Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
The Spring newsletter of the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) is available online now, click here! Also you can read more about our Centre on our webpages. CMMPH embraces the notion of FUSION as a key Bournemouth 
University centre. This is illustrated in each newsletter which always has sections on the three segments of Fusion: Education, Practice and Research.
Today ResearchGate alerted us that our paper ‘Nepalese Trekking Guides: A Quantitative Study of Sexual Health Knowledge And Sexual Behaviour’ [1] has been cited 300 times. This paper links between Tourism and Public Health in the field of sexually transmitted infections in travellers and tourism workers. This article, in an Open Access journal, is co-authored by BU’s Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen with BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada and Psychology colleagues from the University of Southampton.
This study assessed sexual behaviour, knowledge and condom use among male trekking guides in Nepal. A questionnaire (n=324) was administered to Nepali men working as mountain trekking guides. Most respondents (59%) had initiated sex before the age of 18. Most (84 %) reported 
sexual relations with a woman other than their partner, 46% reported foreign partners, 43% had Nepalese partners, and 28% had concurrent foreign and Nepalese partners. Most (70 %) reported ever having sex with a foreign woman and two-thirds had had sexual intercourse with foreign women in the previous 12 months. Participants’ age, education status, age of first sex, smoking and drinking habits and English proficiency were significant predictors of having sex with foreign women. About 60% reported condom use during their most recent occasion of extra-marital sex. A similar proportion had used a condom during last sexual intercourse with a foreign woman.
The likelihood of condom use was associated with a guide’s age, educational level, ethnicity, age of first sex and work experience. Most trekking guides reported sexual relations with foreign women as well as irregular use of condoms. Although sexual health knowledge about among trekking guides is high, some misconceptions still result in unsafe sex. Hence there is an urgent need to revise the existing training for trekking guides and implement appropriate health promotion programmes.
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Yesterday ResearchGate announced that the paper ‘Academic authorship: who, why and in what order?’ [1] has been read 1000 times. The paper addresses two related issues in academic writing: (a) authorship; and (b) order of authors. The issue of authorship centres on the notion of who can be an author, who should be an author and who definitely should not be an author. The paper reminds the reader that this is partly discipline specific. The second issue, the order of authors, is usually dictated by the academic tradition from which the work comes. One can immediately envisage disagreements within a multi-disciplinary team of researchers where members of the team may have different approaches to authorship order. Prof. Vanora Hundley is the lead author and the paper is co-authored with Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, both in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), and BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada. Padam is Professor of International Public Health in the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University.
Paper by Hundley et al. published 2013
This paper is part of a larger set of papers by academic in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences addressing various aspects of academic writing and publishing. Many of these papers are in Open Access journals, hence easily available across the globe for anybody with an internet connection. The series has covered papers on selecting an appropriate title for an academic paper, the role of the journal editor, the publication process and many more [2-9].
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Yesterday the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology published its latest issue which included the paper on ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among the Flood Affected Population in Indian Subcontinent’ [1]. This Short Communication is co-authored by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and two members of the Visiting Faculty in our Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, namely: Prof. Padam Simkhada and Dr. Brijesh Sathian. The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is an Open Access journal hence this paper is freely available for anybody with internet access to read.
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BU’s Dr. Bibha Simkhada’s paper ‘Factors affecting the utilisation of antenatal care in developing countries: a systematic review of the literature’ [1] is currently the 27th most cited paper in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. This is great achievement considering that the journal has published nearly ten thousand articles since its inception (to be precise 9,847). The Journal of Advanced Nursing (published by Wiley) is one of the prestigious journals in the nursing field. This extremely well-cited paper was part of Bibha’s Ph.D. study at the University of Aberdeen. Dr. Bibha Simkhada is Lecturer in Adult Nursing in the Department of Nursing and Clinical Sciences
. One of her co-authors also works at BU, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and a second co-author, Prof. Padam Simkhada from Liverpool John Moores University is Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. The third co-author Dr. Maureen Porter retired a few years ago.
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Looking at the SCOPUS data for 5 May 2019 on the International Day of the Midwife showed that the theoretical paper ‘Risk, Theory, Social & Medical Models: critical analysis of the concept of risk in maternity care’ [1] is in the top ten mosted quoted articles in Midwifery. Now in its 35th year, Midwifery is an international journal published by Elsevier. Since its inception in 1985 it has published 2,626 papers, and our paper ”Risk, Theory, Social & Medical Models’ has now been cited by 108 papers, making it the eighth most cited article. 
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
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Today BU’s professor Edwin van Teijlingen and FHSS (Faculty of Health & Social Sciences) and Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland presented their work at NorNAM (Nordic Network of Academic Midwives). The newly created network met in Reykjavik, Iceland for a three-day course on theories and models for midwifery. Prof. van Teijlingen spoke about the medical/social model of pregnancy & childbirth and Jillian, who is also Professional Midwifery Advocate at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, presented the A-EQUIP model which is widely used in the UK.
Social scientists can bring different perspectives and theoretical understandings to research into midwifery and maternity care. Today’s focus was on the social and medical model [1-5]. The medical model is ‘easy’ to understand, widely used in the media, based on medical science and claims to rely largely on objective measurement of symptoms and clinical observation. It offers individual treatment solutions for individual patients. The social model argues that there is inter-dependency between the ill person and their immediate and wider environment. The social model focuses on everyday life and the social, socio-economic, cultural and environmental aspects of health. It considers a wider range of factors that affect health, such as lifestyle, gender, poverty (or health inequality more generally), discrimination, and where and how we live. The social model is generally not individualist, but complex and multi-dimensional and often does not offer easy solutions. Solutions to health problem can be found at a population level and hence can be political or social as well as, for example, changes in the individual’s lifestyle.
The social model maintains that pregnancy and childbirth are largely physiological events that occur in most women’s lives. Following this line of thinking, the social model argues that pregnancy and childbirth do not normally need medical intervention or the transfer to hospital. A social model of care accepts childbirth as a normal social event in which preventative measures can be used. The medical model portrays a different view, namely that childbirth is potentially pathological, and therefore every woman is potentially at risk when she is pregnant and/or in labour. In short the medical model wants us to believe that pregnancy and childbirth are only safe in retrospect.
The medical model is often portrayed in the media as the most appropriate and hence ‘safe’ approach to pregnancy and childbirth and not only ‘controls’ women, but also their families, friends and health care providers. Understanding key sociological models of pregnancy and childbirth can help politicians, journalists, policy-makers, midwives, doctors, and other health care providers, childbirth activists as well as pregnant women and new mothers (and their partners) to put issues around ‘normal birth’ into perspective.
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BU’s researchers Dr. Pramod Raj Regmi and Dr. Nirmal Aryal have recently visited Malaysia for a consultation meeting. They organised meetings with stakeholders working on migration health related and Nepali migrant workers as Public Patient Involvement (PPI ) in Malaysia. These meetings discussed risk factors for sudden nocturnal deaths and kidney disease among Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia.
More than 350 Nepali migrant workers die in Malaysia every year. Nearly one-fourth of them die from cardiovascular problems often during their sleep, many without previous signs or illnesses. This also seems to be the case in South Asian workers in the Middle-East. The cause of death is hitherto unknown. During a consultation meeting on 19th April, participants suggested several possible causes of these deaths and strongly supported the idea of carrying out verbal autopsy with close friends, employers, roommates, etc. The emerging health issue of kidney health risk among Nepali migrant workers and its risk factors were also discussed. A total of 25 participants attended the meeting. Participants from many different disciplines [1], including from migration health researchers from several universities, migrant workers’ non-governmental organizations (NGO), the Malaysian Ministry of Health, and International Organization for Migration (IOM) Malaysia. FHSS’s Drs Aryal and Regmi facilitated the consultation workshops.
On the same day, Dr. Regmi and Dr. Aryal met with the Nepali ambassador to Malaysia Mr. Udaya Raj Pandey and his team and discussed migration issues. The Nepali Embassy in Malaysia is aware of these health problems and the ambassador committed to provide any support required for further investigation in these issues.
On 20th April, another PPI was carried out among Nepali migrant workers at their living quarters. Around 20 Nepali migrant workers participated. During this meeting, issues of sudden nocturnal deaths and acceptability and feasibility of verbal autopsy tools, problem of kidney disease and its possible triggers were discussed. The research into the usefulness of verbal autopsy tool as a good example of BU’s FUSION, since research can lead to a change in practice regarding health of migrant workers through better education of the migrant community, their left-behind families and NGOs working in the field.
These consultation meeting and PPI were intended to develop basis for further research in these area and build collaboration in Malaysia. The NGOs North-South Initiatives (Mr. Adrian Pereira and his team) and Migrant Workers’ Health Alliance (Dr. Erwin Martinez Faller and his team) have locally co-ordinated these events. These activities were conducted from the QR pump-priming fund awarded to Dr. Aryal this year in FHSS.
Finally, on 21st April, Dr. Regmi and Dr. Aryal were invited to the Philippine Embassy to share knowledge on mental health risk among migrant workers. They have presented findings of previous BU’s research on it as well as existing evidence on mental health risk on migrant workers and their left-behinds. More than 60 Filipino migrant workers attended the event.
As Malaysia is a popular destination for migrant workers from Asia Pacific and South Asia (there are currently more than 700,000 Nepali workers in Malaysia), these consultations will play a significant role in designing and developing grant applications to promote health and wellbeing of migrant workers. This consultation meeting builds on recent work on the topic conducted at BU [2-14] as highlighted in the recent Research Brief Migration and Health (Jan. 2019).
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This week saw the successful launch of an important new partnership between Bournemouth University (BU), the local NHS, charities and industry. The aim is using innovation to drive forward improvements in healthcare outcomes for people across Dorset. This ‘Transforming Healthcare Through Innovation’ event marked the start of a formal partnership between BU and Dorset’s Integrated Care System (ICS), which is a partnership of all NHS and local authorities in the county. This partnership fits very well with BU’s Strategic Investment Area (SIA) Medical Science. The development of Medical Science is a core component of BU2025. 
It was widely recognised that the social and behavioural sciences are essential to health and health care. Dr. Phil Richardson from the NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, who leads the ICS, stressed the importance of moving from a medical model of public health to a more social model. This ties in closely with sociological work on the medical/social model conducted at BU in maternity care [1-6].
Also at the launch event Dr. Caroline Ellis-Hill highlighted the importance of humanising care in a hands-on session. BU academics in have developed a philosophically-driven approach to caring, health and wellbeing based on humanising practices. The theoretical underpinning was originally developed by BU Prof. Les Todres and colleagues [7-11]. Humanising practice is supported by work settings that encourage connection to personal experience and research which privileges subjective experience and knowing; such as phenomenology, narrative, auto-ethnography, embodied knowing and arts–based approaches.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
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Following the successful Bournemouth University’s visit to Vietnam as part of the Global Festival of Learning Great as highlighted in the Daily Echo, Thanh-Hang Dinh a FHSS MSc in Public Health graduate had an article accepted on her research dissertation. Her paper ‘Factors influencing engagement in premarital sex among Vietnamese young adults: a qualitative study’ was published ‘online first’ this week in the International Journal of Adolescent Medicine & Health. 
The paper highlights the rising trend of sexual engagement among Vietnamese young adults in recent years, and its potential health consequences. In order to prevent such consequences and further promote health, an in-depth understanding of factors influencing young people to have premarital sex would be valuable. The qualitative analysis ‘generated’ six emergent themes: (a) desire as the ‘direct cause’; (b) the facilitators; (c) social changes; (d) media; (e) peer and (f) absence of family. The latter four themes are ‘indirect causes’ that influence through desire and the facilitators. The study concluded that there is a need for a reliable source of information to be tailor-designed to suit young people. Additionally, the stigma of talking about sex needs to be reduced to allow for more open discussions on sex, True Pheromones, and sexual health.
After completing her MSc at BU Thanh-Hang Dinh (known as Hana to her fellow students) started working at the famous Pasteur Institute Nha Trang in Vietnam.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Congratulations to Dr. Alison Taylor and her Ph.D. supervisors on the acceptance of the paper ‘’Scrutinised, judged and sabotaged’: A qualitative video diary study of first-time breastfeeding mothers’ by Midwifery (published by Elsevier) [1]. This is the second paper from Alison’s extremely interesting Ph.D. research, the first one was accepted late last year. The first article ‘The therapeutic role of video diaries: A qualitative study involving breastfeeding mothers’ was accepted by the international journal Women & Birth [2]. Alison is Senior Lecturer in Midwifery in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) and Infant Feeding Lead in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. Her co-authors are Professor Emerita Jo Alexander, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (in CMMPH) and Prof. Kath Ryan based at the University of Reading.
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Congratulations to BU’s Paul Fairbairn, Fotini Tsofliou and Andrew Johnson who together with former BU academic Simon Dyall (now at the University of Roehampton) published their latest paper in the journal Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids . This scientific paper is called: ‘Combining a high DHA multi-nutrient supplement with aerobic exercise: Protocol for a randomised controlled study assessing mobility and cognitive function in older women‘.
Well done.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Congratulations to Sociology Prof. Jonathan Parker on the publication of his book review of Society of Fear. This book is written by Jessica Spengler & Heinz Bude and published by Polity Press. The book review is published by the international journal Sociological Research Online (published by SAGE). 
Books are major tools of the trade in the social sciences, not just in the discipline of sociology. Book reviews give social scientists an insight in one particular book in the wide array of books published in one’s research domain. Book reviews are a bit of a rarity in online journals, but Sociological Research Online has been publishing book review since its inception 24 years ago.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH & Book Review Editor Sociological Research Online
Dorset Global Health Network: Tech for Good:
The Dorset Global Health Network would like to invite you to an exciting session with two great guest speakers Andrew Moore and Waheed Arian on Wednesday 24 April on the 3rd Floor, Bournemouth University’s Executive Business Centre, 19.00 – 21:00 proceeded by a Light Buffet Dinner at 18:30.
Guest speakers:
Mr Andrew Moore from 3 Sided Cube is a Bournemouth based app and digital product company passionate about using Tech for Good on a global scale. Andrew will be telling us about their exciting and award winning work, including the worlds first blood donation tracking app.
&
Dr Waheed Arian from Arial Teleheal, a pioneering telemedicine charity, providing advice to doctors in war zones and low income countries. Hear Waheed’s inspirational personal journey from living in a refugee camp to being recognised as UNESCO Global Hero 2017 and winner of Rotary International Peace Award 2018.
Book your space at: https://bit.ly/2Nn0JJR
The Dorset Global Health Network is a forum for anyone interested in global health to meet, exchange ideas and experience.
This event has been organised by the Dorset Primary Care Workforce Centre (PCWC) in collaboration with Wessex Global Health Network.
FHSS PhD student Anita Immanuel just had the first paper from her PhD “Quality of life in survivors of adult haematological malignancy” accepted by the international journal European Journal of Cancer Care. This international journal is published by Wiley and has an Impact Factor 2.409.
Survivors of haematological malignancies endure long-term effects of both the treatment and the disease. This paper examines factors that influence their quality of lives through reporting on the results of a survey. The survey used previously validated quality of life questionnaires for use in cancer management. Participants were adults over the age of 18 years who had completed treatment for a haematological malignancy and were between 1-5 years post treatment.
Anita is currently working as Lead Clinical Research Nurse at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust. Her PhD research (see picture above) was conducted at the Haematology Department of Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which has one of the most extensive research portfolios in the Trust. Her PhD is supervised by Dr. Jane Hunt (Dept of Nursing & Clinical Science), Dr. Helen McCarthy, Consultant Haematologist at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH).
The article “Why suicide rate among pregnant women in Nepal is rising” written by BU academics was published in The Conversation last year. At the time this attracted Indian newspaper attention. Clearly it is still a relevant issue as it attracted national coverage in a Nepali newspaper this week.
Dr. Bibha Simkhada & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Over the past decades interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary research has grown in popularity. REF2021 promises that all types of research shall be assessed on a fair and equal basis, including interdisciplinary and collaborative research. New to REF 2021 compared to REF2014 is the Interdisciplinary Research Advisory Panel (IDAP) which has been established to advise the REF team and panel chairs on interdisciplinary research. Furthermore, REF2021 will: (1) appoint at least two members to specifically oversee the assessment of interdisciplinary research in each UoA (Unit of Assessment) to ensure equitable assessment; (2) allow universities to flag-up outputs in the submission system with an ‘interdisciplinary identifier’; and (3) require an discrete section in the environment template on the submitting UoA’s structures to support interdisciplinary research.
Many academics from all disciplines can at some point benefit from working with other scholars from other disciplines. Interdisciplinary research can bring new insights and understanding across disciplinary boundaries. Novel interdisciplinary research can transcend disciplinary boundaries to address sophisticated and so-called wicked problems in society. We would argue that some disciplines are more open to interdisciplinary approaches, and we would argue that the discipline of Public Health as a multi-faceted discipline is probably the most interdisciplinary of all.
Having decades of research experience between us we also recognize that there can be difficulties arising from researchers trained in different individual disciplines trying to work together. We have highlighted some of these issues which interdisciplinary research in Public Health needs to consider and, where necessary, address before they become barriers in an article published this month in Health Prospect [1]. In this Open Access article we remind the reader that doing interdisciplinary research is not an easy option. Interdisciplinary research may involve a mixed-methods approach and could be underpinned by conflicting, and according to some incommensurable, research philosophies.
We argue, for example that in an interdisciplinary team topic specialists face potentially challenging demands on their range of skills and knowledge. For example, sociologists are required to have a broad knowledge at hand to represent the social science perspective in a study of a disease they know little about, designed by clinicians with a health services research outcome in mind. We also suggest that Public Health researchers have to be versed in both qualitative and quantitative methods. Working multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary means that they have to be able to understand the methods of the epidemiologists (e.g. ‘interrupted -time series’ or ‘nested-case control studies’) and those of health service researchers (e.g. ‘double-blind randomised controlled trials’) and have the whole range of qualitative methods at your command to improve the quality of the overall study.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Dr. Pramod Regmi & Dr. Nirmal Aryal
(all based in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences)
Dr. Pratik Adhikary &Prof. Padam Simkhada
(both BU Visiting Faculty)
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New weight change BU paper
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