With the support of the ARC, Associate Professor Katherine Kenny is addressing one of the world's most urgent health challenges: antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Gloved hands holding two petri dishes. Image Credit: Supplied.
Key statistics
- Every year, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) kills more people globally than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined.
If left unaddressed, AMR could make routine medical procedures, such as chemotherapy and caesarean births, far more dangerous. But this isn't just a medical problem - it's a whole-of-society issue that will require whole-of-society solutions that address the social, economic and political drivers of antimicrobial overuse.
At the University of Sydney, health sociologist Associate Professor Katherine Kenny is investigating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a social - not just medical - problem. Her research focuses on how Australian families interact with antimicrobials and how this might be improved to help forestall the rise of resistant infections or 'superbugs'.
Now in its third year, Dr Kenny's project uses a range of qualitative methods to explore how people relate to the microbial world in everyday life. She has conducted in-depth interviews with parents and carers of young children, university students, and community-based health and care professionals.
She has also employed more creative research approaches, including asking research participants to take photos showing how they keep themselves and their families healthy. 'Asking people to take pictures always brings out interesting and unexpected things that people don't always think to mention,' Dr Kenny explains.
Photos from university students, for example, captured microbes in a way that 'opens up a conversation about more constructive ways of living with other forms of life', noting that harmful microbes represent only ~1% of the microbial species on our planet and that many more actually keep us healthy.
A key focus of Dr Kenny's research is the over-use of antibiotics, particularly for children- but she is quick to point out that it's a complex issue.
'Over-prescribing is certainly a problem. But we also need to look at things like family structures, forms of care provision, daycare policies, and inadequate leave provisions. These put pressure on families when they are experiencing ill health … and drive the demand side of the antimicrobial equation.'
Dr Kenny is currently also Deputy Director of the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies. Over her career she has contributed to several ARC-funded projects, including leading a current Linkage grant that is examining the consequences of rising out-of-pocket healthcare costs in Australia.
She says ARC grants have been 'crucial not only my own success, but the success of our whole team'. Her current Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) grant, for example, allows her to mentor other early-career scholars.
