Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Last Sunday ResearchGate informed us that the paper ‘Health facility preparedness of maternal and neonatal health services: a survey in Jumla, Nepal‘ [1] published in the international journal BMC Health Services Research had been read 10,000 times. In this paper, which is in an Open Access journal, Pasang reports on a cross-sectional study conducted in 2019 covering all 31 state health facilities in a district of Nepal to assess the availability of maternal and neonatal health services including appropriate workforce and access to essential medicines. 
Tests of association between demographic factors and the probability of a facility experiencing a shortage of essential medicine within the last 3 months were also conducted as exploratory procedures. Overall health facilities reported better availability of staff than of drugs. The authors concluded that health facilities in Nepals should be supported to meet required minimal standards such as availability of essential medicines and the provision of emergency ambulance transport for women and newborns. This paper was part of Dr. Pasang Tamang’s Ph.D. project at the University of Huddersfield, which resulted in four other related publications [2-5]. Pasang is currently working as a Lecturer in Public Health in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Greenwich.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
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With the upcoming Bournemouth University systematic review module co-ordinated lead by Prof. Vanora Hundley, the following announcement was timely today:
The systematic review course is part of the INSIGHT programme.
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Twenty reads may not look a lot, but this paper on kidney disease in Nepalese migrant workers was only published in the second half of last month. Our paper ‘Exploring lifestyles, work environment and health care experience of Nepalese returnee labour migrants diagnosed with kidney-related problems’ [1] resulted from a study funded by UK-based charity The Colt Foundation.
One of the problems with kidney disease is that damage might be inflicted over a long period before people experience serious symptoms, as they might not show until the kidneys are working on less than half their capacity and long-term permanent damage has been done. This study indicates that Nepalese migrant workers face numerous challenges, including limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities, poor diets, exposure to occupational hazards, and overuse of pain medication, all of which may contribute to an increased risk of kidney disease.
The paper is Open Access, and hence freely available to everybody with internet access. Our faculty of Health & Social Sciences team (Dr. Nirmal Aryal, Dr. Pramod Remi & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen) has written many scientific papers (as well as a few Viewpoint articles) on a wide-range of aspects related to the health and well-being of migrant workers [2-33], our co-authors include former BU staff members Dr. Preeti Mahato, Dr. Bibha Simkhada, Dr. Shovita Adhikari Dhakal, Dr. Steve Trenoweth, Dr. Steve Keen, Dr. Zoe Sheppard and former BU PhD student Pratik Adhikary.
Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Nirmal Aryal & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
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A few days ago we published the editorial for the latest issues of the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology. This editorial under the title ‘Urgent need for better quality control, standards and regulation for the Large Language Models used in healthcare domain‘ [1] comments that current methodologies for ensuring AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology’s safety and efficacy may be adequate for earlier AI iterations predating generative artificial intelligence (GAI). However, better clinical gouvernance GAI may necessitate the development of novel regulatory frameworks. As AI technology advances, researchers, academic institutions, funding bodies, and publishers should continue to examine its impact on scientific inquiry and revise their understanding, ethical guidelines, and regulations accordingly.
The co-authors include two Bournemouth University Visiting Faculty, Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at the University of Huddersfield) and Dr. Brijesh Sathian (based at Rumailah Hospital, Qatar).
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMWH
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Congratulations to Dr. Ans Luyben on the publication of her latest midwifery article ‘How to promote midwives’ recognition and professional autonomy? A document analysis study’ [1]. This latest paper will appear in the forthcoming November issue of the international scientific journal Midwifery, published by Elsevier.
The paper identified challenges in Belgian midwives’ recognition and professional autonomy and provided recommendations to address them, emphasizing the importance of recognized authority in midwifery. Implementing these recommendations can positively impact midwives’ recognition and autonomy in Belgium as well as in other countries. Ans has long been affiliated with the Centre of Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) as Visiting Faculty and she works in the Frauenzentrum (Centre for Women’s Health), Lindenhofgruppe, Bern, Switzerland.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
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Last night ResearchGate informed us that our paper ‘Understanding health education, health promotion and public health‘ had reached 6,000 reads [1]. This reflective paper in an Open Access journal tries to bring a little more clarity in the confusion around the difference between the concepts of health education, health promotion and public health. We argue that such confusion does not limit itself to the individual terms but also to how these terms relate to each other. Some authors and public health practitioners use terms such as health education and health promotion interchangeably; others see them clearly as different concepts. 
In this theoretical overview paper, we have first of all outlined our understanding of these individual terms. We suggest how the five principles of health promotion as outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO) fit into Andrew Tannahill’s model from 2009 [2] of three overlapping areas: (a) health education; (b) prevention of ill health; and (c) health protection. Our schematic overview places health education within health promotion and health promotion itself in the center of the overarching disciplines of education and public health. We hope our representation helps reduce confusion among all those interested in our discipline, including students, educators, journalists, practitioners, policymakers, politicians, and researchers.
The paper is co-authored by a primary school teacher based in Dorset, and four professors who have a combined experience in the wider public health field of over a century.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
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In late August Heidi Singleton led the publication of a Cochrane Systematic Review under the title ‘Educational and psychological interventions for managing atopic dermatitis (eczema)’ [1]. The team conducting this review includes BU’s Prof. Steve Ersser, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust colleagues Dr. Andrew Hodder, former BU staff Prof. Vanessa Heaslip (currently at the University of Salford), and one of my co-authors on a previous project Dr. Dwayne Boyers from the Health Economics Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen.
In their review the authors conclude that in-person, individual education, as an adjunct to conventional topical therapy, may reduce short-term eczema signs compared to standard care, but there is no information on eczema symptoms, quality of life or long-term outcomes. Group education probably reduces eczema signs and symptoms in the long term and may also improve quality of life in the short term. Favourable effects were also reported for technology-mediated education, habit reversal treatment and arousal reduction therapy. All favourable effects are of uncertain clinical significance, since they may not exceed the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for the outcome measures used. Finally, they found no trials of self-help psychological interventions, psychological therapies or printed education. Future trials should include more diverse populations, address shared priorities, evaluate long-term outcomes and ensure patients are involved in trial design.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMWH
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This afternoon the editorial office of Frontiers in Psychiatry informed us that our manuscript “Prenatal maternal mental health and resilience in the United Kingdom during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A cross-national comparison” [1] has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Psychiatry, section Perinatal Psychiatry. An interdisciplinary team from Germany, Canada and the UK designed and initiated a longitudinal pregnancy cohort in the United Kingdom titled Maternal mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Effect of the Pandemic on Pregnancy Outcomes & Childhood Health (EPPOCH). In the second half of 2020, we recruited 3,600 pregnant individuals via self-enrollment through our website ‘www.eppoch-uk.org’. Our EPPOCH study has since collected a wealth of validated questionnaire data at multiple time points, from mothers (during pregnancy and postpartum) and their children (from birth to age 3), and we are currently distributing our 4-year childhood follow-up questionnaire. This is the first paper from the EPPOCH study. 
The UK team is a collaboration between Bournemouth University and University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, the latter through Professor Minesh Khashu and Dr. Latha Vinayakarao based in Poole Maternity Hospital. The German team is led by Dr. Melanie Conrad, previously at Charité University Medicine Berlin, and now associated with the University of Augsburg, and includes Swarali Datye, PhD student at Charité University Medicine Berlin, whilst our Canadian collaborator, Alison MacRae-Miller, is based at the University of British Columbia, Victoria. This EPPOCH cohort is closely linked with a sister cohort in Canada called the Pregnancy During the Pandemic (PDP) study.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
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The 51st International Conference & Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH’24), the international annual conference for the Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM, the world’s foremost computing society) was held in Denver, Colorado in August.
Among the work showcased at the conference was the poster “O, What an Iridescent Web We Weave: Rendering Physically Inspired Spider Webs for Visual Effects” by Vaya Simeonova (Grigorova) from this year’s graduating cohort (Computer Animation Technical Arts – CATA, Level 6) of the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA, Faculty of Media and Communication) and co-authored by Dr Eike Falk Anderson.
The poster paper is based on Vaya’s final year Research & Development Project unit project “An Exploration of the Optical Properties of Spider Web Fibres”, which resulted in the development of a physically inspired method for rendering CG spider webs that display the iridescent properties, observable in real-world spider webs.
The method achieves this in a manner that does not require a computationally expensive and bespoke/proprietary software solution, but instead works with industry standard, off-the-shelf, visual effects (VFX) software, meaning it can effortlessly be integrated into existing VFX production pipelines. The project was also one of five submissions featured in the SIGGRAPH’24 “Posters Highlights” video.
After being accepted as one of the 70 posters presented at this year’s SIGGRAPH conference, the world’s Premier Conference & Exhibition on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques, Vaya’s contribution (poster 32), was invited to the first round of the prestigious ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) sponsored by Microsoft, shortlisted as a semi-finalists, and presented to a panel of experts in the SRC Final Presentation. The jury, who enjoyed Vaya’s presentation and appreciated her demonstrated knowledge of prior research, were impressed by her execution of the work and its practicality, for which they awarded Vaya the Second Place in the ACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Student Research Competition in the undergraduate category.
After Ben Knowles (with Dr Oleg Fryazinov) who was awarded second place at SIGGRAPH’15 for “Increasing realism of animated grass in real-time game environments“, Teemu Lindborg and Philip Gifford (with Dr Oleg Fryazinov) who were semi-finalists at SIGGRAPH’17 for “Interactive parameterised heterogeneous 3D modelling with signed distance fields”, Quentin Corker-Marin (with Dr Valery Adzhiev and the late Professor Alexander Pasko) who achieved second place at SIGGRAPH’17 for “Space-time cubification of artistic shapes“, Bianca Cirdei (with Dr Eike Falk Anderson) who was awarded 1st place at SIGGRAPH’18 for her exceptional project “Withering fruits: vegetable matter decay and fungus growth” and Laura Mann (with Dr Oleg Fryazinov) who won second place at SIGGRAPH’19 for “3D printing for mixed reality hands-on museum exhibit interaction“, this is the first time since the start of the COVID’19 pandemic that an NCCA undergraduate student has progressed to the final round in this prestigious competition.
The paper ‘Health and well-being of Nepalese migrant workers abroad’ [1], which was part of the PhD work of Dr. Pratik Adhikary has been cited forty times. This is one of the many recent Bournemouth University papers focusing on the health and well-being of migrant workers from Nepal. The purpose of this paper was to assess the health and mental well-being of Nepalese construction and factory workers employed in Malaysia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. We used a structured questionnaire administered, in and around Nepal’s international airport. In total 403 migrants who had worked for over six months in their host countries. Logistic regression was used to investigate factors associated with self-reported health status and mental health symptoms.
Pratik’s PhD was supervised by Dr. Zoe Sheppard, Dr. Steve Keen and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. This research has been financially supported by a PhD studentship at Bournemouth University and funding from the Open Society Foundation (OSF). BU supported Pratik to travel to Nepal, and the OSF provided subsistence funds. Pratik has written several further papers based on his PhD study [2-5].
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Congratulations to Ph.D. student Joanne Rack on the publication today of her paper ‘Understanding perceptions and communication of risk in advanced maternal age: a scoping review (protocol) on women’s engagement with health care services’ [1]. Joanne is currently doing a Clinical Doctorate in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) focusing on personalised care for women of advanced maternal age. Her doctoral study is matched-funded by University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust and Bournemouth University [BU]. Her PhD is supervised and supported by Profs. Vanora Hundley, Ann Luce and Edwin van Teijlingen at BU and Dr. Latha Vinayakarao in Poole Maternity Hospital.
Well done!
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Today BMJ Global Health posted a blog (read it here!) about our recently publish paper ‘Socio-economic experiences of female community health volunteers matter: insights from Nepal’ which appeared last month in the Open Access journal PLOS Global Public Health [1]. In Nepal, about 50,000 Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) are a vital human resource for both government and non-government agencies delivering primary healthcare at community level. Their contribution to maternal and child health is recognised globally. Being an active volunteer brought some interesting issues for the FCHCs. For example, the social experience of working in one’s own village was not the same for all. While community recognition of volunteers’ work was seen as a motivator, most volunteers thought they were not given due respect by fellow community members. Too often community members mistook volunteers as paid health workers often due to their involvement in medicine distribution, a rare bi-annual activity. 
Our recent paper in BMJ Global Health was highlighted in an earlier BU Research Blog (to read this click here!). This latest paper is the third one based on Dr. Sarita Panday’s PhD research conducted at the University of Sheffield [2-3]. It is the fourth Bournemouth University paper on FCHVs with last weeks publication in the Journal of Manmohan memorial Institute of Health Sciences [4]
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
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As part of the interdisciplinary Sonamoni project our collaborator Mirza Shibat Rowshan will be presenting at Safety 2024. The 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (Safety 2024) will be held between in the first week of September in New Delhi, India. The conference is hosted by The George Institute for Global Health and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Sonamoni is being coordinated by Bournemouth University and CIPRB (The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh) in collaboration with the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), and Design Withour Borders in Uganada. This project, with Prof. Dr. Aminur Rahman as Bangladesh lead, includes a BU-based PhD project Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain. The interdisciplinary team at Bournemouth University covers three faculties through: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
Shibat works at CIPRB, which is a world leading injury prevention organisation based in Bangladesh. This presentation focuses on a needs assessment of the risk of very young children drowning in rural Bangladesh.All conference abstracts will be published in a pre-conference supplement of the scientific journal BMJ- Injury Prevention.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMWH
Am I getting grumpier or are academic getting lazier? Or both? This morning I had to write an email in my role as one of the editors of The Journal of Asian Midwives to a group of authors somewhere in South Asia with the following text:
I am delighted to share that our most recent methods paper in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods entitled “Most Significant Change Approach: A Guide to Assess the Programmatic Effects” [1] is now published and is available online (click here!). This paper is co-authored by Mohan K. Sharma, Shanti P. Khanal and Edwin R.van Teijlingen.
The paper outlines the so-called ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC) participatory technique to monitor and evaluate programmatic effects. MSC is a form of monitoring that can be applied throughout the programme cycle and it provides information to help manage the programme. Furthermore, MSC as an evaluation method, provides stories from which programmes’ overall impact can be assessed. However, MSC, as a participatory evaluation technique using qualitative approaches, is often neglected by many evaluators.
This is the latest in a series of papers describing the strengths and weaknesses of applying specific research approaches. Other recent methods papers included two on positionality [2-3], a paper on interview methods [4], reflections on conducting participatory policy analysis in Nepal [5], some considerations about the selection of study localities in health research [6], distinguishing between methods and methodology [7], the use of the appreciative inquiry methods [8], reflections on interdisciplinary research [9], and patient and public involvement in research in Bangladesh and Nepal [10].
Whilst older methods papers published Faculty of Health & Social Sciences academics include topics such as focus group discussions, working with translators, conducting pilot studies, the Delphi Method, comparative studies, and qualitative interviews [11-22].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMWH
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This week the Global Health Journal accepted the latest article on female migrant workers from Nepal [1]. The paper is co-authored by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health as well as by Faculty of Health & Social Sciences Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam, and other Nepalese co-authors are based in the UK and Nepal. Ms. Manju Gurung is co-founder & strategic advisor of POURAKHI Nepal, an Nepal-based organisation supporting ,migrant workers. Dr. Sharada P.Wasti, is based at the University of Greenwich, and he has collaborated with Bournemouth University academics on several previous academic papers on health, work-related migration and human trafficking [2-4].
The paper highlights the plight of women working abroad and the problems they encounter destination countries. This study reported in this paper was conducted among 1,889 women who were registered as migrant returnees at an organisation called POURAKHI Nepal. The study extracted and analysed data from this non-governmental organisation that
supports returning female migrant workers in Nepal.
Around half (43.1 %) of the women in the study were 35 or older, 30.9 % were illiterate, and 63.6 % were in their first overseas job. Over one-third (38.5 %) had experienced self-reported workplace harassment. Gender-based violence was a serious problem as physical violence was highly prevalent (68 %), followed by verbal abuse (37.5 %), mental stress (29.7 %), and sexual abuse (14.1 %).
Women who worked abroad with the following characteristics were at the greatest risk: those who were illiterate (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]1.25, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.01 to 1.55), unmarried (AOR 1.27, 95 % CI: 1.05 to 1.56), worked abroad twice or more years (AOR 1.35, 95 % CI: 1.10 to 1.66), changed their place of work (AOR 2.38, 95 % CI: 1.42 to 4.01), lived without documents (AOR 1.24, 95 % CI: 1.03 to 1.50), worked as domestics (AOR 3.56, 95 % CI: 2.03 to 6.23), worked in other than Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (AOR 1.45, 95 % CI: 1.06 to 1.99), women who did not have a fixed salary (AOR 1.64, 95 % CI: 1.28 to 2.10) and did not receive salary (AOR 3.71, 95 % CI: 2.88 to 4.77) were more likely to be harassed at work.
The authors recommend that the host governments should introduce and enforce policies protecting women in the workplace. Moreover, migrant women should be provided with better information about health risks and hazards as well as how to improve preventive measures in destination countries to reduce workplace harassment.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
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Our research project on kidney disease in Nepalese migrant workers funded by the Colt Foundation has been published this week by PLoS ONE. The paper ‘Exploring lifestyles, work environment and health care experience of Nepalese returnee labour migrants diagnosed with kidney-related problems‘ [1] is led by Bournemouth University’s Drs. Pramod Regmi and Nirmal Aryal, both based in the Centre for Wellbeing and Long-Term Health. This is one of the first qualitative papers to focus on the rising kidney health-related risks among Nepalese labour migrants in the Middle East and Malaysia. 
This qualitative study explored the lifestyles and work environment of returnee Nepalese migrants who were diagnosed with kidney health problems. In-depth interviews were carried out with twelve male returnee migrants, with half having worked abroad for at least a decade. Our analysis yielded seven themes: (a) living and lifestyles; (b) work environment; (c) exposure to pollutants; (d) Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) experience; (e) use of painkillers and healthcare; (f) medical expenses for CKD patients; and (g) pre-departure training. This study indicates that Nepalese migrants face numerous challenges, including limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities, poor diets, exposure to occupational hazards, and overuse of pain medication, all of which may contribute to an increased risk of kidney disease. An enhanced pre-departure and on-arrival orientation programme focusing on kidney health-related topics, including the necessary advocacy at the country of destination to provide access to basic services, may encourage migrants to adopt healthy lifestyles and safe working environments, as well as help educate migrants to their kidney health risks.
The is the latest in a series of academic papers related in one way of or another to kidney disease in migrant workers from Nepal [2-5].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
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