Nutrition & Dietetics research
The Nutrition department provides acute and chronic disease management services across a range of clinical areas. We study the impact of disease and the outcome of disease treatment on nutritional status, body composition and energy expenditure to guide nutritional assessment and management practices.
Current areas of research include the critically ill, respiratory medicine such as cystic fibrosis (CF), stem cell transplant and surgical oncology.
We also investigate novel dietary interventions for disease, such as looking at the effect of the Mediterranean diet on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease led by Dr Audrey Tierney and PhD student Elena Papamiltiadous.
Achievements
- Madeleine Neff won the 2015 Henrietta Law Memorial Prize for Allied Health for her poster presentation on ethnicity and gestational diabetes at Alfred Health Week.
- Dr Susannah King, Sarah Fagan, Emily Dynon, Associate Professor Ibolya Nyulasi, together with haematologist Dr Sharon Avery were awarded an Australasian Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition grant to research energy expenditure and body composition in SCT in 2016.
Postgraduate students
4 PhD students
2 Masters students
Current research
Nutrition in the ICU
The Alfred Nutrition Department is a lead Australian site for a multicentre, randomised, controlled trial (RCT) investigating the role of supplemental parenteral nutrition in critically ill adults hospitalised in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Find out morePregnancy and nutrition
Dr Audrey Tierney, Rachelle Opie and Madeleine Neff completed a study examining the impact of dietary interventions on pregnancy outcomes.
Find out moreNutrition in respiratory conditions
The nutritional arm of a gene-therapy study in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with G551D gene mutations (led by Dr Tierney) investigated the effects of the gene potentiator drug (KalydecoTM) on body composition. Overall, three months on the medication resulted in increased body weight, body mass index and fat mass.
Find out moreNutrition and stem cell transplantation
Dr Susannah King and Sarah Fagan completed a pilot study investigating body composition and energy expenditure in stem cell transplant (SCT) patients with the use of indirect calorimetry.
Find out moreImpact of surgery for gastric carcinoma
In collaboration with the Department of Radiology and Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery, Lisa Murnane conducted a retrospective cohort study using pre-operative CT (computed tomography) scans to investigate whether low skeletal muscle mass (sarcopenia) or nutritional status is associated with postoperative outcomes after resection of gastric carcinoma.
Find out more
Publications
The prevalence of underprescription or overprescription of energy needs in critically ill mechanically ventilated adults as determined by indirect calorimetry: a systematic literature review
Tatucu-Babet OA, Ridley EJ, Tierney AC
(2016), J Parenter Enteral Nutr, 40(2),
Factors that influence dietary intake in adults with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Shalit N, Tierney A, Holland A, Miller B, Norris N, King S
(2016), Nutr Diet, 73(5),
Reply Letter to the Editor - Nutrition therapy in critically ill patients - A review of current evidence for clinicians
Ridley E, Gantner D, Pellegrino V
(2016), Clin Nutr, 35(1),