Cindy Needham

Biographic Data

ID4426345
NAMECindy Needham
GIVEN NAMESCindy
FAMILY NAMENeedham
SIGNATURENEEDHAM C
AFFILIATIONSDeakin University
ORCID0000-0002-4572-6820
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS9
TOTAL CITATIONS0
AUTHOR COUNT9
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2020
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX0

  • Establishing fundamental co-design principles and strategies for public health research practice

    Open AccessCarmen Vargas, Giuliana Raffaella Longworth et al.ARTICLECoDesign2026

    This study focuses on defining standard co-design principles and exploring strategies for their application in public health research. A secondary analysis was conducted, examining 55 studies sourced from a systematic review, employing directed content analysis to clarify co-design principles and their applications. The research followed Mayring’s model for deductive category application, resulting in the development and testing of eight standard…

  • Expert insights into public health nutrition challenges: A rapid group model building demonstration workshop

    Open AccessCindy Needham, Penny Fraser et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2025

    Objective: This paper explored international experts’ views on what influences the development and implementation of local government (LG) planning policy to support healthy food retail environments; and 2) whether a rapid group model building (RGMB) approach can successfully be applied to capture valuable insights. Design: Adaptation of methods from community-based system dynamics in the form of RGMB. Setting: In person, facilitated workshop at …

  • Food retail environments around rural Victorian primary Schools: Associations with student diet and weight outcomes

    Open AccessJane Jacobs, Claudia Strugnell et al.ARTICLEHealth & Place2025References: 1

    Few studies examine the influence on population diets of the healthiness of food retail outlets in the areas surrounding rural schools in Australia. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined associations between food retail environments within 500m and 1 km of 106 primary schools in rural Victoria, Australia, and self-reported diet and measured weight status of grade 4(9-10yo) and grade 6(12-13yo) students (n = 3236). Few significant result…

  • The influence of access to healthy food retail on BMI: Implications for obesity prevention policy at the local government level

    Open AccessCindy Needham, Steven Allender et al.ARTICLEHealth & Place2025References: 4

    Achieving good population level measures of access to healthy food retailers have been suggested to support healthy diets and weight. However, there is little evidence to suggest that population measures of access to healthy food at the local government level is effective in supporting healthier weight of the community. The objective of this study was to establish whether in Greater Melbourne (Australia) population measures of food retail accessi…

  • The healthiness of Australian food outlets available through online delivery platforms, by level of socioeconomic disadvantage and remoteness

    Open AccessRebecca Bennett, Laura Alston et al.ARTICLEHealth & Place2024

    Online food delivery platforms are an emerging but poorly understood aspect of food retail environments. We collected data via web scraping methods from the two leading online food delivery platforms in Victoria, Australia, identifying 11,154 food outlets from Menulog, and 12,939 from Uber Eats (with 21,733 unique outlets available across both platforms). Outlets were classified according to their healthiness using a tool developed with Australia…

  • The common drivers of children and young people’s health and wellbeing across 13 local government areas: A systems view

    Open AccessSiobhan A O’Halloran, Siobhan O’Halloran et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2024

    Combining large CLDs into a simple diagram represents a generalisable model of the drivers of complex health problems

  • Using spatial analysis to examine inequalities and temporal trends in food retail accessibility

    Open AccessCindy Needham, Claudia Strugnell et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2024

    Objective: In this paper, we examined whether there are inequalities in access to food retail (by type and healthiness) across local government areas (LGA) in Greater Melbourne and by LGA grouped based on their distance from the central business district and Growth Area designation. We also examined whether these inequalities persisted over time. Design: This is a secondary analysis of a repeated cross-sectional census of food outlets collected a…

  • Beyond food swamps and food deserts: Exploring urban Australian food retail environment typologies

    Open AccessCindy Needham, Claudia Strugnell et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2022

    Objective: ‘Food deserts’ and ‘food swamps’ are food retail environment typologies associated with unhealthy diet and obesity. The current study aimed to identify more complex food retail environment typologies and examine temporal trends. Design: Measures of food retail environment accessibility and relative healthy food availability were defined for small areas (SA2s) of Melbourne, Australia, from a census of food outlets operating in 2008, 201…

  • Food Retail Environments in Greater Melbourne 2008–2016: Longitudinal Analysis of Intra-City Variation in Density and Healthiness of Food Outlets

    Open AccessCindy Needham, Liliana Orellana et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2020

    Obesity prevalence is inequitably distributed across geographic areas. Food environments may contribute to health disparities, yet little is known about how food environments are evolving over time and how this may influence dietary intake and weight. This study aimed to analyse intra-city variation in density and healthiness of food outlets between 2008 and 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. Food outlet data were classified by location, type and heal…