Professor Helen Truby

Professorial Research Fellow

School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences

Overview

My research career has been informed by my clinical practice in nutrition science and dietetics. I trained as a paediatric dietitian at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and completed my PhD at the University of Melbourne gaining knowlege and skills in nutrition science methodogies including energy metabolsim and body composition. I lead an active research program in children’s nutrition which creates new knowledge and applies this knowledge to public health prevention strategies. Central to my reserach work is incorporating co-design with consumers and end-users - helping to ensure that outcomes are practical and can be rapidly translated into policy and practice. I am an active communicator of the science of nutrition to the lay public and is an advocate for open science and improving the public’s understanding of food and its impact on health.

I gained international experience in education and research at the University of Surrey, UK, where I coordinated the dietetics program and developed the first evaluation in simulated dietetic practice. I was appointed to the Chair of Nutrition and Dietetics at Monash University where I founded and led the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food from 2009-2020. This included program development to meet Accrediation requirements and supporting new programs in nutrition science.

I am a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia, a Fellow of the Association for Nutrition (Public Health) and has been an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian for over a decade. I hold an Honorary Professor appointment's at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway and at Monash University, I am a Senior Collaborator at the NNedPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health, located at Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK.

I am the Chair of theAustralian Academy of Science National Committee for Nutrition. This committe is focused on the implementation of the Decadal Plan for the Science of Nutrition (https://www.science.org.au/supporting-science/science-policy-and-analysis/decadal-plans-science/nourishing-australia-decadal-plan)

Research Interests

  • child health
  • Dietary interventions
  • prevention of chronic disease using lifestyle change

Research Impacts

Social impact

Measurement Instruments: I developed and tested the Children’s Body Image Scale, which met the criteria as an outcome measure for the evaluation of obesity treatments by the UK National Institute for Health Research in 2013. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1348/014466502163967) This scale has been adopted for use in 4 international child growth and development cohorts (Norway, the Netherlands, Japan and USA

Consumer health communication: I am committed to supporting the public's understanding of how their diet can impact on their health and well-being. To that end, I led the development of the FutureLearn MOOC 'Food as Medicine' (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-as-medicine), This innovative open access course has its foundational evidence base on the Australian Dietary Guidelines, and aimed to deliver nutrition education differently. Between 2016 and 2022 over 200,000 participants enrolled with 143,000 completing. This enabled learners to improve their knowledge of the relationship between their dietary patterns and healthI regularly communicate with the public via the print and social media. Food as Medicine was voted by learners via Class Central in the Top 250 MOOCs of All Time in 2021 and ‘Best of All Time’ in 2022.

Clinical Impact

My sustained body of original research is being used to inform the current Best Practice Guidelines for Allied Health and Nursing Assessment for the management of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.Specifically, this body of work has been examining body composition, energy requirements and nutritional needs in children with neuromuscular diseases. My research contributes to the best practice guidelines in the management of cystic fibrosis.

I contributed to the evidence synthesis to update the Australian Dietary Guidelines in 2013. This resulted in 15 graded evidence statements and have been subsequently cited in the Dietary Guideline recommendations for the USA, Canada and UK. The evidence synthesis on the relationship between dairy foods and blood pressure responses have informed the International recommendations for the management of metabolic syndrome.

My body of work in relation to dietary mangagement of children with a variety of health conditions, including overweight have contributed to many policy and consensus guidelines (54 citations from 2002-22).

Commitees Participation (2023)

  • Chair, Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Nutrition (https://www.science.org.au/supporting-science/science-policy-and-analysis/decadal-plans-science/nourishing-australia-decadal-plan)
  • Advisory Board: the Oceania Nutrition Leadership Program (www.onlp.org)

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy
  • Masters (Coursework)
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced)

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • (2012) Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • This is a project linked to a Department of Health funded project which will deliver a new national resource for food and nutrition for children under 5 years of age. The Grow and Go Toolbox is a one stop shop for families looking for feeding advice and resources for young children (www.growandgotoolbox.com). Further development of this toolbox will include a site for health professionals to build personalised resources for children in their care, this personalisation will enable more tailored and specific messages be provided to families. This project will test and evaluate if personalised nutrition advice makes a postive difference to children's eating habits and food intake. Personalised and Precision nutrition is an emerging area of practice and as such, this project has the potential to change the way dietetics is delivered. It is suitable only for a health profesional who is a dietitian and an APD as it will involved direct care of families with young children.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Linda, Brennan, Molenaar, Annika, Sherman, Anouk, Chin, Shinyi, Reid, Mike, Truby, Helen and McCaffrey, Tracy (2021). It takes a village: co-creation and co-design for social media health promotion. Broadening cultural horizons in social marketing: comparing case studies from Asia-Pacific. (pp. 67-93) edited by Rachel Hay, Lynne Eagle and Abhishek Bhati. Singapore: Springer Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-15-8517-3_4

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

  • Truby, Helen (2020). Children's Body Image Scale. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2020.781

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

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.

  • This is a project linked to a Department of Health funded project which will deliver a new national resource for food and nutrition for children under 5 years of age. The Grow and Go Toolbox is a one stop shop for families looking for feeding advice and resources for young children (www.growandgotoolbox.com). Further development of this toolbox will include a site for health professionals to build personalised resources for children in their care, this personalisation will enable more tailored and specific messages be provided to families. This project will test and evaluate if personalised nutrition advice makes a postive difference to children's eating habits and food intake. Personalised and Precision nutrition is an emerging area of practice and as such, this project has the potential to change the way dietetics is delivered. It is suitable only for a health profesional who is a dietitian and an APD as it will involved direct care of families with young children.