BU Research Blog

13 October 2015

Management of male obesity: The qualitative evidence (BMJ Open)

open access, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Yesterday BMJ Open published our latest article on the weight management in obese men, under the title A qualitative evidence synthesis on the management of male obesity.[1] To the best of our knowledge, this is the first synthesis of qualitative studies investigating men’s perceptions and experiences of weight management services. The interdisciplinary study was conducted between the three research centres at the University of Aberdeen, namely the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU), the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) and the Rowett Institute of Health & Nutrition, the University of Stirling’s NMAHP Research Unit, the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research & Policy (SCPHRP) and Bournemouth University.

Studies published between 1990 and 2012 reporting qualitative research with obese men, or obese men in contrast to obese women and lifestyle or drug weight management were included. The studies included men aged 16 years or over, with no upper age limit, with a mean or median body mass index of 30 kg/m2 in all settings. In total 22 studies were identified.

Health concerns and the perception that certain programmes had ‘worked’ for other men were the key factors that motivated men to engage with weight management programmes. Barriers to engagement and adherence with programmes included: men not problematizing their weight until labelled ‘obese’; a lack of support for new food choices by friends and family, and reluctance to undertake extreme dieting. Retaining some autonomy over what is eaten; flexibility about treats and alcohol, and a focus on physical activity were attractive features of programmes. Group interventions, humour and social support facilitated attendance and adherence. Men were motivated to attend programmes in settings that were convenient, non-threatening and congruent with their masculine identities, but men were seldom involved in programme design.

The paper concluded that men’s perspectives and preferences within the wider context of family, work and pleasure should be sought when designing weight management services. Qualitative research is needed with men to inform all aspects of intervention design, including the setting, optimal recruitment processes and strategies to minimise attrition. This paper grew out of the larger ROMEO study which was published in our full HTA (Health Technology Assessment) report, which is also freely available on line, click here! [2]

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Archibald, D., Douglas, F., Hoddinott, P., van Teijlingen, E., Stewart, F., Robertson, C., Boyers, D., Avenell, A. (2015) A qualitative evidence synthesis on the management of male obesity. BMJ Open 5: e008372. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008372 http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/10/e008372.full.pdf+html
Robertson, C., Archibald, D., Avenell, A., Douglas, F., Hoddinott, P., van Teijlingen, E., Boyers, D., Stewart, F., Boachie, C., Fioratou, E., Wilkins, D., Street, T., Carroll, P., Fowler, C. (2014) Systematic reviews of & integrated report on the quantitative, qualitative & economic evidence base for the management of obesity in men. Health Technology Assessment 18(35): 1-424. http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/118180/FullReport-hta18350.pdf

6 October 2015

CMMPH editorial in today’s Nepal Journal of Epidemiology

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, open access, Post-award, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

The current issue of the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology published today carries an editorial by a BU-led team of researchers and development workers. The editorial Mental health issues in pregnant women in Nepal highlights the intervention funded by THET which aims to improve the knowledge and attitude of maternity care workers in a rural district in the south of Nepal. The BU authors include Visiting Faculty: Padam Simkhada, Samridhi Pradham, Jillian Ireland and Bibha Simkhada, the other co-authors are affiliated with the charity we work with in Nepal (Ram Chandra Silwal), the Buddhist charity based in London Green Tara Trust (Padmadharini Fanning), and our Tribhuvan University based colleagues (Lokendra Sherchan, Shyam K Maharjan, and Ram K Maharjan.

This THET-funded project will involve over 15 UK short-term volunteers. It is important to bring UK volunteers, who as health professionals will bring their experience of, and training in, the provision of mental health and maternity/midwifery services including the area of mental ill health prevention and health promotion. These experienced health workers (such as midwives, family doctors, mental health nurses, health visitors, psychiatrists) from the UK are invited to volunteer for two to three weeks at a time to design and deliver training. The mixture of training staff abroad (= Education) by UK professionals (=Practice) through an intervention which is properly evaluated (=Research) is a perfect example of BU’s FUSION in action.

This project is supported by the Tropical Health & Education Trust (THET) as part of the Health Partnership Scheme, which is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and runs from this year May 1st until the autumn of 2016. The paper is freely available on line, click here!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Refererence:

van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P, Devkota B, Fanning P, Ireland J, Simkhada B, Sherchan L, Silwal CR, Pradhan S, Maharjan KS, Maharjan KS. Mental health issues in pregnant women in Nepal. Nepal J Epidemiol. 2015;5(3); 499-501.

1 October 2015

Paper ahead of its time?

Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Sometimes my co-authors and I wonder why a particular paper get more cited after a few years of publication. Is is because the paper and the research were are ahead of their time? Or is there simply a lag time between publication and other researchers publishing in the field finding your paper (or stumbling upon it perhaps)?

Take for example the following paper published in 2006 when I was still based in the Department of Public Health at the University of Aberdeen: Promoting physical activity in primary care settings: Health visitors’ and practice nurses’ views and experiences in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.[1]

Published in 2006 our paper was first cited in Scopus in 2007 (just once),three time in the following year (2008), five times in 2009 and then just a few times per year until this year. In 2015 we have six citations already and the year is not even finished.

We really wonder what lies behind that increased popularity of this 2006 paper.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Douglas, F., van Teijlingen E.R., Torrance, N., Fearn, P., Kerr, A., Meloni, S. (2006) Promoting physical activity in primary care settings: Health visitors’ and practice nurses’ views and experiences Journal of Advanced Nursing, 55(2): 159-168.

1 October 2015

Bournemouth University listed in top 800 global universities

REF Subjects, Research assessment Edwin van Teijlingen

Bournemouth University ranked just over the half way line in the top 800 universities in the world. Bournemouth University is in good company in the bracket (401-500) with other well-known universities such as the University of Cagliari (Italy), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), Curtin University (Australia), University of Waikato (New Zealand), Louisiana State University (USA) or the University of Tampere (Finland) to name but a few.

The full list of 800 universities is available here!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

30 September 2015

Manuscript accepted from Dr. Regmi (FHSS)

Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to BU’s Dr. Pramod Regmi on the acceptance of the manuscript: “Importance of health and social care research into gender and sexual minority populations in Nepal” by the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health.

Dr. Pramod Regmi is originally from Nepal and currently a post-doc researcher in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

28 September 2015

Congratulations to Jib Acharya on his latest Ph.D. paper

PG research, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to FHSS Ph.D. student Jib Acharya on the publication of his latest paper on childhood nutrition in Nepal.[1] Mr. Acharya’s study included a cross-sectional, community-based survey of 524 mothers in one district of Nepal. These were mothers of young children aged 36-60 months who are no longer breastfed at the time. The questionnaire survey included: socio-demographic measurements, knowledge, beliefs and attitudes about nutritious food, as well as child feeding patterns, food recommendation, major barriers, food insecurity and health-seeking behaviours. Jib’s mixed-methods Ph.D. work is supervised by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

The study found that both urban and rural mothers lacked knowledge of what food is nutritious. Moreover, their attitudes and views appeared often ill informed. This study suggests that a different approach was needed because the public health problems are associated with behaviour. Thus, more attention should be paid to appropriate intervention of under-nutrition in poor communities like this one studied in Nepal.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Assessment of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards healthy diet among mothers in Kaski, Nepal, Participation 17 (16): 61-72.

9 September 2015

Your most popular paper this week was ….

BRIAN, Publishing, Research themes, Training Edwin van Teijlingen

Every week I receive an email telling me what my most accessed paper is on Academia.edu. As a research-active academic I would like this ‘top paper’ to be one of my research papers based on primary research or perhaps a systematic review. My second preference is that I would like it to be one of my few more theoretical papers and, if not that, then at least one of many methods papers I have published with colleagues over the past decade. But no, every single week a fairly basic ‘how-to-do’ paper is my most accessed paper. This week’s message is typical: “Your most popular paper for the week was Writing an academic paper for publication, which had 142 views.”

This how-to-write-an-academic editorial has been my most read paper for months now. It is a paper Prof. Vanora Hundley, Prof. Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University & BU Visiting Faculty) and I wrote in an attempt to help budding academics and postgraduate students in a low-income country to think about the process of drafting and writing a scientific paper.

Perhaps this paper is popular because there is a global need for it (Academia.edu also gives break down from where in the world the paper has been accessed). It is also possible that it is on course reading list or perhaps it is recommended on webpage somewhere. The paper is,of course, Open-Access which helps in terms of providing more people across the globe easy and free access!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2013) Writing an academic paper for publication, Health Renaissance 11(1): 1-5. healthrenaissance.org.np/uploads/Pp_1_5_Guest_Editorial.pdf

3 September 2015

Fusion co-creation project involving BU students and partners in Kosovo: rethinking post-war reconciliation via ‘gaming’ technology

Awarded & submitted bids, Festival of Learning, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Research themes sssievers

In post-war societies such as in the Western Balkans, war monuments may serve to preserve a single narrative of the past. Sometime the intention is to shape future generations’ understanding of conflict, thereby perpetuating militant potentials and societal divisions. But how do young visitors really experience such war monuments? Our fusion-funded project aims to foster conflict transformation (reconciliation) by facilitating young people’s engagement with a plurality of narratives while simultaneously nurturing empathy and recognition of the cultural heritage of war via contemporary gaming technology.

BU’s fusion approach encouraged me, a Balkan specialist and social anthropologist, to seek collaboration across faculties with Dr Avital Biran (‘dark tourism’/FM); Dr Melanie Klinkner (‘transitional justice’/ FMC); and Assoc. Prof. Feng Tian (‘gaming’/ FST). The new fusion-funded project is directly related to our Conflict Transformation Studies Team’s contribution to a major European Union Horizon 2020 bid: a working package on enhancing visitors’ perception and consumption of memorials via gamification, submitted in May 2015 (Reflective Societies, RED 8756).

The team presented its overarching research concept at BU’s Interdisciplinary Week on 12 May with our interactive session on Transforming conflict after war: memory, heritage and digital media. With support of two consecutive Undergraduate Research Assistants, a social anthropological spin-off exercise entitled Reconciliation-in-Practice was then conducted at the Festival of Learning. During the sessions, to which also Wendy Cutts (FHSS) contributed, we challenged participants’ assumptions about the ease with which reconciliation expectations can be exported to countries of Western geo-political interest after war and conflict.

This fusion-funded sequel aims to co-opt interested student from different disciplines into the process of story line development and game design based on post-war memory at selected sites in Kosovo. As part of FiF strand Co-creation and Co-production, collaborations will not just include students and staff from BU’s four faculties but also external stakeholders in post-war Kosovo. We hope to include local students and colleagues of University of Prishtina, Human Rights activists, the British Council, site managers and artists.

Pending ethics approval and faculty support, our aim is – with help of the creative abilities of all involved students and partners – to explore the potentials of ‘gaming’ for education and enhancing visitors’ experience at heritage sites. We plan to, firstly, research the challenges associated with contested memorials in Kosovo; secondly, develop ideas for a story-line for gaming to promote tolerance and understanding; thirdly, explore the possibilities of designing a ‘serious game’; and, finally, under the leadership of Feng Tian, devise a Game Development Document (GDD) which may serve as a blue print for the application of gaming at post-conflict sites.

Dr Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
sssievers@bournemouth.ac.uk

26 August 2015

Beauty in the eye of the user?

Fusion Investment Fund smcdougall

If we are going around an art gallery we are often aware that we are evaluating the aesthetic appeal of the artworks. What we may be less aware of is that when we are interacting with computers, websites, and applications on our mobile phones the aesthetic appeal of the interfaces we are using matters too. Appeal can make interfaces easier to use and certainly makes our interactions more enjoyable.

Angela Gosling and Siné McDougall (Psychology, Faculty of Science) recently received Fusion Funding to support a collaborative network with colleagues in at Fribourg in Switzerland and Swansea University to find out more about the role of aesthetic evaluations in human-computer interaction. We want to examine how we make decisions about the appeal and usability of an interface. These ‘decisions’ start when we unconsciously respond to interface appeal within the first few milliseconds that we encounter an interface and continue through to habitual everyday use. By investigating these processes we will develop a better understanding of how interface appeal influences user performance and lead to better interface optimisation. Our Fusion Funding is going to support our collaboration while we prepare grant proposals to take this work forward.

25 August 2015

Fusion Investment Fund: International approaches to the investigation of juvenile crime – a comparative analysis to inform UK policy.

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund llaver

Thanks to Fusion Investment Funding, the developing Forensic Psychology group in SciTech will be working on an international project aimed at improving the UK’s management of child suspects of crime.

Of the 1 million arrests for criminal offences in the UK each year, around 12% are of children aged 10-17 (Youth Justice Annual Statistics: 2013/2014, Ministry of Justice). Most of these 126,809 juvenile arrests are followed by a police interview. Evidence taken from these interviews contributes to charging, prosecution and custody decisions for young people and plays a role in nearly 100,000 juvenile convictions and cautions a year. The police interview therefore plays a substantial role in a child’s criminal record, future inclusion in the criminal justice system and long-term well-being. However, there is little research or guidance informing the interview process for child suspects of crime. The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) recognise that children have differing needs from adults when involved in criminal proceedings. However, most ‘Special Measures’ and interview guidance for children in the UK legal system pertains only to child witnesses or victims of crime.

A large body of psychological research into the communication abilities of child witnesses has indicated that children have different needs from adults in interviews because of their underdeveloped cognitive skills (such as decreased resistance to suggestion and difficulties with timeline recall). These findings form the basis of the Home Office (2007, 2011) ‘Achieving Best Evidence’ guidelines, which provide police with step-by-step instructions on interviewing child witnesses in accordance with their specific vulnerabilities. The guidance serves to ensure that evidence taken from child witness interviews is reliable enough for fair use in court. Child suspect interviews, however, are not considered by the guidance, despite juvenile arrestees being at higher risk of cognitive delays.

Young offenders have been shown to have increasingly delayed neuro and socio-cognitive development in comparison to their non-offending peers, leading to deficits in inhibition, attention, time-perception, perspective-taking and interpersonal abilities (Al-Attar, 2010). These additional developmental delays mean that the established age-related difficulties experienced by children in interview are likely to be greatly exaggerated in suspects. Without additional precautions to account for these extended (but often well-hidden) difficulties, evidence from child suspect interviews can be inaccurate or misleading, resulting in the potential for serious miscarriages of justice. With a suspect’s testimony often being key to their own prosecution, its reliability as evidence is central to a fair trial – a basic human right.

Working with policy makers in the UK, Norway, Belgium, Singapore and Israel, BU will initiate development of child suspect interview guidelines and work with the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group to improve management of child suspects worldwide.

Please contact Lesley Laver if you would like to learn more or get involved with this project.

14 August 2015

Fusion Investment Fund (Santander) — BU research and collaboration visit to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Fusion Investment Fund bangele

The seal of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

I have reveived funding from the Santander strand of the Fusion Investment Fund to establish working relationships and collaborations with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA a Santander Partner University.

In early 2016, Professor Adrian Staub from UMass, one of the leading experts on eye movements in reading and psycholinguistics, will visit BU order to present a talk here and meet with BU staff and postgraduates. Prof. Staub will also present a short workshop on distributional analysis techniques, which should be of interest to many PGRs and staff. I will make a return visit to UMass in spring. We hope that this exchange will enable us to begin work on a number of collaborations.

UMass Amherst is the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system, which is one of the USA’s leading public university systems. UMass has 28,635 students, 6,383 of them postgraduates. Both the Department of Psychology and the Department of Linguistics at UMass are consistently rated as some of the best departments nationwide.

Bernhard Angele

14 August 2015

Successful completion: Fusion Investment Fund (Santander) — BU research and collaboration visit to the University of Valencia, Spain

Fusion Investment Fund bangele

Valencia, near the conference site

Thanks to the Fusion Investment Fund (Santander), I was able to organise two visits between Bournemouth University and the University of Valencia in Spain. The first visit was by Prof. Manuel Perea to BU. Prof. Perea gave a talk at the Psychology Research Seminar which was very well received and attended by staff, postgraduate, and undergraduate students. We also planned a series of collaboratory experiments. Subsequently, I visited UV from July 1st to July 13th 2015. This visit enabled me to attend the 12th International Symposium of Psycholinguistics (organised by Prof. Perea) and present a talk there. Additionally, we presented two posters resulting from collaborations with Prof. Perea and his students and associated staff at the conference. I was able to network with most of the top Spanish researchers in Psychology of Language and Psycholinguistics, many of which are interested in collaborations with BU. For the moment, I will work on expanding the collaboration with the University of Valencia. Ideally, we would like to enable undergraduate and postgraduate students from both universities to be able to visit the other and gain valuable experiences and knowledge.

UV is one of Spain’s leading academic institutions and was founded more than 500 years ago. Its 55,000 students are distributed across three campuses. The Faculty of Psychology is consistently ranked as one of the top three Psychology research centres nationally and one of the top 50 research centres in Europe. UV has a strong international orientation and participates in many international exchange programmes and networks.

Bernhard Angele

Giving a talk at the Psycholinguistics Symposium in Valencia.

11 August 2015

New publication by BU PhD student Jib Acharya

Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to FHSS Ph.D. student Mr. Jib Acharya, whose paper ‘Study of nutritional problems in preschool aged children in Kaski District in Nepal’ has just been published in the Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Healthcare [1]. The academic paper, based on his Ph.D. thesis, reports on his mixed-methods Public Health study addressing attitudes and knowledge of mothers of young children (pre-school aged) in one particular district in Nepal. The research comprises a quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups. Jib Acharya, who is originally from Nepal, compares and contrasts the attitudes, knowledge and behaviour of poor rural and poor urban women (=mothers) in that district. The research is supervised by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Study of nutritional problems in preschool aged children in Kaski District in Nepal, Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Healthcare 1(2): 97-118.

6 August 2015

BU hosts a programming secondary school trip

Public engagement, student research shodge

Staff and students from the Bourne Academy recently came to Bournemouth University for a school trip. The trip was organised to thank the school for being involved with research projects in partnership with BU. The staff included James Foreman and Dan Orme, who both teach Computer Science plus Nicola Al-Jassar.

With support from Dr Christos Gatzidis, Principal Academic in Games Technology and Games Programming, the trip was organised to support the Academy students’ Computer Science classes giving them the opportunity to learn more about programming and projects at BU. The day was run by BU Ph.D. student Karsten Pedersen (Games Technology and Games Programming; Department of Creative Technology) and facilitated by BU Ph.D. student Sarah Hodge (Morality and Video Games, supervised by Dr Jacqui Taylor and Dr John McAlaney; Department of Psychology).

(Nicola Al-Jassar, Dan Orme, James Foreman, Sarah Hodge and Karsten Pedersen)

The students got to experience the facilities at BU by engaging in many programming activities; including how to program in Javascript from the basics to, later on, extending to a simple framework to make a Space Invaders-type game. The students were shown previous final year project work from students at BU. They also played some of the games made by students at BU. The Academy students were encouraged to build upon the code that they learnt during the day in order to support the programming that they current do at their school and also coding club.

Both staff and students thoroughly enjoyed the very inspirational day and hope to taking their programming skills to the next level!

4 August 2015

Understanding how people with depression think about how the past could have turned out differently

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund kthomas

The period of funding from the BU Fusion Investment Fund (Co-Creation and Co-Production Strand) has just finished for my joint psychology and psychiatry research project into the role of counterfactual thinking in depression. Counterfactual thinking is thinking about how the past could have been different. It is closely tied-up with the emotion of regret but can help people prepare to deal more effectively with similar situations in the future. For example, a person who thinks that an intimate relationship that failed would have survived if they had taken more account of how their partner was feeling (counterfactual thinking) can adapt their behaviour accordingly in their next intimate relationship in order to try to prevent the breakdown of the relationship and ensure its longevity.

My collaborator on the Fusion-funded project is Dr Paul Walters who’s a Consultant Psychiatrist for Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust (DHUFT) based at Weymouth. A student from the Psychology Department’s Foundations in Clinical Psychology Master’s degree course (Stephen Richer) worked on the project by interviewing DHUFT patients who are diagnosed with depression. The project ran from December 2013 to July 2015, in which time a total of 29 patients were assessed. Although the project funding has ended, participant recruitment will continue until the required number of 65 participants is reached, which should be by October 2015.

Preliminary analysis of the data from the project suggests that the patients assessed tend to focus on aspects of the self (e.g., personality characteristics) when thinking counterfactually about a negative social event from their past. This finding contrasts with the counterfactual thoughts of people that have not received a formal clinical diagnosis of depression who, our previous research has found, tend to focus more on factors that are external to the self (e.g., other people’s behaviour) when mentally ‘undoing’ a previous negative social event. Once the data are collected from all 65 participants with depression, more meaningful comparisons between the counterfactual thoughts of depressed and non-depressed people will be drawn. Ultimately, Paul Walters and I hope that the findings of the project will aid in the refinement of the cognitive behavioural therapies that psychiatrists and clinical psychologists administer for the treatment of depression. Once the results of the data from all 65 participants have been analysed and written-up for publication, Paul and I plan to submit a funding bid to the National Institute of Health Research for a follow-on intervention project into tailoring cognitive behavioural therapies for depression based on the factors that influence the counterfactual thoughts of the patients with depression.

Overall, the BU Fusion funding has been immensely beneficial for engaging students and a key external stakeholder in the local community (DHUFT) in a valuable piece of applied research that has important psychotherapeutic implications for mental health patients and professional best practice implications for mental healthcare professionals.

Thank you, Fusion Investment Fund, I couldn’t have done the research without you.

Dr Kevin Thomas, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology.

23 July 2015

UK Nepali community research dissemination event

Public engagement, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

BU and UKNFS jointly presented some of the key findings of their study into the UK’s Nepali community. The meeting (22 July) in the EBC was attended by local representatives of the NHS, the CCG and Healthwatch Dorset. BU Prof. Vanora Hundley, Deputy Dean for Research (FHSS), who herself has published several academic paper on Nepal or English-language academic journals in Nepal, welcomed the audience. She highlighted how the research fitted into the wider health and soial care research portfolio of the Faculty.

BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen’s presentation highlighted the issues of access the health and social services in growing Nepali community in the UK. The reports highlights health and lifestyle issues, help-seeking behaviour and the influence of culture on health-related decision making. He mentioned barriers such as language and knowledge about services (or lack thereof). The findings of this study relate to previous studies in the field of ethnic minority communities int he UK. Mr. Alan Mercel-Sanca, Chairperson of the UK Nepal Friendship Society thanked the key researchers Dr. Bibha Simkhada (BU VIsiting Faculty) and Dr. Rajeeb Kumar Sah for conducting this mixed-methods research to such a high standard. He also thanked the Big Lottery Fund for making this ground-breaking piece of work possible, and the NHS England Equality and Health Inequalities team for their interest in final report and advice on the research.

The Report offers a unique opportunity for local health crae providers and commissioners to improve their understanding of this particular ethnic minority group. In the long run the report may lead to more effectively service delivery, especially in terms of health and social services that are sensitive to the needs of the Nepali community. Moreover, the report’s findings have direct relevance to other South Asian and broader Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in the UK.

Finally, the audience heard how the report has been widely reported among the Nepali-language media to the Nepali community in the UK as well as in Nepal. This include coverage by the BBC World Service in Nepali, who interviewed Dr. Bibha Simkhada about the study.

The report is available online here!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

21 July 2015

Improving Nepali’s health & social care in the UK: Presentation of key findings 22 July at BU

Public engagement, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Bournemouth University presents some of the key findings of the first study of its kind of the Nepali community in the UK. The report also shows the way forward for improved UK Nepali community NHS and social care provision. The research is a joint initiative between the UK Nepal Friendship Society, Bournemouth University in collaboration with the South East London Nepali community and funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

Key findings from the report suggest in particular that the elderly Nepali population struggle to access cultural appropriate health and social care. This results in people accessing health services too late. Further research is needed on mental health, especially on loneliness and social isolation in the elderly, but also on minorities within the broader community as well as those with limited English language skills. Its recommendations have potential transformational value for the relationship between this ethnic minority, most well-known for its Gurkha community, and the NHS and social care providers.

Many Nepali people evidenced that they struggle with accessing and navigating NHS services, and that there are significant confidence-building requirements that need to be addressed concerning a revealed need for experiencing more equitable NHS customer service provision. The lead author Dr. Bibha Simkhada is Visiting Faculty at BU.

Ruth Passman of NHS England, Head of Equality & Health Inequalities commented:

“This report and its findings indicate the scale of the need for the NHS to have a better understanding of the needs of the Nepali community accessing in an effective and equitable way, and through its profile of health and wellbeing seeking behaviour of the community for the NHS to have the opportunity to better address in partnership with the Nepali community, its particular needs.”
Prof. Gail Thomas the Dean of the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences added: “Bournemouth University has a long-standing history of health and health promotion research in Nepal. This study amongst the Nepali community in South London reminds us of the importance of addressing health and well-being issues in ethnic minority communities in the UK.”

Mr. Tej Bahadur Chhetri, the Acting Ambassador and Charge D’Affaires at the Embassy of Nepal sent the following message:

This report is a most helpful contribution, to promote much needed change in healthcare provision for the Nepali community, especially with the fast approaching 200 years of special friendship and diplomatic relations between Nepal and the UK. The link between the two countries started with the Gurkha regiments becoming part of the British Army, and having been so to this day. The UK Nepali community will clearly benefit from the report and its recommendations’

Alan Mercel-Sanca, the Chairperson of the UK Nepal friendship Society added: “We particularly appreciate Dr Bibha Simkhada and Dr Rajeeb Kumar Sah’s dedication and high quality research in the Nepali community. We would also like to thank the Big Lottery Fund for making this ground-breaking piece of work possible, and the NHS England Equality and Health Inequalities team for their great interest in the value of the research. The Report offers a unique opportunity for our evolving NHS and the Ministry of Health to better understand and more effectively meet the needs and hear the Voice of the Nepali community – it clearly has direct relevance to other South Asian and broader Black & Minority Ethnic communities using and seeking to access an NHS that is equitable and effective.”

The presentation will take place tomorrow Wednesday 22nd July at 15.00 in the Executive Business Centre on Holdenhurst Rd. The meeting will be introduced and opened by Prof. Vanora Hundley, Deputy Dean for Research & Professional Practice in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. Prof. Hundley herself has published several academic paper on Nepal or English-language academic journals in Nepal.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

@EvanTeijlingen

13 May 2015

What’s Happening at the Consumer Research Group?

Research themes jmemery

The Consumer Research Group (CRG) has a number of activities planned over the coming months, which it would like to inform colleagues about.

Forthcoming Events

1. Interdisciplinary Research Week – May 13^th, 12-2pm, Barnes LT, Talbot Campus

As part of this week of events, Juliet & Jeff (Management School), Janice (Media) and Siné (Science & Technology) will be presenting on interdisciplinary research in Consumer Behaviour. The event will start with lunch at 12 followed by our presentation at 12.30. All are welcome to attend.

Contact: Juliet Memery is hosting this event so please contact her if you have any queries or just come along!

2. Ideas Camp – 11^th June, Russell-Coates Museum
Most of you will have seen Janice’s email about this. The idea is to have a day away from Campus when we can meet together as a group and start to think about working on research together. We hope that each of us will emerge with the beginnings of a research project that we can take forward.
Contact: Janice Dengri-Knott is hosting this event so please contact if you have yet to book a place on this event. We already have 20 bookings so please hurry as we may soon reach capacity for this event.

3. Making Contact with Business Event – 23rd June, Venue: TBA, Talbot Campus

As we work out our research we may wish to make contact with business in order to seek funding or work with industrial partners. Jayne Codling, Liam Toms and Rachel Clarke have kindly agreed to give a short workshop introducing you to how you might go about this. Many of you will have been involved with business previously but this will provide an up-to-date picture of how this is working at BU currently.

4. Writing effective research grants and getting research grant support – TBA, September

5. Speaker Series
Speakers are now being booked for September, November and January. We hope to be able to hold these in the early evening to allow both academics and business contacts to come along. Our aim is to provide high profile speakers talking on interesting/controversial subjects. More news will follow shortly.

Best wishes

Siné, Juliet, Janice & Jeff

Category / Psychology

Beauty in the eye of the user?

Fusion Investment Fund: International approaches to the investigation of juvenile crime – a comparative analysis to inform UK policy.

Fusion Investment Fund (Santander) — BU research and collaboration visit to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Successful completion: Fusion Investment Fund (Santander) — BU research and collaboration visit to the University of Valencia, Spain

BU hosts a programming secondary school trip

Understanding how people with depression think about how the past could have turned out differently

What’s Happening at the Consumer Research Group?

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Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

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