Congratulations to HDA & CRF PhD Excellence Awardee - Zahra Padhani
Congratulations to Zahra Ali Padhani one of our Healthy Development Adelaide (HDA) and Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation (CRF) PhD Excellence Award winners for 2023.
We thank the CRF for its ongoing financial support of the PhD Excellence Award and its partnership of 16 years helping HDA to foster research excellence and career development in South Australia. This is our 12th cohort and our two winners will each receive $5,000 per annum for 3 years to augment their scholarships.
Zahra is a PhD candidate within the Adelaide Medical School and the Robinson Research Institute at the University of Adelaide.
Zahra’s PhD research project is on ‘Preconception health interventions and risk factors among adolescents and young adults and its impact on maternal, perinatal, and child health’. In this project she aims to prepare an evidence gap map to comprehensively identify, map, and describe existing empirical evidence on interventions implemented to improve the health and wellbeing of adolescents and young adults (10 to <25 years of age) before pregnancy. She plans also to use the Global Burden of Disease data to assess the burden and identify causes and risk factors of morbidity and mortality among Australian adolescents and young adults, followed by a secondary data analysis of Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health to explore demographic, maternal and obstetric factors associated with poor maternal, perinatal, and child health outcomes. Lastly, she plans to conduct a research priority exercise involving subject experts and policymakers to recommend preconception interventions to improve maternal and child health outcomes.
“I feel privileged and honoured upon receiving the HDA and Channel 7 PhD Excellence Award 2023. I would like to generously thank HDA and CRF not only for the award funds, but also for providing me the opportunity/platform for my professional growth and development. I would also like to thank my supervisor (Zohra Lassi) and co-supervisors (Gizachew Tessema and Jodie Avery) for their continued support and motivation. I hope that through this research, together we can improve the preconception health of adolescent and young adults and prevent maternal and child mortality and adverse health outcomes.”