On 11 May 2015, Global Food Studies researcher Dr Sharmina Ahmed presented her paper in the Singapore Health Economics Association (SHEA) Conference, 2015 at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The 2015 conference was the second meeting of the SHEA Community Health Economists in Asia and the Pacific.

The SHEA aims to foster theoretical and empirical research in order to achieve both academic and policy impacts. The event was sponsored by Abbot, Global Health Care and Research, Singapore, NUS and Singapore Management University.

The event was well attended by researchers, students, industry representatives from different countries of South-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, from Stanford University, USA, gave a keynote speech on “Population Aging and the Financing of Health Care Systems.”

Sharmina presented her work titled “Health-related quality of life and utility analyses at 7 years’ corrected age of preterm infants who fed high-dose Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) to term equivalent: Results from a follow-up of a randomised controlled trial”. Her study aims at comparing health related quality of life (HRQoL) and health utility of  pre-term infants fed high-dose DHA compare with those fed with standard docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) at sever years of age and to identify socio-demographic predictors of HRQoL of these children. This is a joint paper with Professor Maria Makrides from Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute and Associate Professor Wendy Umberger of GFS.

Their study is expected to contribute to policy discussions and industry development on the importance of fish oil supplementation rich in DHA to preterm infants for their neurodevelopment- and cognitive outcomes during their early childhood years.

*This article is written by Dr Sharmina Ahmed. Please contact her at sharmina.ahmed[at]adelaide.edu.au for further information about the project.