Brief Overview
Dr Rosanne Freak-Poli is a life course epidemiologist focusing on social determinants of health. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health. Dr Freak-Poli has a background in public health, statistics, and psychology and has experience in government, hospital, and university research settings. Her expertise includes program evaluation for chronic diseases (PhD); advanced longitudinal epidemiological methodology to untangle complex relationships in active ageing (National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Fellowship); internationally recognised expertise in how social isolation and loneliness impact mental/physical health (2023 Alzheimer Award; Australian Heart Foundation Fellowship); along with her recent work in understanding and addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDoH).
Primary Areas of Research
Dr Freak-Poli is strongly driven by social justice, being the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. Her internationally recognised work focuses on Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), healthy ageing, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and gender-specific risk. She has made an internationally significant and impactful contribution to understanding the population impact of social isolation, social support, and loneliness separately. Her recent work focuses on solutions to SDoH, including accelerating the evidence base for social prescribing in Australia.
Collaboration of Interests
Evaluation and data analysis. Helping people create a minimum dataset, evaluate their social prescribing program model.
Contact Details
ORCID:
Profile Link:
Keywords:
Social Determinants of Health, Public Health, Life-Course Epidemiology, Social Prescribing, Social Epidemiology, Quality of Life, Social Isolation, Loneliness, Social Support, Aging, Preventative Medicine, Psychological Well-being, Social Health, Chronic Disease Prevention and Management