Jennifer Robyn Powers

The University of Newcastle, Australia · Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing

Background: Consent to link survey data with health-related administrative datasets is increasingly being sought but little is known about the influence of recruiting via online technologies on participants' consents. The goal of this paper is to examine what factors (sociodemographic, recruitment, incentives, data linkage information, health) are...

Background: Longitudinal research has demonstrated that experiences of abuse and adversity are not consistently reported over time; however, there is a paucity of available evidence regarding the consistency of reporting experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) over time. This study aimed to investigate the consistency of self-reported IPV i...

BACKGROUND With health research practices shifting toward rapid recruitment of samples through the use of online approaches, little is known about the impact of these recruitment methods on continued participation in cohort studies. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to report on the retention of a cohort of young women who were recruited using an open re...

Background With health research practices shifting toward rapid recruitment of samples through the use of online approaches, little is known about the impact of these recruitment methods on continued participation in cohort studies. Objective This study aimed to report on the retention of a cohort of young women who were recruited using an open re...

Issue addressed: Smoking, risky drinking, overweight and obesity, and physical inactivity are health‐risk factors (HRFs) that contribute significantly to morbidity worldwide. Several initiatives have been introduced over the past two decades to reduce these HRFs. This paper examines changes in the prevalence of HRFs in young women (aged 18–23 years...

Objective: To identify the prevalence of bullying among women aged 18-23 in 2013, and to describe the demographic characteristics, health and risk factors of those who experienced bullying. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis using data from the 1989-95 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, a nationally representative coho...

Objective To determine rates of vaginal delivery, emergency caesarean section, and elective caesarean section for first and second births in Australia, and to identify maternal predictors of caesarean section. Methods Data were from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. A total of 5275 women aged 18–38 years, who had given birth to t...

Issue addressed Smoking, risky drinking, overweight and obesity, and physical inactivity are health‐risk factors (HRFs) that contribute significantly to morbidity worldwide. Several initiatives have been introduced over the past two decades to reduce these HRFs. This paper examines changes in the prevalence of HRFs in young women (aged 18–23 years)...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence and determinants of time pressure among younger Australian women born between 1973 and 1978 over a 17-year period. Methods: Using six surveys (N=14 247 at baseline in 1996) from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women`s Health (ALSWH), we estimated fixed-effects ordered logistic...

Background: The long-term impact of binge drinking on subsequent depressive symptoms is unclear. The aims were to identify longitudinal patterns of binge drinking and whether binge drinking preceded depressive symptoms in the short-term (1-6 years) and long-term (10-15 years). Methods: Longitudinal data from 1996, 2000 and 2009 mailed surveys of...

To evaluate the impact of drought on the mental health of rural Australian women and those in vulnerable sub-populations: women who were more isolated, poorer and less educated; and women who had histories of chronic disease or poor mental health. Surveys were mailed in 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2008 to 6,664 women born between 1946 and1951 who we...

In 2012, we set out to recruit a cohort of at least 10,000 women aged 18-23 from across Australia. With recent research demonstrating the inadequacy of traditional approaches to recruiting women in this age group, we elected to conduct open recruiting. Our aim was to report on the overall success of open recruiting and to evaluate the relative succ...

Introduction and AimsTo examine women's drinking behaviour relative to Australian guidelines and identify associated factors over the lifespan.Design and Methods Data came from three prospective cohorts of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health aged 18–23 (n = 14 247), 45–50 (n = 13 715) and 70–75 years (n = 12 432) when first surveyed...

Longitudinal studies often include substudies which involve collection of specific and more detailed data from subsets of study participants. The longitudinal study framework adds methodological strength to these substudies through enabling sampling of individuals with exposures or outcomes of interest, and through retrospective and prospective acc...

Longitudinal studies are important because they can help provide answers to questions about cause and effect, although their complexity leads to a number of challenges for the researcher. By their very nature longitudinal studies may continue over a long period of time and/or have many data points and therefore good documentation of procedures is e...

Background: Faced with the challenge of recruiting young adults for health studies, researchers have increasingly turned to the Internet and social networking sites, such as Facebook, as part of their recruitment strategy. As yet, few large-scale studies are available that report on the characteristics and representativeness of the sample obtained...

Background A high rate of stillbirth was previously observed in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health (ALSWH). Our primary objective was to test the validity and reliability of self-reported stillbirth data linked to state-based administrative datasets. Methods Self-reported data, collected as part of the ALSWH cohort born in 1973–19...

Report prepared for the Australian Government Department of Health

Risky patterns of alcohol use prior to pregnancy increase the risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancies and subsequent adverse outcomes. It is important to understand how consumption changes once women become pregnant. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of women that partake in risky drinking patterns before pregnancy and to examin...

To identify predictors of antenatal alcohol consumption among women who usually consume alcohol. Prospective cohort study. Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). A total of 1969 women sampled from the ALSWH 1973-78 cohort. Women were included if they were pregnant in 2000, 2003, 2006 or 2009. The relationship between antenatal alc...

To determine whether elder abuse can predict mortality and disability over the ensuing 12 years. Population-based prospective cohort study of women aged 70 to 75 in 1996; survival analysis. Australia. Twelve thousand sixty-six women with complete data on elder abuse. Elder abuse was assessed using the 12-item Vulnerability to Abuse Screening Scale...

To report on the proportion and characteristics of Australian infants who are fed, and mothers who feed, in accordance with the national and international breastfeeding duration targets of six, 12 and 24 months. Furthermore, to examine the longitudinal breastfeeding duration patterns for women with more than one child. Breastfeeding duration data f...

Question: Can differences in Australian birth intervention rates be explained by women's residence at the time of childbearing?. Methods: Data were collected prospectively via surveys in 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009 from women, born between 1973 and 1978, of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Analysis included data from 5886...

Objective: To compare the health and well-being of women by exposure to adverse climate events. An Exceptional Circumstance declaration (EC) was used as a proxy for adverse climate events. The Australian government may provide financial support to people living in EC areas, i.e. areas experiencing a one in 20-25 year event (drought, flood or fire)...

Background In 2009, Australian alcohol guidelines for pregnancy changed from low to no alcohol intake. Previous research found a high proportion of pregnant Australian women drank during pregnancy; however, there has been limited investigation of whether pregnant women comply with 2009 alcohol guidelines. The purpose of this study was to provide an...

We aimed to use simple clinical questions to group women and provide their specific rates of miscarriage, preterm delivery, and stillbirth for reference. Further, our purpose was to describe who has experienced particularly low or high rates of each event. Data were collected as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, a nationa...

Concurrent drinking and smoking during pregnancy is a major public health concern. Changes in these behaviours are under-researched, although essential if effective interventions are to be implemented. Hence this paper investigated characteristics of women who decreased concurrent drinking and smoking during pregnancy. 1,591 women were identified a...

Iodine deficiency has re-emerged in Australia. Pregnant and breastfeeding women need higher iodine intakes (estimated average requirements: 160 μg/day and 190 μg/day) than non-pregnant women (100 μg/day) because iodine is critical for early infant development. The impact of iodine fortification of bread on women's iodine intake is evaluated by repr...

To date, no studies have used population-level data to investigate whether maternal location of residence (metropolitan vs. regional/remote populations) is associated with alcohol use in pregnancy. This information has important implications for appropriate service provision. Information on all live births in New South Wales, Australia, was linked...

Interpretation of changes in health and health care utilization patterns across the life span depends on an understanding of the effects of age, period, and cohort. The purpose of this article is to illustrate differences among three generations of women in demographic factors, health risk factors, and health status indicators from 1996 to 2008. Th...

To assess women's compliance with different Australian guidelines on alcohol intake during pregnancy and examine factors that might influence compliance. We analysed prospective, population-based data on women aged 22-33 years who were pregnant before October 2001, when guidelines recommended zero alcohol (n = 419), or were first pregnant after Oct...

To investigate the impact of attrition on prevalence and associations between variables across four waves of a longitudinal study. Prevalence of socio-demographic and health characteristics were estimated for respondents to one, two, three or all four waves of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health cohort born between 1973 and 1978. As...

The aims of this study were to develop and evaluate a shorter gestational age estimation method based on the Dubowitz scoring system (DSS) that could be taught easily to untrained health-care workers. Using the DSS, seven criteria were identified that explained 90% of the variance in gestational age estimation. Ventral suspension was excluded, skin...

Partner violence is linked to cervical cancer and other gynaecological conditions. However, results of current research into associations between partner violence and cervical cancer screening have been inconclusive. Therefore, the current research investigates the association between partner violence and inadequate cervical cancer screening. Parti...

Moderate alcohol consumption has been associated with health benefits in several studies, but few studies investigating such association for elders have been done. So, we explored the relationship between alcohol intake and changes in physical health-related quality of life (HRQoL). As analyses of longitudinal HRQoL data excluding diseased particip...

To assess the prospective association between alcohol consumption and self-rated health: in particular whether there is a relationship between stable alcohol intake and health; whether health is affected by changes in alcohol consumption; whether having a chronic condition alters the relationships between stable and changing alcohol intake and heal...

Alcohol misuse is responsible for extensive personal harm and high societal costs. Research related specifically to women's alcohol consumption is important due to gender differences in clinical outcomes and disease progression. This study examines longitudinal changes in the patterns of alcohol consumption associated with harm in the long term (ch...

To compare the sociodemographic characteristics, health status and health service use of vegetarians, semi-vegetarians and non-vegetarians. In cross-sectional data analyses of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health in 2000, 9113 women (aged 22-27 years) were defined as non-vegetarians if they reported including red meat in their diet,...

To describe the risk factors for various types of attrition in three age cohorts of women in a longitudinal study and to discuss strategies to minimise attrition. Analysis of survey data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, collected by mailed questionnaire. In 1996, the study recruited and surveyed a national random sample of...

Objective: To explore differences in quality of life and health service use for older women living in urban, rural and remote areas of Australia. Methods: 8387 women aged 70–75 years when enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health completed mailed surveys in 1996, 1999 and 2002. Results: Women living in urban, rural and remote...

To estimate differences in self-rated health by mode of administration and to assess the value of multiple imputation to make self-rated health comparable for telephone and mail. In 1996, Survey 1 of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health was answered by mail. In 1998, 706 and 11,595 mid-age women answered Survey 2 by telephone and mai...

This study investigates the sense of belonging to a neighbourhood among 9445 women aged 73-78 years participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Thirteen items designed to measure sense of neighbourhood were included in the survey of the older women in 1999. Survey data provided a range of measures of demographic, social an...

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of the prevalence of depressive symptoms among a national cohort of young Australian women, and the characteristics of those who experience them. It explores the associations between demographic and health-related variables and depressive symptoms in a representative sample of 9333 Australian women aged 22...

Objectives: To assess the acceptability, reliability and validity of the 11-item Duke Social Support Index (DSSI) in community-dwelling older Australian women, and to describe its relationship with the women's sociodemographic and health characteristics. Methods: Women aged 70–75 years were randomly selected from the national Medicare database, wit...

The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is frequently used in epidemiological surveys to screen for depression, especially among older adults. This article addresses the problem of non-completion of a short form of the CES-D (CESD-10) in a mailed survey of 73- to 78-year-old women enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study...

To examine associations between nutrition screening checklists and the health of older women. Cross-sectional postal survey including measures of health and health service utilisation. as well as the Australian Nutrition Screening Initiative (ANSI), adapted from the Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI). Australia, 1996. In total, 12,939 women aged...

The validity of a brief self-report screening measure for elder abuse was examined on a nationally representative sample of more than 12,000 older women it? the baseline survey of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. The screening instrument was a modification Of the Hwalek-Sengstock Elder Abuse Screening Test. Construct validity wa...

The relation between multiple social roles and health is a particular issue for women, who continue to take major responsibility for childcare and domestic labor despite increasing levels of involvement in the paid workforce. This article analyzes Survey 1 data from the Australian Longitudinal Survey on Women's Health to explore relations between r...

Expectations associated with the multiple roles adopted by women over the life-course have contributed to feelings of time pressure and stress for many women. There is also a growing body of evidence that leisure participation contributes to individual health and well-being and may serve to moderate levels of stress. Explorations of associations be...

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of the National Death Index (NDI) in identifying participants in the oldest cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) who had died between 1996 and 1998. Methods: Identifying information for each woman was matched with the NDI using a probabilistic algorithm and clerical review....

Associations between self-reported ‘low iron’, general health and well-being, vitality and tiredness in women, were examined using physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) component summary and vitality (VT) scores from the MOS short-form survey (SF-36). 14,762 young (18–23 years) and 14,072 mid-age (45–50 years) women, randomly selected from the national h...

The current study was designed to confirm that female drivers sit closer to the steering wheel than do male drivers and to investigate whether this expected difference in sitting position is attributable to differences in the physical dimensions of men and women. Driver body dimensions and multiple measures of sitting distance from the steering whe...

Background: Few studies have looked specifically at the outcomes of cardiac valve replacement for rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in developing or indigenous populations. Aims: To describe outcomes of cardiac valve replacement in patients with rheumatic heart disease living in urban and rural communities in northern Australia. Methods: Retrospective...

The purpose of this study was to examine factors which affect driving behaviour and accident rates in women in Australia. Two groups of women (aged 18-23 and 45-50 years) participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, completed a mailed questionnaire on driver behaviour and road accidents. Self reported accident rates in the...

Risk factors for Aboriginal low birthweight (< 2500 g), preterm birth (< 37 weeks' gestation) and intrauterine growth retardation (under the tenth percentile of Australian birthweights for gestational age) were examined in 503 live–born singletons recorded as born to an Aboriginal mother and routinely delivered at the Royal Darwin Hospital between...

Key nutrient densities of the diet of two remote northern coastal Aboriginal communities were measured using the store-turnover method during the periods that three store managers were responsible for each store respectively. Individual store managers were a greater determinant of nutrient density than the community itself. Furthermore, nutrient de...

A retrospective review of coronal records was performed for 179 adult decedents who came to coronal autopsy in 1990 and who had been living in the Top End of the Northern Territory at the time of death. The directly standardized rate of autopsy-examined sudden death was 7.4 times higher for Aboriginal people than for non-Aboriginal people. Coronary...

In mid 1989, leaded petrol was replaced by unleaded petrol to reduce lead toxicity in petrol sniffers in Maningrida, a remote Aboriginal community in Northern Australia. RETROSPECTIVE REVIEWS: Hospital admissions between 1987 and 1992 due to petrol sniffing were compared for Maningrida and a community using only leaded petrol. Admissions from Manin...

A method preserving the activity of the erythrocytic enzyme delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (EC 4.2.1.24) was developed using a vehicle of 50% aqueous glycerol containing dithiothreitol (80 microM). Whole heparinized blood (0.5 ml) was added to 0.75 ml of this mixture in a cryovial tube (capacity 1.3 ml), mixed well and stored in a freezer at...

This study examined blood lead and creatine kinase levels in a group of 24 Australian Aboriginal males admitted to the hospital for treatment of severe petrol sniffing related illness after using only leaded petrol and 27 sniffers, 16 ex-sniffers and 13 non-sniffers from an isolated Aboriginal community using only unleaded petrol. Creatine kinase l...

(i) To describe birth size of Aboriginal babies by sex, gestational age, and Aboriginality; (ii) to analyse the results with reference to standards of ponderal index and birthweight for gestational age. 570 liveborn singletons routinely delivered at Royal Darwin Hospital between January 1987 and March 1991, and recorded in the Delivery Suite Regist...

Many Aboriginal women do not recall their last menstrual period date, so alternative methods of estimating gestational age are necessary for optimal obstetric and neonatal care. In this retrospective review of 605 Aboriginal infants born at the Royal Darwin Hospital, the gestational age was estimated by the Dubowitz method and compared with availab...

To describe childhood hospitalisation patterns in rural Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. Longitudinal data for 1976-1985 were collected retrospectively between March 1986 and December 1987. COHORT: All children born between 1 January 1976 and 31 December 1985 and identified in records at 10 community health centres were included in...

To identify social and environmental differences associated with differences in admission rates of children from 10 rural Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. Between March 1986 and December 1987, records of hospital admissions of the cohort of children for 1976-1985 were examined retrospectively; cross-sectional measurements of 74 his...

Health status was assessed in 39 kava users and 34 non-users in a coastal Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land. Twenty (27%) respondents were very heavy (mean consumption, 440 g/week) users of kava; 15 (21%) respondents were heavy (310 g/week) users of kava and four (5%) respondents were occasional (100 g/week) users of kava. Kava users were more li...