We house the largest pool of PhD students (>30) focused upon topics and issues of significance and impact including TCIM and public health, global health and health systems/services challenges in the world.
Our PhD students are tackling topics spanning Traditional, Complimentary and Integrative Medicine and public health, global health and health systems/services challenges.
The ‘Research in 90 seconds’ series showcases a range research projects, what they’re about and how the research is relevant to broader communities.
Cherie Caut
Cherie Caut is a PhD Candidate within the Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health at UTS. Cherie’s PhD is exploring the preconception health literacy, and beliefs and attitudes towards preconception care, of health professionals in Australia.
Understanding impacts of preconception health behaviours and risks
Our review explored the relationships between modifiable preconception risks/health behaviours and maternal/offspring health outcomes. The findings of 27 systematic reviews indicate that preconception body composition (e.g., underweight, overweight, obesity), lifestyle behaviours (e.g., caffeine, smoking, physical activity, alcohol, and illicit drugs), nutrition (e.g., micronutrients, Mediterranean diet), environmental exposures (air pollution, radiation, pesticides, chemicals, and metals), and birth spacing (e.g., short interpregnancy intervals) affect maternal/child health.
Preconception risks/health behaviours were found to affect embryo (e.g., miscarriage, embryonic growth), maternal (e.g., preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, post-natal depression), foetal/neonate (e.g., birth defects, preterm birth, low birth weight, small for gestational age, macrosomia, stillbirth) and child (e.g., neurocognitive disorders, childhood cancers, cerebral palsy, childhood overweight) health.
Publications
Hope Foley
Hope Foley has recently completed her PhD with ARCCIM and continues to work in research surrounding traditional, complementary and integrative medicine. Hope comes from a background in naturopathy and her work seeks to build bridges between health care traditions, science and contemporary practice to improve patient care holistically.
Complementary medicine in chronic conditions
Chronic health conditions can be challenging as they are complex, ongoing and can affect quality of life, leading any patients with chronic conditions to seek complementary medicine (CM) practitioners in the search for supportive, holistic, person-centred care. This study examined the perspectives of such patients to determine whether the care they receive from CM practitioners is indeed person-centred. Patients consistently reported high levels of person-centred care from their CM practitioners, with supportive approaches and open communication playing important roles in the experience. The findings suggest CM practitioners can provide highly valued services to patients with chronic conditions.
Publications
Peter James
Dr Peter Bai James has a background in Pharmacy, ethnopharmacology and public health. He worked as an associate lecturer at the University of Sierra Leone and as a drug regulator at the Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone.
Ebola survivors' healthcare seeking behaviour in Sierra Leone
Ebola survivors can have severe, long-lasting health complications. While research has focused on understanding the science behind the post-Ebola syndrome, there has been little attention on Ebola survivors’ experiences in managing their health problems. We examine the types of healthcare survivors are accessing, their experiences of seeking care and preferences. We found that Ebola survivors used government-funded services, pharmacies and traditional, complementary medicine (T&CM). Most survivors prefer to use conventional medicine, but this not always the case as a range of personal, cultural, psychosocial and health system factors influence their choice of healthcare, especially T&CM or selfcare.
Publications
