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Centre for Health Research

The Centre for Health Research (CHR), formally known as the Centre for Health, Informatics and Economics Research, is a multi-disciplinary centre committed to research advancing understanding of issues of greatest potential benefit to the health and welfare of our community.

Through focused research teams, CHR tackles health behaviours, influences, and outcomes associated with the key communicable and non-communicable diseases of our time. The Centre has expertise on behaviour change, chronic disease, ageing, and inequity.

The Centre has the key aim of being internationally recognised for high impact health-related research. This is achieved through the objectives of knowledge development, capacity building, dissemination, translation, and community and stakeholder engagement. 

Research themes

Research partners

Health and behavioural sciences
Revolutionising mental health
UniSQ’s Institute for Resilient Regions has supported research into mental health issues in young people for the past five years and has secured a $5 million grant to develop an online platform that builds on that work.
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Health and behavioural sciences
New strategy to prevent obesity
Over the past five years, Dr Bennie’s research has provided the first studies to show that more than 85 per cent of Australian adults do not meet the muscle-strengthening exercise guidelines which require this kind of training more than twice a week.
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Health and behavioural sciences
Regional cancer survival
Within five years of a cancer diagnosis, rural cancer patients are more likely to die from this disease because they live in the bush. UniSQ researchers are working on several joint initiatives with partners including Cancer Council Queensland and Prostate Cancer Foundation Australia to improve cancer survivorship and quality of life for regional Queenslanders.
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Health and behavioural sciences
Functional foods - the new 'medicine'
In less than ten years, more than two-thirds of the Australian population will be classified as overweight or obese. Discover how UniSQ's Functional Foods Research Group is providing a foundation to develop scientifically proven functional foods to reduce the risks associated with chronic lifestyle disorders.
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Health and behavioural sciences
Singing towards a better life with Parkinson's disease
UniSQ's research and Senior Lecturer in the School of Creative Arts, Dr Melissa Forbes, worked with the local Toowoomba Parkinson's support group to establish a singing group know as 'Park 'n Songs'. While the physiological impacts of singing are well known, Dr Forbes said her studies had shown there were even broader benefits.
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Research centre contacts