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 in 1999. I gained international experience in education and research at the University of Surrey, UK, where I coordinated the dietetics program, led the first evaluation in simulated practice and managed several large clinical trials. I returned to Australia in 2006 and spent a couple of years at the Children’s Nutrition Research Centre at Herston before 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. I moved to Queensland in 2020, where I am a Professorial Research Fellow, in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at UQ.

I hold an Honorary Professor appointment at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, I am a Senior Collaborator at the NNedPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health, located at Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK. I am a Fellow of the Nutriton Society of Australia and Fellow of the Associaton of Nutrition (UK), and an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian.

I have published a total of 163 peer reviewed papers (34 in the past 3 years), I have an H-index of 35 (Scopus) and a Field-Weighted Citation Impact score is above average for my discipline, in particular for weight gain, obesity excessive gestational weight gain (FWCI 1.63), Exercise, obesity and daily energy FWIC 2.9 and Malnutrition and Nutrition Screening (FWCI = 1.85).

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
  • weight management
  • 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), delivered to over 140,000 learners across the world since 2016, it was voted by learners in the Top 1000 MOOCs of All Time in 2019. I regularly communicate with the public via the print and social media.

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 previous work has also contributed 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 ; cited in the US National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines for Rectal Cancer (V2.2015) and were used to inform the 2015 Dutch Food-based dietary guidelines.

Commitees Participation

  • 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)
  • Member of the Council of Deans of Nutrition & Dietetics Australia and New Zealand
  • Advisory Board: the Oceania Nutrition Leadership Program (www.onlp.org)

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Science (Honours), AUST
  • Master of Human Nutrition, AUST
  • Doctor of Philosophy, AUST

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • (2012) Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • This is a collaborative project with FareShare - a food rescue charity. This project will implement and evaluate their meal program designed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It is co-funded with the CRC Fight Food Waste and has a generous Top Up scholarship,a $5K completion bonus, funding to undertake a diploma in mangagement and opportunites to intersect with other PhD students assocatied with the Fight Food Waste CRC.

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 collaborative project with FareShare - a food rescue charity. This project will implement and evaluate their meal program designed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It is co-funded with the CRC Fight Food Waste and has a generous Top Up scholarship,a $5K completion bonus, funding to undertake a diploma in mangagement and opportunites to intersect with other PhD students assocatied with the Fight Food Waste CRC.