My PhD - Public Health Policy Evaluation

In 2021 I completed my PhD at the University of Glasgow, as part of the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit. I investigated the hypothesised causes of falling teenage pregnancy rates across the UK and used natural experimental policy evaluation methods to estimate the contribution of England’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy.

My Master’s degree at University of Glasgow

In 2017 I completed my Master’s degree in Global Health as a first step back into the world of health research. I developed my understanding of the complexities of social impacts on health, my skills in investigating causes of and solutions for poor health and health inequalities, and my scientific writing skills.

A key module was the ‘Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions’, a novel approach seeking to strengthen the processes behind designing and testing policies and programmes to improve health and social outcomes. This gave me a greater understanding of the range of research skills and the complicated processes involved in the robust, evidence-based efforts to improve health and health equality.

My Master’s course was completed with a research project conducting a Systematic Review and meta-analysis of a complex housing intervention for vulnerable homeless persons, called ‘Housing First’. I synthesised evidence from four randomised controlled trials to evaluate the effects of Housing First on the health of the participants. I received an A for my submission, earning me a Merit in my Master’s. I further pursued publication of the systematic review, working with supervisors to achieve this through the BMJ Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.