LOCAL RESEARCH. GLOBAL IMPACT.

 The ORIGINS Project is the largest study of its kind in Australia, following 10,000 families over a decade to improve child and adult health.

The unique long-term study is one of the most comprehensive studies of pregnant women and their families in Australia, recruiting families whose babies are born at the Joondalup Health Campus.

ORIGINS will follow the progress of pregnant women, their partners and babies for the first five years of the baby’s life, following an increasing understanding that an individual’s lifetime health and disease may be programmed at a very early stage – while a child is still in the womb.

The project is collecting detailed information on how a child’s early environment and parents’ physical health and genetics influence the risk of a wide range of diseases and conditions such as asthma, eczema, food allergies, hay fever, diabetes, obesity and autism. It will also look at how language development can affect outcomes such as academic achievement, social ability and relationships.

Benefits to participating families

As well as contributing to global research and the health of future generations, participant families receive free allergy testing and paediatric health and development checks at one, three and five years of age, with results and feedback provided to their GP. This unique provision of real-time feedback on a child’s development enables earlier intervention and referral to sub-specialist services.

Working together

The ORIGINS Project is a collaboration between the Telethon Kids Institute and Joondalup Health Campus which is part of Ramsay Health Care. The project is funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the Commonwealth Government of Australia through the Channel 7 Telethon Trust.