Student & ECR Spotlight – Corinne Davis’ PhD work focuses on exploring what dietary interventions may be important for improving the metabolic health of night shift workers

Please tell us about your career pathway to date (positions and institutes).

I have a varied career background. First starting of as an urban planner working in consultancy and local council and then having a career change to become a dietitian completing a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (Honours) at Monash University. As a dietitian I have worked in private practice and as a researcher in the area of health professions education at the Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education. I am currently completing my PhD at the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food at Monash University, Australia. I think my interest in improving population health (whether that is through changing the urban environment or through changing what we eat) has been the ultimate driver in my career pathway.

How do you explain your current research/job to friends and family?

I explain my current research to my family/friends as: My PhD looks at improving the health for night shift workers given that they are at a higher risk of metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes just by turning up to work. My project is part of the SWIFt study which is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia. The study looks at different dietary strategies for night shift workers to see whether intermittent fasting over a night shift period is beneficial for metabolic health, over and above a more traditional every day moderate calorie restriction approach. In particular, I am interviewing participants along the way to get a deeper understanding of what influences night shift workers in following the dietary strategies.  

What do you think will be the next most important development in the nutrition and/or physical activity field?

I think the field of chrono-nutrition (the relationship between temporal eating patterns, circadian rhythms, and metabolic health) is a growing area of research that is showing that it is not just what we eat, but also ‘when’ we eat that is really important for our health. 

Given unlimited funding, what would your dream research project be?

I would love to be able to continue to focus on implementation research – so leading the implementation of further dietary interventions (whether that is at the individual or population level) and evaluating whether it works, how and why. It would be great to take the findings of my PhD research and apply it to a workplace setting that includes night shift workers.

Contact

If you would like to get in touch with Corrine, you can do so via her LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.