobe University | |
| Mikayla Wolfe, FPAA Board Director - Youth | Supporting Choice for Cervical Screening and implementation research | A collaborative research project that aims to generate the evidence about how the choice for self-collection can be implemented, across a range of services and settings, in ways that ensure equitable access and increased participation for people who currently experience screening barriers. | The University of Melbourne |
| SHINE SA | Gender Q | A multi-study, multi-year (2022-2026) program is exploring ways to enhance the capacity of parents/carers, the community sector, and schools to better engage in sexual health promotion and education that will support young people. An important outcome of this project will be the development of a National Strategic Framework for a multi-sector and multi-setting (integrated) approach to sexual health promotion and education with young people. | The Unversity of Adelaide |
| SHQ (WA) | Screening for Intimate Partner Violence and Reproductive Coercion and Abuse in an urban sexual health clinic | SHQ values research in the sexual health field, in particular around areas where current data is lacking. One such area is reproductive coercion. Reproductive coercion is a term used to describe a range of fertility-controlling behaviours, and is an emerging form of domestic violence. During 2019-2020, any SHQ client who identified as female had the opportunity to allow their de-identified screening data to be used as part of a research project funded by the Australian Government through the Women’s in Leadership and Development Program, to help establish possible links between intimate partner violence/reproductive coercion, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. | SHQ Clinical Research |
| SHQ (WA) | Menstrual cups and Intrauterine Device expulsion – is there an association? | Menstrual cups are reusable devices for collecting menstrual flow. Their popularity is increasing in Australia because of the reduced environmental impact, financial benefits and convenience. SHQ clinical staff had noticed a number of patients experiencing intrauterine device (IUD) expulsion following concurrent menstrual cup use. Although few studies have been published on this topic, recent research suggests that menstrual cup use may indeed increase the risk of IUD expulsion. A pilot retrospective descriptive study has been carried out. A further detailed study is in the planning stages, which we hope will ultimately contribute to advice on how to safely use menstrual cups with IUDs. | SHQ Clinical Research |
| SHQ (WA) | Safe To Tell Project | The Safe to Tell Project aims to increase the capacity of the health workforce to identify and support women with experiences of violence and coercion and ensure that more women who are at risk are identified and supported to be safe in their homes and communities. The evaluation of the project will assist in determining its efficacy and ascertaining the appropriateness of scaling up/adapting the model to other sites. | Curtin University |
| SHQ (WA) | FIFO Sexual Health Project | This pilot project seeks to provide insight into what sexual health promotion strategies would work to improve FIFO workers' knowledge and use of sexually transmissible infection (STI) and blood-borne virus (BBV) prevention measures. Other objectives of the project include assessing the current perceptions of FIFO workers towards such measures and increasing their access to condoms and STI/BBV testing. | Curtin University |
| SHQ (WA) | HERS Project | The HERS Project is a series of workshops delivered in the Perth metropolitan area that help to improve health, safety, educational and economic outcomes for young CALD women. | Curtin University |
| SHQ (WA) | OK To Say Project - Screening for IPV and RCA in people with disability | The It’s Ok to Say project aims to increase accessibility, improve identification of risk, implement telehealth appointments, and support, and create a tool to recognise and respond to FDV in people with disability. | Curtin University |
| SHQ (WA) | Whole School Approach- Relationships and Sexual Health Education Project at Wesley College | Sexual Health Quarters is providing a comprehensive, whole-of-school relationships and sexual health education project at Wesley College with the aim of empowering young people to make informed, safe, responsible, and healthy decisions through the acquisition of knowledge, the development of lifelong skills, and the exploration of values. | Curtin University |
| SHQ (WA) | Forced Mariage Project- To identify the information needs of at risk communities. | Sexual Health Quarters are partnering with The University of Western Australia on a Project to look at resources for women on Forced Marriage. By consulting with women from migrant and refugee communities, the research project aims to determine what resources are available to women in WA that give them information on forced marriage, women’s rights in Australia, and where to go for help, are there any gaps and what resources would the women want. | University of Western Australia |
| Multi | The National HPV Monitoring Program (IMPACT) | IMPACT aimed to produce a timely evaluation of the National HPV Vaccination Program by (i) establishing a national sentinel surveillance system to enable the collection of specimens for HPV testing from priority populations and (ii) monitoring HPV infection prevalence with linkage of data to the National HPV Vaccination Register. | Royal Women’s Hospital Centre for Women’s Infectious Diseases; The Kirby Institute at UNSW; Melbourne Sexual Health Centre; VCS Population Health (VCS Foundation); Cancer Council New South Wales; Menzies School of Population Health; Family Planning New South Wales; The University of Sydney; and The University of Melbourne. |
| SHV | Strategies to Advocate for Access to Medical Abortion: Perspectives of Experts on Organisational Medical Abortion Advocacy in Victoria, Australia | The University of Melbourne | |
| SHV | A Digital Sexual Hub: Co-design, Development and Evaluation of an Online Sexual Health Clinic | This project will develop an online STI testing clinic that is co-designed with young people under age 30. The online clinic will provide STI testing, treatment prescribing, and partner notification, as well as links to sexual health information and resources. The project will assess STI testing and diagnosis rates, user experience, and cost-effectiveness over a two year evaluation period. | The University of Melbourne |
| True (Qld) | True Support Services Hub (Rockhampton) - | Specialist support service offering sexual violence and abuse support to victims and survivors. The service will monitor and respond to reproductive coercion and provide support through forensically trained female clinicians and a specialist sexual assault counsellor. This project is an internal research project, in affiliation with Griffith University including ethics approval and based at the Rockhampton True Clinic - Specialist support service offering sexual violence and abuse support to victims and survivors. The service will monitor and respond to reproductive coercion and provide support through forensically trained female clinicians and a specialist sexual assault counsellor. This project is an internal research project, in affiliation with Griffith University including ethics approval and based at the Rockhampton True Clinic | Griffith University |
| True (Qld) | Health in my Language - case studes | Health in my Language – impact case studies. Reproductive and sexual health education and resources for migrant and refugee groups and organisations. This project provides information either online or in-person on a number of health topics in multiple languages. Not formally a research project but the education team collaborate with the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (Vic) providing impact case studies. | Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health |
| True (Qld) | Maternal and Early Life Origins of Adolescent Menstrual Disorders and Pelvic Pain | This project will survey a large national cohort of adolescent girls about their experiences of menstruation and pelvic pain, looking at numerous life factors, including education, physical activity, family and social life and wellbeing. The aim is to understand if girls are missing out on any important life activities because of their menstrual cycle or pelvic pain. | The University of Queensland |
| True (Qld) | Perception and Acceptability of Presumptive Treatment for Bacterial STIs in High-Risk Groups and Physicians to Assess Chances of Patience Uptake and Clinical Adoption | Understand acceptability of population-based presumptive treatment approaches for bacterial STIs using antibiotic treatment to determine applicability and transferability to public health services in Queensland. Focus on high-risk groups including sexually active young people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, culturally and linguistically diverse people, gay and bisexual men and sex workers. | Queensland University of Technology |
| True (Qld) | A multi-center, prospective, longitudinal cohort study in adults aged 18 to 29 years of the natural history of Chlamydia trachomatis infection and reinfection | VAV00007 Study is a prospective longitudinal cohort study of adults aged 18 to 29 years infected with Chlamydia Trachomatis (Ct) bacteria. The purpose of the study is to monitor urogenital and extragenital infections or reinfections caused by Ct. True Rockhampton is acting in the capacity of a satellite site to CQHHS to support recruitment and sample collection. | Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service |
| True (Qld) | A pilot study to explore pain management protocols and provision of analgesia during IUD insertions in primary care. | This project will review and explore how pain associated with gynaecological procedures (specifically IUD insertions) are addressed and managed. Currently, True offers the option of analgesia for select clients matching criteria that would deem them more likely to experience pain and discomfort during the insertion procedure. This study will assess efficacy and safety of this analgesic option and provide an opportunity to review current guidelines for pain management in this space. | Independent study with support from Prof Gita Mishra |
| True (Qld) | Evaluation of a relationships and sexuality education program for primary schools in Queensland, Australia | Roxana Aguilar Alonso completed her Doctorate of Philosophy by Higher Degree Research Thesis leading an evaluation of two components of the All School Program. a Relationships and Sexuality Education program delivered to school students by True. | Queensland University of Technology |