Tagged / collaborative research

BU students’ publishing success

BRIAN, NHS, PG research, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

This week the international Open Access journal PLOS One published a paper co-written by BU staff and students.  The paper is called ‘Antenatal education for labour and postpartum pain: A scoping review of content, delivery approaches, evidence gaps, and lived experiences‘ [1].  This scoping review involves two M.Res students and one Ph.D. student and two of these students were originally BU undergraduate students.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Reference:
  1. Sloyan E, Leddy E, Clark C, Dufour S, Harper R, Dunford A, Elam, Öl. (2026) Antenatal education for labour and postpartum pain: A scoping review of content, delivery approaches, evidence gaps, and lived experiences. PLoS One 21(6): e0330399. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330399

Official book launch at Bournemouth University

international, Publishing, writing

Last night Bournemouth University hosted the official launch at of the book Early Labour and Maternity Care: Research for Practice published by Routledge.  This edited collection was led by Prof. Vanora Hundley in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) and University of Stirling Prof. Helen Cheyne.  Several BU staff as well as a current and a former BU student student have contributed to various chapters.  CMWH academics include in this edited volume are: Prof. Carol Clark and Dr. Dominique Mylod, our current BU M.Res. student Maryam Malekian and the former BU Ph.D. student and former staff member who contributed a chapter is Dr. Preeti Mahato (currently based at Royal Holloway, University of London).

The book launch was opened by Prof. Rick Stafford as Associate Dean – Research, Innovation & Enterprise in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences.  This was followed by  short presentations from various contributors to the book.   Prof. Hundley highlighted about the book: “The early phase of labour is an area of tension for women, midwives and other healthcare professionals. Current services often fail women, putting the onus on them to decide when to come into hospital and then sending them home ‘not in labour’, creating a revolving door that can lead to anxiety, stress, fear and negative communication between women and midwives. This book explores why this happens and the challenges that it places on women and the midwives that care for them. It works to define what “early labour” is and teases out some of the issues that definitions of the early phase of labour raise for both woman-centred care and the management of services. Presenting innovative approaches to practice in this contested area, this book includes vignettes from women exploring their experiences of the early phase of labour in different models of care. Key point summaries and boxed recommendations for practice help readers transfer their learning to practice.”

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

First publication for two CMWH PhD students

NHS, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to CMWH doctoral student Jennah Evans who has published the first paper from her PhD in the Journal of Human Lactation. The scoping review protocol outlines a transparent and reproducible method for investigating the relationship between stress and the human milk ejection reflex, addressing a significant knowledge gap in the literature.  Jennah and her supervisors (including CMWH member Dr Dominique Mylod) are also aiming to improve understanding of D-MER, a challenging condition associated with intense negative emotions during breastfeeding.

Congratulations are also due a second  CMWH doctoral student Louise Barton, whose paper ‘Southampton’s approach to smoking cessation has been accepted by MIDIRS Midwifery Digest and the paper will be pubished its June issue.  Smoking during pregnancy is the leading yet preventable causes a whole range of illnesses.  Louise’s PhD is an assessment of Southampton’s Midwifery-led Integrated Antenatal Care Pathway.  Her PhD is supervised by CMWH academics Dr. Daisy Wiggins and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
References:
Evans, J.M., Paul, R., Wezyk, A.B., Mylod, D. (2026) Exploring the Association Between Stress and the Experience of the Milk Ejection Reflex: A Scoping Review Protocol. Journal of Human Lactation Online First https://doi.org/10.1177/08903344261433846

Barton, L., van Teijlingen, E., Wiggins, D., Loader, R.-A., White, A. (2026) Southampton’s approach to smoking cessation, MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, 36(2): 145–151.

New HIV paper by BU PhD student

international, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

The editor of HIV Research & Clinical Practice informed us that the paper ‘Stigma in UK health care: A key barrier to reaching zero HIV transmission by 2030’ has been accepted for publication [1].   This paper is based on the PhD research currently conducted by Mr. Tom Weeks in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences (HEMS).  Tom’s thesis focuses on the perceptions of stigmatisation of People Living with HIV in care settings in the UK and the kind of education health care staff (clinical and non-clinical) receive in relation to HIV.  His long-term aim in the PhD is to help improve education to reduce such stigma.  Tom is being supervised by Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. 

Both supervisors have a long experience in studying social and health promotion aspects of HIV and AIDS.  Thirty years ago Prof. van Teijlingen worked in the NHS as a researcher in the Centre for HIV/AIDS and Drugs Studies based in Edinburgh.  Whilst Dr. Regmi conducted his PhD research on sexual health and health promotion in young people in Nepal.  Both supervisors themselves have published widely on the topic of HIV and AIDS [2-23].  The first of these many publication was a letter on community care for people living with HIV in the community which was published in the Lancet in 1993 [2]. 

 

 

References

  1. Weeks, T., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2026) Stigma in UK health care: A key barrier to reaching zero HIV transmission by 2030, HIV Research & Clinical Practice (accepted).
  2. Huby, G, van Teijlingen E, Porter M., Bury, J (1993) Care for HIV in community (letter) Lancet 342: 1297-1298.
  3. Huby, G, van Teijlingen, E, Robertson J, Porter, AM (1993) Community care & support for women, In: Johnson F & Johnstone M. (Eds.) HIV Infection in Women, Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 123-32.
  4. Bury, J.K., Ross, A., van Teijlingen, E., Porter, AMD, Bath, G. (1996) Lothian GPs, HIV infection & Drug Misuse: Epidemiology, Experience & Confidence 1988-93 Health Bulletin, 54: 258-269.
  5. Huby, GO, van Teijlingen E, Porter, AMD, Bury, J. (1997) Co-ordination of care on discharge from hospital into the community for patients with HIV/AIDS in Lothian, Health Bulletin, 55:338-50.
  6. van Teijlingen, E, Huby, G. (1998) Evaluation within a policy-making and contracting culture: reflections of practice, In: Barbour R.S., Huby G. (Eds.), Meddling with mythology: AIDS & the social construction of knowledge, London: Routledge, 218-33.
  7. Lowis, G, van Teijlingen, E, Sheremata, W. (2000) AIDS in developing countries: A comparative epidemiological analysis, In: Rose, J. (Ed.), Population Problems, Reading: Gordon & Breach Science Publishers: 133-61
  8. Scotland, G., van Teijlingen E., van der Pol, M, Smith, WCS. (2003) A review of studies assessing costs & consequences of interventions to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa, Aids, 17: 1045-52.
  9. Nicholson, D., van Teijlingen E. (2006) Comparing level of expenditure on HIV health promotion & incidence of HIV in Greater Glasgow & Lothian Health Boards (1988-98), Salusvita, 25(1): 13-22 usc.br/Edusc/colecoes/revistas/salusvita_pdf/salusvita_v25_n.1_2006.pdf
  10. Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E. (2008) Sexual & reproductive health status among young people in Nepal: opportunities & barriers for sexual health education & service utilisation, Kathmandu University Medical Journal 6(2): 248-256.
  11. Wasti, S.P., Simkhada, P.P, Randall, J., van Teijlingen E. (2009) Issues & Challenges of HIV/AIDS Prevention & Treatment Programme in Nepal, Global Journal of Health Science 1(2): 62-72. http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/gjhs/article/viewFile/2460/3474
  12. Regmi P, Simkhada PP, van Teijlingen E (2010) “Boys Remain Prestigious, Girls become Prostitutes”: Socio-Cultural Context of Relationships & Sex among Young People in Nepal, Global Journal of Health Science 2(1): 60-72.
  13. Regmi P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E. (2010) “There are too many naked pictures found in papers and on the net”: Factors encouraging pre-marital sex among young people of Nepal. Health Science Journal 4(3): 162-174. hsj.gr/volume4/issue3/437.pdf
  14. Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E. (2010) Dating and Sex among Emerging Adults in Nepal. Journal of Adolescence Research 26 (6): 675-700.
  15. Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E, Simkhada, P., Acharya, D. (2010) Barriers to sexual health services for young people in Nepal. Journal of Health Population & Nutrition 28: 619-27.
  16. Wasti, SP, Simkhada, PP, van Teijlingen E (Eds.) (2015) Socio-Cultural Aspects of HIV/ AIDS. The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Kathmandu: Soc Sci Baha/Himal Books: 47-62.
  17. Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Dhungel, D., Ghale, G., Bhatta, G.K. (2016) Knowing is not enough: Migrant workers’ spouses vulnerability to HIV, SAARC Journal of Tuberculosis, Lung Diseases & HIV/AIDS 8(1):9-15.
  18. Ochillo, M., van Teijlingen, E., Hind, M. (2017) Influence of faith-based organisations on HIV prevention strategies in Africa: systematic review. African Health Sciences 17(3): 753-61.
  19. Sathian, B., Sreedharan, J., Asim, M., Menezes, R.G., van Teijlingen, E., Unnikrishnan, B. (2018) Estimation of burden of people living with HIV/AIDS in Kerala state, India. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 8(3): 738-44.
  20. Hamidi, A., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) HIV epidemic in Libya: Identifying gaps, Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, 20 :1-5 https://doi.org/10.1177/23259582211053964 .
  21. Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E.R., Silwal, R.C., Dhital, R. (2022) Role of social media for sexual communication and sexual behaviors: A focus group study among young people in Nepal. Journal of Health Promotion, 10(1):153–166. https://doi.org/10.3126/jhp.v10i1.50995
  22. Hamidi, A., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2023) Facilitators and barriers to condom use in Middle East and North Africa: a systematic review, Journal of Public Health, 32: 1651-81 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-01923-3
  23. Hamidi, A., Regmi, P, van Teijlingen, E. (2024) Islamic perspectives on HIV: a scoping review, Discover Social Science & Health 4:6 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s44155-024-00063-7.pdf

Prof Marahatta promoting BU-Nepal collaboration

international, Publishing, writing

On Monday 9th March Prof. Sujan Marahatta visited Bournmouth University (BU) to speak about ‘Strengthening BU-Nepal collaboration AND Nepal’s experience of competency-based health professional education’.  Prof. Marahatta is the Director of the Medical Education Commission in Nepal overseeing the education of health professionals in 15 areas including Medicine, Physiotherapy, Nursing and Midwifery. He spoke about long partnership between Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) and BU.  This partnership is formalised in a Memoradum of Agreement (MoA) and over the years it has included joint research projects, staff-student exchanges (funded by ERASMUS+ and Turing scheme) and offering guest lectures at each others institutions.

One of the jointly conducted studies which Prof. Marahatta highlighted was the work on CPD (Continuous Professional Development) in nursing and midwifery in Nepal.  Research on CPD started a decade ago and culminated in several papers [1-4]. The research was combined with sustained advocacy and stakeholder engagement, and resulted in the Nepal Nursing Council (NNC) formally introduced mandatory CPD as a requirement for nursing and midwifery re-registration earlier this year (15 January 2026).  The National Guideline on Continuing Nursing and Midwifery Education (CNME) CPD for Nurses and Midwives refer to our work conducted by academics based at Bournemouth University.  This is the foundation for one of BU’s REF Impact Case Studies for 2029.

Amongst other studies, Prof. Marahatta also highlighted a recent publication which was  jointly authored between BU’s professors Clark and Hundley and himself on pain catastrophising in nulliparous women in Nepal, the importance for childbirth [5].  Prof. Marahatta’s  visit was held in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences (HEMS) in the Bournemouth Gateway Building.

References:

  1. Simkhada B, Mackay S, Khatri R, Sharma CK., Pokhrel T, Marahatta SB., Angell C, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P. (2016) Continual Professional Development (CPD): Improving Health Prospect15 (3):1-3.
  2. Khatri, RJ, van Teijlingen, E, Marahatta, SB, Simkhada, P, Mackay, S and Simkhada, B. Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities for Continuing Professional Development for Nurses: A Qualitative Study with Senior Nurse Leaders in Nepal. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences. 2021 7(1):15-29. 
  3. Simkhada B, van Teijlingen E, Pandey A, Sharma CK, Simkhada P, Singh DR (2023) Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Continuing Professional Development among Nepalese Nurses: A Focus Group Study Nursing Open.10(5).
  4. Simkhada B, van Teijlingen E, Sharma C, Pandey A, Simkhada P. (2023) Nepal needs Continuing Professional Development for Re-registration in Nursing and Midwifery Journal of Nepal Health Research Council, 21(60):541-42.
  5. Clark CJ, Marahatta SB, Hundley VA. (2024) The prevalence of pain catastrophising in nulliparous women in Nepal; the importance for childbirth. PLoS ONE 19(8): e0308129. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308129.

Accessing Sign Language for Better Communication

Awarded & submitted bids, international

We warmly invite you to a two‑day workshop/symposium funded by the British Council’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). The event will open on Monday afternoon (9 March) with two introductory British Sign Language (BSL) taster sessions led by professional BSL teachers from the Wilts & Dorset Deaf Association (WDDA). This will be followed by a full day of talks on Tuesday, featuring academics, professionals, and researchers discussing sign language history, recognition, and the role of AI in supporting inclusive communities.

Venue: Student Hall, Talbot Campus

Event Schedule is as follows:

Monday (9th March)

12:30  Registration

12:50  Opening address

13:00 – 14:30 BSL session – BSL teachers: Lynn Preston & Richard Neale

14:30 – 15:00 Break

15:00 – 16:30 BSL session – BSL teachers: Lynn Preston & Richard Neale

16:30  Closing

 

Tuesday (10th March)

9:30     Registration

9:50     Opening address

10:00 – 11:00 AI Translation between Sign and Spoken Language

Presenter: Richard Bowden is Professor of Computer Vision and Machine Learning within the Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey. He is also co-founder of Signapse. His research centres on the use of computer vision to locate, track, and understand humans with a specific interest and focus on sign languages. Having worked on many areas of computer vision, including robotics, autonomous vehicles and the tracking and analysis of humans. He has been developing computational approaches to sign language recognition and translation for over 30 years. Over the last few years Richard has refocused his entire research group on Sign Language Translation, with recent funding including a large grant from Google to reduce the cost of translation through AI and SignGPT, which aims to develop the next generation of AI tools for sign languages.

11:00 – 11:15 Break

11:15 – 12:00 A History of the Development and Access to British Sign Language

Presenter: George Raggett has been deaf from the age of eight through a yet undiagnosed hereditary condition. George acquired good speaking and reading skills prior to his hearing loss and prefer to communicate using these methods, supplemented by hearing aids and naturally developed lip-reading skills. George has developed Sign Language skills since 1987 and has been teaching Sign Language and Deaf Awareness & Communication courses to all ages since qualifying as a teacher in 2002. In 2007, George became a trustee of The Wiltshire and Dorset Deaf Association, a charity set up to promote and support the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities of both counties, in 2004

12:00 – 13:30 Break

13:30 – 14:15 Relevant Annotation for Multimodal Interaction Analysis: AI Bridging Interaction Studies of Gestures and Signs

Presenter: Mayumi Bono is an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Tokyo, Japan. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Kobe University in 2005. In her Ph.D. project, she demonstrated how to build a machine-readable model of the ‘Participation Framework,’ initially provided by Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman. After receiving her Ph.D., she got a position in informatics at ATR Media Information Science Laboratories, Kyoto University, and the National Institute of Informatics based on fruitful collaborations with engineering and informatics researchers. Currently, she is conducting several research projects of building sharable spoken and sign language multimodal corpora in an open science framework for all academic researchers interested in human communication using artificial intelligence techniques such as machine learning.

14:15 – 14:45 J-Shuwa: A Large-Scale Web-Collected Japanese Sign Language-Japanese Parallel Corpus

Presenter: Junwen Mo is a PhD candidate in the Nakayama Lab at the University of Tokyo. His research focuses on sign language understanding, with an emphasis on Japanese Sign Language translation. Recently, he has also developed an interest in alternative computational paradigms for artificial intelligence.

14:45 – Break

15:00 – 15:30 Between Representation and Embodiment: Perspectives on Sign Language Avatars

Presenter: Yi Wen is a first-year PhD researcher at Bournemouth University, where she previously completed her Master’s in Artificial Intelligence. She has a background in the game industry, working on large-scale production pipelines and collaborative projects. Her current research interests include sign language avatars, particularly exploring how different representational approaches may influence how signing is generated and experienced.

15:30 – 16:00 Continuous Sign language Recognition (CSLR): Feature Extraction from an Image Procesing Perspective

Presenter: Xinyu Zhang is an artificial intelligence researcher working at the intersection of medical imaging, representation learning, and algorithmic alignment. Her research advances contemporary medical AI by promoting approaches that reduce dependence on clinical expert teams and high computational resources, thereby enhancing scalability, reproducibility, and accessibility.

16:30 Closing

Evidence Synthesis Centre open at Kathmandu University

Awarded & submitted bids, international, Knowledge Exchange, Publishing, Training, writing

Last week we opened the Evidence Synthesis Centre in the School of Medical Sciences at Kathmandu University in Nepal.  The centre is part of a wider initiative is funded by The British Academy and supported in the field by Green Tara Nepal. Earlier parts of this initiative included online workshop on systematic reviewing and evidence synthesis as well as face-to-face training in Nepal late last year.  The project involved Bournemouth University’s Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen both in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences. 

This capacity-building project is led by Prof. Padam Simkhada from the University of Huddersfield and takes place at Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (KUSMS). This new Fellowship scheme is an international collaboration led by the University of Huddersfield in the UK, in close collaboration with Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (in Nepal), the Nepal Health Research Council, and several UK universities: Bournemouth University, the University of Sheffield, Canterbury Christ Church University, Keele University and the University of Chester. The Evidence Synthesis Centre and The British Academy grant grew out of an editorial written four years ago and published in the Journal of the Nepal Health Research Council [1]. The wider British Academy funded project on strengthening evidence  synthesis for health policy-making in Nepal has been described in two recent publications [2-3].

 

 

References:

  1. Simkhada, P., Dhimal, M., van Teijlingen, E., Gyanwali, P. (2022) Nepal Urgently Needs a National Evidence Synthesis Centre,  Journal of Nepal Health Research Council, 20 (3): i-ii.
  2. Simkhada, P., Vaidya, A., Regmi, P. P., Paudyal, P., van Teijlingen, E., Dhimal, M., Kiorala, B., Shrestha, A., Simkhada, B. (2025). Strengthening Evidence Synthesis for Health Policymaking in Nepal: A New Fellowship Initiative. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 15(2), 1379–1380. https://doi.org/10.3126/nje.v15i2.88516
  1. Vaidya, A., Simkhada, P., Silwal, R. C., Paudyal, P., Dhimal, M., Simkhada, B., van Teijlingen, E. (2025). Progress of the Unique Fellowship in Health Research Evidence Synthesis in Nepal. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 15(4), 1397–1398. https://doi.org/10.3126/nje.v15i4.88535

High five! New FishE papers support the evidence base for conserving threatened species and habitats

Publishing

Providing the evidence base to support conservation actions that protect species and habitats in aquatic ecosystems is a key task in the Fish Ecology and Conservation Research Cluster (FishE). This week, five articles published or accepted for publication will contribute strongly to this evidence base, with the work co-created with a number of funders and collaborating organisations.

Sotiris Meletiou’s PhD is on the conservation biology and management of the critically endangered European eel in Cyprus – which is at the eastern edge of their range and far away from their spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea (Atlantic Ocean). Until now, an eel management plan was not required for Cyprus as any eels present were not believed to metamorphose into adult silver eels and not emigrate back to their spawning grounds. Sotiris’ new paper in the Journal of Fish Biology demonstrates that silver eels are indeed present in Cyprus and do attempt to emigrate to sea, and so should drive the formation of a management plan that should result in greater eel protection and conservation in the eastern Mediterranean.

Simone Cittadino’s research is assessing how freshwater fish respond to saline incursion events from the sea into lowland rivers. these events driven by high spring tides, exacerbated by climate change driven rising sea levels and weather events. His new paper in Hydrobiologia assesses the general movements of a key fish species in the Norfolk Broads, the common bream, highlighting the importance of high habitat connectivity for their movements across this large protected wetland. This work will provide a strong basis for the rest of his PhD research.

Phillip Haubrock, a Marie Curie Incoming postdoctoral Fellow, identified how conservation efforts across the world have been affected by research that is limited by political borders and the restricted availability of data. He and his co-authors argue in Conservation Biology that supra-national and better open-data governance should be capable of overcoming this and lead to better conservation outcomes.

Two articles just accepted for publication this week also contribute strongly to the conservation evidence base. Jonas Palder’s first publication from his PhD was accepted in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, which assessed the increased mortality risk for threatened European shads caused by human constructed barriers within rivers. Robert Britton worked with Gabby Valle, one of our School’s 2024/25 MSc Biodiversity Conservation students, to get her research project data published, which was assessing the risk of a biological invasion in Britain by the globally invasive and ecologically damaging common carp. Their manuscript has also just been accepted for publication in the Journal of Fish Biology.

Congratulations to all involved!

Seeing the fruits of your labour in Bangladesh

Awarded & submitted bids, international, writing

After several little hiccups in our Sonamoni research project we can now show some of the work.  Sonamoni is a four-year research study led by the University of Bournemouth and the Centre for Injury Prevention Research Bangladesh (CIPRB) with the University of Southampton, the University of the West of England (UWE), the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Design Without Borders (DWB) to develop a number of interventions to prevent drowning in children under the age of 2 years in rural Bangladesh.  After several stages of well-planned research we worked with local communities and stakeholders to propose six interventions with the prospect of been taken further to a full community-based feasibility study.

These six interventions are being piloted in Bangladesh as I am writing this. This pilot phase is made more difficult at the moment as the country is in the ban of the forthcoming national elections.  These elections are particularly challenging for the people in Bangladesh and CIPRB as the local research partner.  The previous national election resulted in violent changes, and the lead up to this election has been, and still is, a difficult period.

We would like to highlight one of the six interventions in a little more detail, as the Human-Centred Design approach, resulted in a neat, simple and low-cost playpen.  The colourful pictures shows the first batch of flatpack playpens in the CIPRB office and some being delivered to rural villages.  However, getting the first sixty developed in Bangladesh turned out more difficult than expected. Our collagues in Bangladesh approached several small to medium-sized companies in the country with the production capabilities to produce a large number of playpens.  In the end only one way interested to try and this company took much longer than agreed to produce enough for our pilot stage.  The good news is that the first stage of the pilot is underway, although now we have the difficulty of forthcoming national election slowing down our research.

This interdisciplinary study is funded through the NIHR Research on Interventions for Global Health Transformation programme (Ref: NIHR203216).  The Bournemouth University team comprises staff from across the university covering all three faculties: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and Ph.D. student Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain.  For more information about our ongoing research in Bangladesh, please visit the NIHR website.

British Academy funded capacity-building training in Nepal

Awarded & submitted bids, international, Knowledge Exchange

Yesterday we reached third day of the three-day Fellowship training workshop in Dhulikhel, Nepal on evidence synthesis. This capacity-building project is led by the University of Huddersfield and takes place at Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (KUSMS). This new Fellowship scheme is an international collaboration led by the University of Huddersfield in the UK, in close collaboration with Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (in Nepal), the Nepal Health Research Council, and several UK universities: Bournemouth University, the University of Sheffield, Canterbury Christ Church University, Keele University and the University of Chester. This unique Fellowship started online in the autumn of 2025 and is part of a larger project on strengthening institutional knowledge and capacity of federal, provincial and local governments for evidence-informed health policymaking in Nepal. This important initiative is funded by The British Academy and supported in the field by Green Tara Nepal [1]. The project involved Bournemouth University’s Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen both in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences.

Some 28 Fellows have been selected from nearly one hundred applicants to help build capacity in the field of evidence synthesis with overall aim to promote evidence-informed policymaking in Nepal. This is longstanding aim of the researcher as highlighted in previous call for an evidence-based policy centre in Nepal [2].

References:

1. Simkhada P, Vaidyal A, Regmi P, Paudyal P, van Teijlingen E, Dhimal M, Koirala B, Shresthe A, Simkhada B (2025) Strengthening Evidence Synthesis for Health Policymaking in Nepal: A New Fellowship Initiative, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 15(2), 1379–1380. https://doi.org/10.3126/nje.v15i2.88516

2. Simkhada P, Dhimal M, van Teijlingen E, Gyanwali P (2022). Nepal Urgently Needs a National Evidence Synthesis Centre, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 20 (3): i-ii.

Up2U: New BU academic publication

open access, PG research, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to the interdisciplinary BU team on the publication of the paper ‘Up2U: designing and validating a new evidence-based programme for perpetrators of domestic abuse who want to change’ in Frontiers in Psychology [1].   The new paper is part of the series ‘The Dynamics of Emotion Regulation and Aggressiveness in Gender-Based Violence Contexts’, and it appeared in an Open Access journal and is therefore easily accessible.

Domestic abuse is a pervasive issue rooted in patterns of power and control, contributing to a significant number of high-harm offenses both in the UK and internationally. While programmes have been aiming to disrupt abusive cycles through the understanding and recognition of harm, there is widespread disagreement on what effective interventions should look like. This paper addresses this gap.

The authors of this paper include both psychologists and social workers, as well as a student co-author.  The lead author, Terri Cole, is a Principal Academic in Forensic Psychology.

 

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

Reference:

  1. Cole, T., Oliver, L., Harvey, O., Healy, J., Sperryn, A., Barbin, A. (2025) Up2U: designing and validating a new evidence-based programme for perpetrators of domestic abuse who want to change, Frontiers in Psychology, Volume 16 – 28 Nov.2025 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1676490

New BU midwifery paper

PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

Congratulations to HEMS colleagues on their recently published paper in MIDIRS Midwifery Digest. This new qualitative publication focuses on the ‘Barriers to the uptake of healthy eating messages by Black African immigrant pregnant women living in the UK: midwives’ perspectives’ [1].  The paper grew out of Aniebiet Ekong’s PhD research on this topic which was supervised by Drs. Pramod Regmi, Juliet Wood, and Jaqui Hewitt-Taylor.

 

Reference:

  1. Ekong A, Regmi P, Wood J, Hewitt-Taylor J. Barriers to the uptake of healthy eating messages by Black African immigrant
    pregnant women living in the UK: midwives’ perspectives M    IDIRS Midwifery Digest, 35(4):  372–383.

New PhD publication on Nepal’s migrant workers

international, open access, Publishing, student research, writing

Congratulations to BU postgraduate student Yagya Adhikari, who has just been informed by the editor of the Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health that his paper “Parental migration for work and psychosocial problems among left-behind adolescents in Nepal” [1] has been accepted for publication.  Yagya’s PhD is based in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Science.  He is supervised by Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen with support from Mr. Sudip Khanal, Lecturer in Biostatistics, at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Kathmandu.  This is the second paper from Yagya’s PhD the first one was published at the start of his PhD studies [2].  Both papers are published in Open Access journals and therefor will be freely available to read by anyone in the world with internet access.

 

References:

  1. Adhikari, Y.R., van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P.R., Khanal, S., Parental migration for work and psychosocial problems among left-behind adolescents in Nepal, Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health (forthcoming)
  2. Adhikari, Y.R., Regmi, P.R., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2022) Forgotten health and social care needs of left-behind families of Nepali migrant workers. Journal of Health Promotion, 10(1):1–4. https://doi.org/10.3126/jhp.v10i1.50976

BU paper among top 20 most cited papers

BRIAN, PG research, writing

The international journal Sociological Research Online ranked a paper written by Bournemouth University academics in its top twenty most cited papers in the past three years.  The methodological paper ‘Using a range of communication tools to interview a hard-to-reach population’ has as lead author Dr. Orlanda Harvey in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Science.

Reference:

  1. Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2024) Using a range of communication tools to interview a hard-to-reach population, Sociological Research Online 29(1): 221–232 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13607804221142212

New Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMHW) paper on Nepal

international, open access, Publishing, writing

Last week the international Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development emailed to tell that our paper ‘Exploring handwashing knowledge and practice among lactating mothers in Kathmandu’s slum communities’ [1] had been accepted for publication.

It is widely known that poor access to good quality water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) lead to high morbidity in young children. The paper reports on a cross-sectional study conducted with 127 breastfeeding mothers in two slum settlements in Nepal’s capital.  It found that most had a good knowledge of WASH and appropriate washing of hands. However, the prevalence of illness among children whose mothers had only basic education was 26% higher than those whose mothers had completed secondary education. Family income and hand-washing practice were also significantly associated with child health (p < 0.01). Nearly three in four (73.2%) of children had experienced health issues, particularly diarrhoea, in the past half year.

The authors concluded that strengthening maternal hand-hygiene education programmes, particularly for lactating mothers, and improving WASH infrastructure are necessary, as well as promoting affordable hand-washing solutions in urban slums.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

Reference:

  1. Devkota, G.P., Sharma, M.K., Sherpa, S., Khanal, T.R., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E. (2025) Exploring handwashing knowledge and practice among lactating mothers in Kathmandu’s slum communities, Nepal, Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 15:1-10. doi: 10.2166/washdev.2025.084

BU’s Dr. Iannuzzi editing special issue HEALTHCARE

international, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Dr. Laura Iannuzzi, based in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health, is acting as one of the two guest editors of a Special Issue for the international journal Healthcare.  This Special Issue called ‘Advancing Midwifery and Nursing Practice: Equity, Inclusion and Integrated Care’ currently has a call out for contributions. Details can be found by clicking here!

Healthcare is looking for authors to submit papers exploring strategic directions for midwifery and nursing in advancing inclusion, equity, and health.  This Special Issue is open to topics such as integrated care strategies and long-term care models, professional nursing roles, evidence-based interventions, and community-engaged approaches. The proposed theme aligns with Healthcare’s focus on multidisciplinary research and practical solutions that improve health outcomes across populations.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Strategic frameworks and global policy implications for midwifery and nursing;
  • Educational innovations to promote equity and development;
  • Evidence-based clinical practices focused on underserved populations;
  • Community health initiatives and participatory care models;
  • Coordinated interprofessional models and organizational frameworks that promote inclusive and equitable care;
  • Impacts of global crises (e.g., pandemics, conflict) on midwifery and nursing practices.

The Guest Editors are Dr. Simona Fumagalli and Dr. Laura Iannuzzi