Years of investigation into the effects of alcohol consumption have earned UQ’s Dr Rosa Alati a National Drug and Alcohol Award for Excellence in Research.
An NHMRC Research Fellow with the School of Population Health, Dr Alati has a particular interest in the life course study of alcohol problems and Indigenous health research.
“It is a tremendous honour to receive a national award which acknowledges my career in alcohol and other drug studies and Indigenous health,” Dr Alati said.
In 2001, the Italian-born academic enrolled in a PhD at UQ where she became associated with the Mater-University Study of Pregnancy, a longitudinal study of 7223 pregnant women in Brisbane who were recruited between 1981-1984 to research pregnancy outcomes.
Dr Alati has published numerous papers using data from this cohort addressing the associations between alcohol use and mental health issues.
“In part, low-income and disadvantaged background may be responsible for the association between heavy drinking and symptoms of anxiety and depression,” she said.
She has also studied the early causes of alcohol disorders, with a notable paper examining the link between maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy and a child's later risk for alcohol dependence and other disorders, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
In 2006, Dr Alati spent six months in Bristol, UK, working on European longitudinal studies and studying the effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the predictors of early alcohol use in teens.
“In the years to come, I aim to strengthen my profile in life course epidemiology of mental health disorders – chiefly drug and alcohol research," she said.
“Longitudinal studies are important to identify the causes of diseases.
“The greater the length of the study, the more possible it is to look at hard evidence outcomes, for example the causes of death.
“It is also important to continue my collaborations with overseas colleagues and work with more than one longitudinal study to compare the robustness of the results.”
After completing a Bachelor of Arts with Honours at the University of Bologna in 1984, Dr Alati moved to Melbourne where she completed a graduate diploma in Aboriginal studies and a Master of Applied Sciences (Research), both at LaTrobe University.
She developed an interest in Indigenous studies with her early research based on qualitative studies of Indigenous residents at drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres in Victoria, New South Wales, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
In 1995 Dr Alati moved to Darwin and worked at the Northern Territory University and the Epidemiology Branch of the NT government.
Dr Alati came to Brisbane in 1998 to take up a position as lecturer in Indigenous Health at Queensland University of Technology before starting full-time PhD study at UQ.
MEDIA: Dr Alati (r.alati@sph.uq.edu.au) or Victoria Bruce or Penny Robinson at UQ Communications (07 3365 9723, penny.robinson@uq.edu.au)
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