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Dr Adrienne Young

Senior Research Fellow

Centre for Health Services Research
Faculty of Medicine
a.m.young@uq.edu.au

Overview

I am an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian (AdvAPD), and currently hold positions at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (Research Coordinator, Nutrition and Dietetics), and University of Queensland (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research).

My research program aims to improve nutrition care in Australian hospitals to prevent avoidable hospital-acquired complications and optimise patient outcomes, particularly for older inpatients. My research program consists of extensive observational research to establish the size and impact of the problem, qualitative research to understand patient, caregiver and staff perspectives and opportunities, and pragmatic implementation research to test, compare and evaluate different models of nutrition care in practice. Through my research, I am to improve care of people accessing health services across the continuum of care, with a particular interest in frailty, preventing delirium and functional decline, and person-centred care.

My research has been of interest nationally and internationally, receiving Research in Practice awards at national Dietitians Australia conferences, Young Achiever Award by the Dietitians Association of Australia in 2014 and New Researcher Award at the International Congress of Dietetics in 2012. My leadership and contribution to the dietetics profession was recently recognised through receiving the prestigious Barbara Chester Memorial Award.

I have an interest and developing expertise in consumer engagement in research and health service improvement, and I am regularly asked to speak on this topic at conferences, forums and panel discussions. I am proud of work I co-led with a health consumer to develop a co-design framework in Metro North Health. This framework is freely available online for anyone to use: https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/get-involved/co-design.

I am an implementation scientist and have facilitated workshops on this topic at UQ, QUT, University of Adelaide and Metro North HHS within a team of local and international experts. I was part of the team that developed the Allied Health Translating Research into Practice (AH-TRIP) initiative, which aims to increase knowledge translation capacity for health professionals. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/database-tools/translating-research-into-practice-trip/translating-research-into-practice.

As a passionate advocate for the training and career pathways for clinician-scientists, I have supervised 3 PhDs to completion, and is currently supervising 6 research higher degree candidates (5 of whom are embedded health professionals within the health system), 4 early career research fellows and nearly 40 dietetics research honours students.

Research Interests

  • Improving nutrition in hospitals
    Hospitalisation is a time that many people eat poorly, which impacts on their recovery. My research has demonstrated that multidisciplinary interventions implemented at the patient, ward and system level can result in modest improvements in nutritional intake. However, hospital acquired malnutrition remains prevalent (~25% of inpatients), highlighting the need for further work to improve hospital nutrition. Opportunities lie with co-design with patients, families and clinicians, use of routinely collected data to monitor and drive improvements, and defining the value of hospital foodservices to advocate for investment and policy change.

Research Impacts

My nutrition and mealtimes research has been cited in 6 international practice guidelines (including National Institute for Health & Care Excellence; European Society for Clinical Nutrition & Metabolism guidelines; Chinese Medical Association) and 12 national and international policy documents (including Ireland's Food, Nutrition and Hydration Policy for Acute Hospitals). These guidelines cite my research as evidence supporting recommendations for multi-disciplinary mealtime care and systems approaches to nutrition and food services.

My research has been translated into practice to significantly change patient care in Queensland hospitals through implementation of the Eat Walk Engage program. I led the development, implementation and evaluation of the Eat component as part of my PhD (and informed by my experience as a clinical dietitian), which was then incorporated with a series of other pilot studies to inform design of Eat Walk Engage. I directly contributed to developing the Eat Walk Engage program logic, implementation strategy and process evaluation using data from my prior studies and my expertise in implementation science. I co-led the implementation and process evaluation of the multi-centre CHERISH trial, the first international trial of a ward-based delirium prevention program (Eat Walk Engage). This trial demonstrated a 40% reduction in the incidence of delirium, and directly informed QH’s investment in the implementation of Eat Walk Engage in 50 wards in 19 metropolitan and regional hospitals from Cairns to the Gold Coast directly impacting care of 40,000 patients every year (recurrent funding: $5M per annum).

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Queensland University of Technology
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Nutrition and Dietetics, Queensland University of Technology

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

  • Malnutrition terminology

    Master Philosophy

  • Incidence, risk factors and health outcomes of Hospital Acquired Malnutrition

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Sleepless in the geriatric rehabilitation unit?

    Master Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Engaging consumers in frailty and ageing research

    This PhD project is part of a Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care Mission Program that aims to partner with consumers to deliver a national response to frailty. Frailty is the most significant challenge to ‘ageing well’ in Australia. There are evidence-based interventions to slow the progression of frailty and reduce frailty. However, intervention programs are not routinely available as there are barriers to access and implementation in health systems.

    This PhD project may explore:

    • best practice methods for engaging consumers (older people and carers) in frailty and ageing research
    • evaluation of consumer engagement within existing frailty and ageing research trials
    • development of a consumer engagement model for a national clinical/research network.

    The PhD candidate will have the opportunity to develop skills in qualitative research methods, consumer engagement and co-design. The candidate would be supported by experts in health consumer engagement and co-design.

  • Implementation of A Digital Frailty Index for Acute Care Settings in Queensland

    This PhD project is part of a NHMRC-funded Partnership Project with Queensland Health that aims to develop and integrate a digital frailty index into hospital systems to enable frailty-informed decision-making about treatments and care options.

    Frailty identifies patients at greatest risk of multiple adverse outcomes, including longer inpatient stay, hospital-acquired complications, and death. Health care systems are currently designed to meet the needs of patients with acute, single-system problems, and many frail patients of all ages receive invasive treatments from which they cannot recover. Specialists are basing their decision-making on their technical expertise rather than on an understanding of the frailty status of patients and how that impacts the risks and benefits of interventions

    This PhD project may involve:

    • Evaluating how the Digital Frailty Index is used in practice and how it changes treatment decisions and conversations;
    • Exploring patient and caregiver perspectives about the Digital Frailty Index;
    • Testing different strategies to improve the uptake and use of the Digital Frailty Index in practice; and/or
    • Understanding barriers and enablers to implementing the Digital Frailty Index in practice to guide future statewide/national implementation.

    This PhD will directly impact on care of older people in hospital and will inform the future implementation of the Digital Frailty Index at a state and national level.

    The PhD candidate will have the opportunity to develop skills in quantitative and qualitative research methods, statistics, health informatics, implementation science and health system improvement. The candidate will be supported by experts in implementation science, ageing and geriatric medicine, statistics, digital health, and health system development.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book Chapter

  • Nutrition and delirium

    Mudge, Alison, Young, Adrienne, Cahill, Margaret and Treleaven, Elise (2021). Nutrition and delirium. Interdisciplinary nutritional management and care for older adults: an evidence-based practical guide for nurses. (pp. 237-248) edited by Ólöf G. Geirsdóttir and Jack J. Bell. New York, NY, United States: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-63892-4_19

  • Institutional interventions to prevent and treat undernutrition

    Young, Adrienne (2018). Institutional interventions to prevent and treat undernutrition. Advanced nutrition and dietetics in nutrition support. (pp. 176-183) edited by Mary Hickson and Sara Smith. Hoboken, NJ United States: Wiley Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781118993880.ch4.2

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Malnutrition terminology

    Master Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Incidence, risk factors and health outcomes of Hospital Acquired Malnutrition

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Sleepless in the geriatric rehabilitation unit?

    Master Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Investigating the Nutritional Needs of a Rehabilitation Population

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Exploring the delivery of person-centred nutrition care in subacute rehabilitation units

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Sustainable career pathways for clinician-scientists in Australian public health

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Engaging consumers in frailty and ageing research

    This PhD project is part of a Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care Mission Program that aims to partner with consumers to deliver a national response to frailty. Frailty is the most significant challenge to ‘ageing well’ in Australia. There are evidence-based interventions to slow the progression of frailty and reduce frailty. However, intervention programs are not routinely available as there are barriers to access and implementation in health systems.

    This PhD project may explore:

    • best practice methods for engaging consumers (older people and carers) in frailty and ageing research
    • evaluation of consumer engagement within existing frailty and ageing research trials
    • development of a consumer engagement model for a national clinical/research network.

    The PhD candidate will have the opportunity to develop skills in qualitative research methods, consumer engagement and co-design. The candidate would be supported by experts in health consumer engagement and co-design.

  • Implementation of A Digital Frailty Index for Acute Care Settings in Queensland

    This PhD project is part of a NHMRC-funded Partnership Project with Queensland Health that aims to develop and integrate a digital frailty index into hospital systems to enable frailty-informed decision-making about treatments and care options.

    Frailty identifies patients at greatest risk of multiple adverse outcomes, including longer inpatient stay, hospital-acquired complications, and death. Health care systems are currently designed to meet the needs of patients with acute, single-system problems, and many frail patients of all ages receive invasive treatments from which they cannot recover. Specialists are basing their decision-making on their technical expertise rather than on an understanding of the frailty status of patients and how that impacts the risks and benefits of interventions

    This PhD project may involve:

    • Evaluating how the Digital Frailty Index is used in practice and how it changes treatment decisions and conversations;
    • Exploring patient and caregiver perspectives about the Digital Frailty Index;
    • Testing different strategies to improve the uptake and use of the Digital Frailty Index in practice; and/or
    • Understanding barriers and enablers to implementing the Digital Frailty Index in practice to guide future statewide/national implementation.

    This PhD will directly impact on care of older people in hospital and will inform the future implementation of the Digital Frailty Index at a state and national level.

    The PhD candidate will have the opportunity to develop skills in quantitative and qualitative research methods, statistics, health informatics, implementation science and health system improvement. The candidate will be supported by experts in implementation science, ageing and geriatric medicine, statistics, digital health, and health system development.

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

malnutrition, older adults, nutrition

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ORCID: 0000-0002-4498-4342

Scopus ID: 56221264100

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