Investigators
Dr Rebecca Pavlos, Ms Carla Puca, Dr David Foley, Dr Samantha Carlson, A/Prof Hayley Christian, Dr Briony Hazelton, A/Prof Hannah Moore, Prof Christopher Blyth
Partners
- Kidz Galore
- Ngala
Project description
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many uncertainties and incorrect assumptions about respiratory pathogen transmission. These factors are likely to influence transmission in the home, workplace and for children in out-of-home settings including schools and early childhood education and care (ECEC).
Our research focuses on finding implementable solutions to prevent infection, particularly respiratory infections. With approximately 20% of West Australian children aged 0-12 years attending out-of-home care, including nearly half of those aged 2-3 years, we propose to expand our largely hospital-based research program into the ECEC setting. This broader program of work will identify: i) the frequency and impact of transmission in ECEC centres and ii) the opportunities and implementable strategies to reduce the risk of transmission.
This mixed-methods seed study will provide the essential first step of community and stakeholder engagement as well as generate baseline evidence on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of providers,
staff and parents on infections in the post COVID-19, ECEC environment. We will work with key community groups to develop a ECEC Community Reference Group to inform development of a respiratory infection transmission cohort study and trial to address key questions of infection transmission in children aged 0-5 years in the ECEC setting.
Funders
This work is funded by the Wesfarmers Centre for Vaccines & Infectious Diseases