Dr Deborah ( Deb ) Loxton

Biography

Dr Deborah Loxton’s health research focuses on women’s health and wellbeing with a particular emphasis on the impact of major life events such as abuse, sole motherhood, and young motherhood. Dr Loxton has also investigated women’s reproductive health, including substance use during pregnancy and maternal health in the first years of motherhood. Dr Loxton has written a number of papers that describe various methods and outcomes of longitudinal data collection and analysis, and longitudinal methodology remains one of her primary research interests. Dr Loxton has used both quantitative and qualitative methods in analysing longitudinal data and is now undertaking various projects that link longitudinal survey data with other data sets, such as the Midwives Data Collection in NSW.

Dr Deborah Loxton is the Deputy Director of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) at the Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, University of Newcastle. The ALSWH is a longitudinal cohort study conducted with three age groups of over 40,000 Australian women who were aged 18-23, 45-50 and 70-75 in 1996 when the study started ( www.alswh.org.au). Dr Loxton has been responsible for operational oversight of the ALSWH since 2006 including, survey design, cohort maintenance, data collection, budget and staff management. Dr Loxton’s ALSWH research responsibilities include contributing to the design and conduct of ALSWH major reports, and the publications and other forms of dissemination (eg conference presentations) that arise from these. The most recently released ALSWH report was concerned with reproductive health (Loxton, D & Lucke, J. Reproductive health: Findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Report prepared for Australian Government Department of Health & Ageing, June 2009. http://www.alswh.org.au/other_reports.php). Other government reports authored by Dr Loxton that have been used to inform policy development have covered such topics as the health impact of abuse , a review of domestic violence programs, and barriers to service delivery for young pregnant women and mothers.

In addition to core ALSWH work, Dr Loxton is currently a chief investigator on three projects: an ARC Linkage Grant (partnered with Family Planning NSW & Bayer Healthcare) funded project that will examine contraceptive use and access among young women (the CUPID project); a NHMRC funded project that investigates complementary and alternative medicine use; and a Bupa Foundation grant that will examine maternal health outcomes in relation to mental health screening. In addition, Dr Loxton is pursuing new methods for examining longitudinal qualitative data and has chaired two symposia on this topic at the international Qualitative Health Research Conference in Vancouver (2009 & 2010), as well as chairing the ALSWH Qualitative Health Research Group- convened by Dr Loxton to further this emerging research methodology.

As a research academic in the Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, Dr Loxton belongs to the Management and Leadership Groups of the centre, and conducts seminars and workshops that contribute to the centre’s core business. Dr Loxton has recently formed collaborations between the centre and the USA Academy of Violence and Abuse, the Korean Women’s Development Institute and the Australian Women’s Health Network and will be formalizing these relationships during 2011.

Dr Loxton's research efforts have resulted in 20 journal publications (including 2 in press), 20 conference presentations, 1 peer reviewed journal special edition, 9 major research reports for government and 2 research reports for other organizations (Women’s Health Victoria, Beyondblue).

Qualifications

• PhD, University of New England, 2003
• Diploma of Management, GE Consultancy Pty Ltd (RTO), 2008
• Bachelor of Psychology (Honours), University of New England, 1999

Research

Research keywords

• Women's health
• domestic violence
• health service use
• maternal health and wellbeing
• mental health
• reproductive health
• social and economic wellbeing and health

Research expertise

Dr Deborah Loxton’s health research focuses on women’s health and wellbeing with a particular emphasis on the impact of major life events such as abuse, sole motherhood, and young motherhood. Dr Loxton has also investigated women’s reproductive health, including substance use during pregnancy and maternal health in the first years of motherhood. Dr Loxton has written a number of papers that describe various methods and outcomes of longitudinal data collection and analysis, and longitudinal methodology remains one of her primary research interests. Dr Loxton has used both quantitative and qualitative methods in analysing longitudinal data and is now undertaking various projects that link longitudinal survey data with other data sets, such as the Midwives Data Collection in NSW.

Collaboration

Dr Deborah Loxton’s health research focuses on women’s health and wellbeing with a particular emphasis on the impact of major life events such as abuse, sole motherhood, and young motherhood. Dr Loxton has also investigated women’s reproductive health, including substance use during pregnancy and maternal health in the first years of motherhood. Dr Loxton has written a number of papers that describe various methods and outcomes of longitudinal data collection and analysis, and longitudinal methodology remains one of her primary research interests. Dr Loxton has used both quantitative and qualitative methods in analysing longitudinal data and is now undertaking various projects that link longitudinal survey data with other data sets, such as the Midwives Data Collection in NSW.

Fields of Research

Centres and Groups

Centre

• PRC - Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health & Ageing

Memberships

Body relevant to professional practice.

• Member - USA Academy of Violence and Abuse

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Member - NSW Population Health Services Research Research Ethics Committee
• Member - Australian Women's Health Network
• Member - Medical Outcomes Database Project Scientifica Advisory Committee

Awards

Research Award.

Invitations

Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Psychology - assessment
• Psychology - research methods