BU Research Blog | social sciences | Bournemouth University

15 November 2017

The slow process from public health research to law

international, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

We know that public health works and thinks long-term. We’ll typically see the population benefits of reducing health risks such as tobacco use, obesity and high alcohol intake in ten or twenty years’ time. But we often forget that preceding public health research into the determinants of ill health and the possible public health solutions is also slow working. Evidence-based public health solutions can be unpopular with voters, politicians or commercial companies (or all). Hence these take time to get accepted by the various stakeholders and make their way into policies.

I was, therefore, glad to see that Scotland won the Supreme Court case today in favour of a minimum price for a unit of alcohol. As we know from the media, the court case took five years. Before that the preparation and drafting of the legislation took years, and some of the original research took place long before that. Together with colleagues at the Health Economic Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen, the University of York and Health Education Board for Scotland, we conducted a literature review on Effective & Cost-Effective Measures to Reduce Alcohol Misuse in Scotland as early as 2001 [1]. Some of the initial research was so long ago it was conducted for the Scottish Executive, before it was even renamed the Scottish Government.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Research started years ago! Ludbrook et al.(2002) Effective & Cost-Effective Measures to Reduce Alcohol Misuse in Scotland: Lit Review, HERU, Univ. of Aberdeen. [ISBN: 0755932803] http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/1124/0052548.pdf

9 November 2017

Nuffield Celebration Event at BU

Coffee Morning, Festival of Learning Francesco Ferraro

The Nuffield Research Placement (NRP) provides students each year with the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.
It aims to enable students to experience authentic research in a real scientific environment and is available across the UK, in universities, commercial companies, voluntary organisations and research institutions.

NRP is now celebrating its 20 years and last Wednesday at the Fusion Building, the students who took part in the placement, presented their posters.

As in the past year, also this year under the supervision Alison McConnell, James Gavin, Tom Wainwright and mine we hosted a student Holly Combes, who in a month not only collaborate in setting up research protocols but also wrote a dissertation about the Time-Up-and-Go, which was submitted to the Young Scientific Journal for publication.

Personally, I was inspired by all the fascinating research that the students have done, and I was glad to have the opportunity to give a small speech:

To my colleagues that are thinking to apply for next year placement, I will say do it. There is nothing more pleasing than help young minds, full of motivation and curiosity. You and your research will gain a lot from this experience.

Thank you for reading,

Francesco

3 November 2017

ESRC Festival event: Me and my green space

Public engagement hcrossen

On Sunday the Kingfisher Barn, Muscliffe will be the venue for an ESRC Festival event. BU staff from the Faculties of Health and Social Sciences and Media and Communications have developed the event in collaboration with the RSPB and Bournemouth Borough Council Parks. The event called Me and my green space is aimed at young people aged 12 years and under. There will a range of activities to help open a dialogue with younger visitors about what they think green spaces are, do they use them during play and if so what type of activities they like to do in the green spaces they visit. The research team is also interested in whether the young people have ideas about improving access to green spaces or any thoughts about how these areas could offer more enjoyment to younger visitors. The activities on offer will be den building, arts and crafts based on natural materials, an arboretum trail and river dipping. SUBU are helping to support the delivery of several of these activities. The event will end with a lantern trail to light up the woodland area around the Kingfisher Barn. All the research team – Holly Crossen-White, Angela Turner-Wilson (HSS), Annie East and Nathan Farrell (FMC) – invite you to come along and enjoy some outdoor fun – and the weather is going to be good too!

31 October 2017

REMINDER – Cross-Research Council Mental Health Network Plus call Meeting

Funding opportunities, Guidance apekalski

Just a quick reminders…

We will be holding a networking event for BU academics who are interested in the Cross-Research Council Mental Health Network Plus call on 1^st November 09:30-11:30 in PG140. It will be a chance to get like-minded people in one space to identify possible collaborations and differences.

No preparation is necessary for the meeting; however we would ask you to read the call guidance see here.

Refreshment will be provided, if you would like attend please contact Alexandra Pekalski or Lisa Gale Andrews.

26 October 2017

CMMPH student wins The Postgraduate Research Prize

conferences, international, PG research, Publishing, Student Engagement, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Ms. Sheetal Sharma who will be graduating from Bournemouth University with a Ph.D. on November 10th has been awarded Bournemouth University’s The Postgraduate Research Prize. This prize is for the postgraduate student whose achievement is deemed by the Vice-Chancellor to have been most outstanding in their time at BU.

Sheetal stood out as a Ph.D. student as her maternal health research project in Nepal resulted in several many publications [1-6], some in very prestigious journals such as BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth [4] and PLOSOne [5] . She won the best poster prize at the international GLOW conference in Birmingham in 2013 with the poster presentation ‘Getting women to care in Nepal: A Difference in Difference analysis of a health promotion intervention’. She won a SBSP travel scholarship to present a poster at the 8^th European Congress on Tropical Medicine & International Health in 2013 in Denmark. Sheetal’s abstract of the poster was also officially published [7].

Sheetal presented at the Science in Society conference (SiS) at Berkeley University in November 2012 where she received a Graduate Scholar Award. In addition, she won a Santander travel scholarships for £5,000 to learn about research at the University of Buenos Aires, Institute for Clinical Effectiveness & Health Policy (Argentina) and at the University of Barcelona in Spain. This scholarship resulted in a great publication with the world-famous researcher in reproductive health care prof. Jose Belizan as co-author. Sheetal also presented her work at the first ever national health promotion conference in Nepal.

Sheetal also had less academic achievements as she won the BU photo competition at the 2014 PGR conference with the photo in this blog.

Sheetal was also actively involved as a student representative in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences as well as in the Graduate School. She even found time to join the editorial board of the newly formed Journal of Asian Midwives.

Over the past five years Sheetal has had many mentions on this BU research blog as one of BU’s most prolific publishing PhD students.

As supervisors and co-authors we are proud of her!

Dr. Catherine Angell, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (CMMPH)

BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada, Liverpool John Moores University

Dr. Elisa Sicuri, Assistant Research Professor at ISGlobal, Spain

Prof. Jose Belizan, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

References to published work by Sheetal Sharma:

Joshi, R., Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E. (2013) Improving neonatal health in Nepal: Major challenges to achieving Millennium Development Goal 4, Health Science Journal 7(3): 247-257. http://www.hsj.gr/index.files/Page1421.htm
Sharma, S., Joshi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2015) ‘Nepenglish’ or ‘Nepali English’: A new version of English? Asian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences 4(2): 188-193. www.ajssh.leena-luna.co.jp/AJSSHPDFs/Vol.4%282%29/AJSSH2015%284.2-21%29.pdf
Simkhada, B., Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Silwal, RC, Simkhada, P. (2015) Exploring Maternal Mortality Reduction. In: Wasti, SP, Simkhada, PP, van Teijlingen, E. (Eds.) The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Kathmandu: Social Science Baha & Himal Books: 95-121.
Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Belizán, J.M., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sicuri, E. (2016) Measuring What Works: An impact evaluation of women’s groups on maternal health uptake in rural Nepal, PLOS One 11(5): e0155144 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0155144
Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Angell, C., Simkhada, P. (2016) Dirty and 40 days in the wilderness: Eliciting childbirth and postnatal cultural practices and beliefs in Nepal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 147 https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0938-4
Sharma, S, Simkhada, P, Hundley, V, van Teijlingen E., Stephens, J, Silwal, RC, Angell, C (2017) Evaluating a Community Maternal Health Programme: Lessons Learnt. Journal Asian Midwives 4(1):3–20.
Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Stephens J., Simkhada, P., Angell, C., Sicuri, E., Belizan, J.M. (2013) Mixed-methods evaluation of a maternity care intervention in rural Nepal: measuring what works, Poster P.2.3.004 (A), Tropical Medicine & International Health 18 (Suppl. 1): 108–231.

25 October 2017

FHSS student needs help with online questionnaire for her research

PG research, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

Our PhD student Orlanda Harvey is currently conducting her study on why people use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS). Since steroid use is a sensitive topic and its users are a hard-to-reach population we need as much help as we can get to get her survey distributed to as many as possible potential steroid users (aged 18 and over). We, as her PhD supervisors, would like to ask you to alert friends, family, neighbours, health care professionals working with this target group, etc. to the existence of this survey. Her questionnaire is available in paper version (from harveyo@bournemouth.ac.uk or telephone Edwin van Teijlingen at: 01202-961564). However, the easiest and most anonymous way would be for people to complete it online using the following online link.

Thank you very much in advance!

Dr. Margarete Parrish

Dr. Steven Trenoweth

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

25 October 2017

Congratulations to James Palfreman-Kay

BU Challenges, innovation Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to BU’s Equality and Diversity Adviser James Palfreman-Kay whose application to HEFCE’s ‘Catalyst Fund: Tackling hate crime and online harassment on campus‘ has been successful. He is one of 40 academic recipients of funding at universities and colleges throughout England. Applications have been assessed by a panel of HEFCE staff and external experts from across relevant areas of knowledge particular to student safeguarding.

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

8 October 2017

BU academic writes in national newspaper Nepal

international, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Dr. Pramod Regmi, Lecturer in International Health in the Faculty of Health & Social Care, wrote in today’s edition of my Republica under the title ‘Health for all’. This article in one of Nepal’s national daily newspapers my Republica, is co-authored with Mr. Bhagirath Yogy, a BBC journalist based in London.

The idea of universal health insurance is high on the international agenda as it is regarded as a potential solution to offering universal health care, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Too many people across the globe have no or poor access to health care when they need it and national or local health insurance can help some populations in improving their access to health workers and health facilities.

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

7 October 2017

My personal experience at Café Scientific

Coffee Morning, Festival of Learning Francesco Ferraro

Café scientific was one of the best public engagement activities that I have done in the past years, and I do recommend going there and deliver your talk to the public.

In all my past experiences (including pint of science, the festival of learning, U3A, the Air Show and others) I have always met great people who were interested to know and learn more about what we are doing here at BU, and at Café Scientific, it was no different.

I arrived there 1h before the talk, the café (vintage/steampunk style), was already set up for the event, thanks to the great work of the Public Engagement Team. So I had all the time to calm down and get ready.

At about 19:30 the place was packed, and few people had to listen to the talk standing up.

A sample of the presentation is available on Youtube:

Even if the room was fully booked, the audience was very quiet and focused on listening to the 40 minutes presentation.

However, the best part was at the end, and I am not referring to the delicious brownie cake that Boscanova Café made for celebrating the 5^th birthday of Café Scientific, but for the questions.

I was happily surprised to have so many interesting questions, which made me think again about my projects.

There were questions about: the effect of singing and yoga exercises on balance; why not make a POWERbreathe that instead of a mouthpiece has a nosepiece; how much the improvement in balance was due to the strength of the muscles trained and not just the ability to breathe deeper; why not test the effects of meditation, and others very intelligent questions.

Finally, it was challenging and I hope that all the audience received the right message: research can be fascinating and fun, especially if you can share it with others.

If you are interested in know more about how to breathe your way into balance, contact me at fferraro@bournemouth.ac.uk

Thank you for reading.

Francesco.

3 October 2017

BU Sociology article in The Conversation

international, open access, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Dr. Hyun-Joo Lim Senior Lecturer in Sociology at BU who has just written an interesting piece on human rights issues faced by North Korean female defectors in China in The Conversation. You can access this article by clicking here!

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

18 September 2017

New collaborative work published by Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers (FHSS)

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Dr. Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences has just co-published a comprehensive study on state-building in Kosovo. The study has be co-created with colleagues and postgraduate students from the wider region and funded by the Open Society Foundation, Kosovo.

The report is freely available here! This study critically explores the background to success and failure of different aspects of international policy interventions and local civic capacities for development. Aspects covered included: unintended consequences and dilemmas around the internationally facilitated processes of institution-building and ‘good-governance’ reform; reconciliation; cultural heritage protection; and educational reform.

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

7 September 2017

Congratulations to Dr. Jane Fry & colleagues

international, open access, Publishing, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Jane Fry, Janet Scammell and Sue Barker in the Faculty of Health & Social Science on the publication of their latest paper ‘ Drowning in Muddied Waters or Swimming Downstream?: A Critical Analysis of Literature Reviewing in a Phenomenological Study through an Exploration of the Lifeworld, Reflexivity and Role of the Researcher’.

This innivative paper proceeds from examining the debate regarding the question of whether a systematic literature review should be undertaken within a qualitative research study to focusing specifically on the role of a literature review in a phenomenological study. Along with pointing to the pertinence of orienting to, articulating and delineating the phenomenon within a review of the literature, the paper presents an appropriate approach for this purpose. How a review of the existing literature should locate the focal phenomenon within a given context is illustrated by excerpts from the literature review within a descriptive phenomenological study. This article was recently published in the Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology. Click here for freely available copy online.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

5 September 2017

The Conversation about midwifery campaign

international, Public engagement, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week saw the publication of a piece by BU Professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen in The Conversation under the title: “Why UK midwives stopped the campaign for ‘normal birth’”. The editor of The Conversation invited the authors to write in reply to the statement: “According to media reports, women will no longer be told they should have an intervention-free birth and midwives will be encouraged to use terms a “physiological birth” rather than “normal birth”. We are looking for an expert to comment on this.”

The resulting article is the result of a quite long process of writing a draft, which was initially edited by The Conversation in a way the authors did not feel represented what they wanted to say. In our original submission we raised the role of the media with regard to responsible reporting, but it seems this was a step too far. In submitting a re-written version, which was edited again before it came back to the authors, we were advised that academics should not ‘blame the media’ since that avoids addressing the issue, but what if the media really does have a role? After seven or eight major alterations we reached and an agreed version that we think is a balance and fairly easy to read newspaper article. Our new book Midwifery, Childbirth and the Media due to be published by Palgrave Macmillan will cover these media issue in greater detail.

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

23 August 2017

New CMMPH publication on maternity care in Nepal

international, open access, Publishing, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today the journal BMC Health Services Research accepted our scientific paper ‘The contribution of female community health volunteers (FCHVs) to maternity care in Nepal: a qualitative study’ [1]. FCHVs who form an integral part of community-based primary healthcare system of Nepal. Some 50,000 FCHVs working across the country distribute temporary contraception or refer for other methods of family planning in formal healthcare centres.

As the lowest level healthcare provider working in local communities, FCHVs deliver basic maternal healthcare services to pregnant women and mothers in rural communities. The paper concludes that no research to date has been able to demonstrate that the FCHVs roles themselves have an impact on maternal mortality or other health outcomes; quantitative studies are needed to do this.

The paper is based on Dr. Sarita Panday’s recently completed PhD at The University of Sheffield, Prof. Paul Bissell Dean of the School of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, Prof. Padam Simkhada, BU Visiting Faculty and Associate Dean for Global Engagement at Liverpool John Moores University and BU’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health.

Reference:

Panday, S., Bissell, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2017) The contribution of female community health volunteers (FCHVs) to maternity care in Nepal: a qualitative study BMC Health Services Research (accepted August 2017).

19 August 2017

Congratulations to Dr. Keen on new Nepal publication

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Dr. Steve Keen in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences and BU PhD graduate Dr. Pratik Adhikary on the acceptance today of their paper ‘Risky work: Accidents among Nepalese migrant workers in Malaysia, Qatar and Saudi ‘ by the journal Health Prospect [1]. This is a peer-reviewed public health journal, part of Nepal Journals Online, and the journal is Open Access. Nepal Journals OnLine (NepJOL) provides access to Nepalese published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.

The Faculty of Health & Social Sciences has a growing number of publications on health and migration research, especially on the health and well-being of migrants from Nepal [2-5].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

References:

Adhikary, P., Sheppard, Z., Keen, S., van Teijlingen, E. (2017) Risky work: Accidents among Nepalese migrant workers in Malaysia, Qatar and Saudi, Health Prospect (forthcoming)
Adhikary, P., Simkhada, P.P., van Teijlingen E., Raja, AE. (2008) Health & Lifestyle of Nepalese Migrants in the UK BMC International Health & Human Rights 8(6). Web address: www.biomedcentral.com/1472-698X/8/6.
van Teijlingen E, Simkhada, P., Adhikary, P. (2009) Alcohol use among the Nepalese in the UK BMJ Rapid Response: www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/339/oct20_1/b4028#223451
Adhikary P., Keen S., van Teijlingen, E. (2011) Health Issues among Nepalese migrant workers in Middle East. Health Science Journal 5: 169-175. www.hsj.gr/volume5/issue3/532.pdf
Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Adhikary, P., Bhatta, Y.K.D., Mann, S. (2016) Injury and Mortality in Young Nepalese Migrant Workers: A Call for Public Health Action. Asian-Pacific Journal of Public Health 28(8): 703-705.

29 July 2017

New research ethics paper Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

international, Publishing, Research Ethics, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Next months sees the publication of our latest article on research ethics in developing countries [1]. Our paper argues that despite a significant increase in health research activity in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) in recent years, only limited work has been done to address ethical concerns. Most ethics committees in LMICs lack the authority and/or the capacity to monitor research in the field. This is important since not all research, particularly in LMICs region, complies with ethical principles, sometimes this is inadvertently or due to a lack of awareness of their importance in assuring proper research governance. With several examples from Nepal, this paper reflects on the steps required to obtain informed consents and highlights some of the major challenges and barriers to seeking informed consent from research participants. At the end of this paper, we also offer some recommendations around how can we can promote and implement optimal informed consent taking process.

The paper is co-written by six authors, and interestingly five are graduates of the University of Aberdeen. These Aberdeen University graduates are currently affiliated with five different universities. Four of who are based in the UK at: the University of Liverpool, the University of the West of England, the University of Oxford, and in Bournemouth University’s Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) and one in the USA: Georgetown University. The sixth co-author, Nirmal Aryal, is currently a PhD student at the University of Otago in Dunedin (New Zealand). Whilst Liverpool-based researcher Dr. Pramod Regmi is heading back for Bournemouth University to become a lecturer in International Health in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences this autumn.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Regmi, P.R., Aryal, N., Kurmi, O., Pant, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Wasti, P.P. (2017) Informed consent in health research: challenges and barriers in low-and middle-income countries with specific reference to Nepal, Developing World Bioethics 17(2):84-89

25 July 2017

Nuffield Research Placements: “My experience at the Orthopaedic Research Institute”

Coffee Morning, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Public engagement, Student Engagement, student research Francesco Ferraro

Hi, my name is Holly Coombs.

I am currently doing a research placement at Bournemouth University as part of the Nuffield programme, which gives people at the end of their first year of A-levels a chance to work with professionals in science based professions.

Alongside PGR Francesco Ferraro, I have been predominantly working on his study on inspiratory muscle training and how by using a device called POWERbreathe is possible to improve inspiratory muscles strength.

I will be at Bournemouth University for four weeks where at the end I am going to write a report that will hopefully be published by the Young Scientist Journal.

My report is going to be on the Timed Up and Go test (TUG). It is going to include information about what the TUG test is, as well as how it can help us to predict falls and measure stability.

My whole aim of this placement is to gain research skills that will help me later in life as I intend to pursue a medical career.

On the 20th July, I got the chance to use two surgical simulators:

The Orthopaedic Research Institute (ORI) contains the Ossim SimK total knee replacement simulator, and the VirtaMed knee arthroscopy. This is the only lab in Europe where the two simulators are together.

Indeed, the ORI produces high-quality research which helps doctors and students to understand and learn more about many fields, including orthopaedic surgery, knee and hip replacements. With the aid of Shayan Bahadori (Orthopaedic Research project manager), I progressed from drilling holes into a piece of woods to trying a full knee replacement. Next, I got to try my hand at a knee arthroscopy which I found very challenging.

From trying these surgical simulators, I have learned that perseverance and resilience are essential. At first, I found that even just drilling holes into a piece of wood using the simulator was incredibly hard. However, as I used and practiced the simulators more, I could feel myself improving and progressing in the fundamental skills required.

This is a valuable experience to have gained as it is essential for all careers, not just medical ones.

In conclusion, continuing my placement, I hope to assist in the carrying out of respiratory muscles tests and I hope that by the end of my internship I will have a greater understanding of what it takes to conduct a research study and also how the data collected can be used and analysed.

21 July 2017

BU prof speaking at the University of Sheffield

international, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

BU professor Edwin van Teijlingen from the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perianal Health (CMMPH) had the honour of being invited to speak at a workshop ran yesterday by the Sheffield Institute for International Development. The workshop ‘Nepal: Reconstruction, Resilience and Development’ was organised by the University of Sheffield.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen spoke about endemic corruption in Nepal and opportunities that are offered by disasters such as earthquakes for more corruption. He pointed out that there is little research on corruption in Nepal, despite its low ranking on the international Corruption Perceptions Index. The presentation can be viewed here: Nepal earthquake corruption 2017 .

He pointed out that disasters are confusing events with often loads of money and relief aid arriving under chaotic conditions. Immediate emergency aid needs to be distributed to unknown people (‘those affected’), in difficult to access areas, under often chaotic socio-political conditions.

He also reminded the audience that corruption (and corrupt behaviour) are not limited to low-income countries. He highlighted the Ariana Grande case in Manchester (UK) where thousands falsely claimed to have been at the original attacked concert when applying for a ticket for the Manchester One Love concert.

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