InsideOut Institute Awards for Research Excellence

Congratulations to Dr Simon Wilksch and Dr Adam Burt for their outstanding research presentations at this year’s ANZAED Conference.

The InsideOut Institute Award for Best Research Presentation was adjudicated by the conference scientific committee from the oral presentations. Due to the very high quality of research presentations and the very close score between first and second place, InsideOut were happy to award both a first place and a runner up prize at this year’s conference.

Congratulations to Dr Simon Wilksch from Flinders University for his presentation on “Media Smart-Targeted: Outcomes from an Australia and New Zealand-wide pragmatic online eating disorder risk reduction trial for young adults.”

The results of a trial of the nine-module online program for young adult women in Australia and New Zealand suggests the program can have a positive impact on reducing onset of eating disorders in participants who were asymptomatic at baseline, and improved remission rates of those participants who had symptoms at baseline. MS-T has the potential to be delivered at-scale for a relatively low cost.

Congratulations also to Dr Adam Burt from Western Sydney University who was awarded a very close second place for his presentation on “Prevalence and Features of Eating Disorders amongst First Australians.”

The study aimed to establish the prevalence among First Australians and to examine clinical features and Health Related Quality of Life. This is an incredibly important piece of research as there is to date very little information on eating disorders amongst this population. Their research found that eating disorders are very common in First Australians; 25 per cent of the 93 First Australian survey respondents had an eating disorder, which was significantly more than other Australians.

The prizes were awarded by InsideOut's Director of Research Stephen Touyz and Deputy Director Danielle Maloney.