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Research Projects

2010/2012

Childhood limiting long-term illness/disability and socioeconomic disadvantage in the UK: exploring predictors, trends and causal directions

PI and Co-applicant: Clare Blackburn, Janet Read, Nick Spencer, Institute of Health, University of Warwick

Funding body: ESRC

This project aims to generate robust data on the association between childhood limiting long-term illness and disability with socio-economic disadvantage, ethnicity, gender, lone parenthood and parental disability, identifying predictors, trends and causal direction.



2007/2010

The quality of life of visually impaired children - investigation and development of a novel vision-related quality of life instrument

PI : Jugnoo Rahi, Institute of Child Health, UCL

Co-Investigators:  Gillian Lewando Hundt (University of Warwick),  Phillipa Cumberland (Institute of Child Health), David Taylor (Institute of Child Health), Anthony Moore (Institute of Ophthalmology/Moorfield's Eye Hospital), Peng Tee Khaw (Institute of Ophthalmology/Moorfield's Eye Hospital), Alison Salt (Great Ormond Street Hospital) and Naomi Dale (Great Ormond Street Hospital)

Funding body: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

Serious visual loss during childhood is known to pose significant educational, employment, personal and social challenges throughout life. Nevertheless the perspective of children about the consequences of their visual loss and of their treatment to preserve or improve their sight has not been widely investigated. Vision-specific subjective outcome measures are needed which can differentiate between visually impaired children and capture their concerns. There are increasingly important and diverse applications of such vision-related quality of life (VRQOL) instruments. They can be used effectively in evaluating the broader benefits of new treatments to preserve and improve sight; applied in planning and provision of rehabilitation, education and social services; used in clinical settings to aid in managing individual patients; applied in population assessments of disease burden; and used for prioritising the agenda for service provision and for future research on visually impairing disorders of childhood. Prompted by the experiences of the visually impaired individuals with whom we work, and knowledge of current practice in other areas of child and adolescent health, we propose to develop the first VRQOL instrument for self-completion by children.  


2006/2010

Improving access to and Quality of Reproductive and Child Health Care to Marginal Peoples: Bedouin in Jordan and Lebanon

Consortium co-ordinator: Professor Gillian Hundt, Institute of Health, University of Warwick;

Partners of the consortium: Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, Cermes/Inserm France, University of Stockholm, American University of Beirut, Philadelphia University of Jordan

Funding body: Commission of the European Communities - Research Directorate General

Basic health care provision for pastoral peoples in the Middle East has been difficult to provide due to their remoteness and mobility. Government services are designed for fixed permanently domiciled populations. In the arena of health care, these marginal mobile or recently settled populations have had limited access to government health care provision. Jordan and Lebanon have pursued different models of governmental health care; Jordan has set up health care centres where Bedouin have settled, whereas Lebanon has maintained general health services for its rural population, with some mobile services for Bedouin.

 This study aims to:  

  • assess the current health status, health seeking behaviour and practices of marginal pastoral peoples in relation to reproductive and child health  
  • assess the scope of current health care delivery and the views of stakeholders-policy makers, health personnel and Bedouin themselves about it  
  • develop in partnership with local providers, model interventions to improve access to and quality of reproductive and child health care  
  • evaluate and disseminate the interventions locally, nationally and regionally. 



October 2005-Sept 2010

Managing and Exploiting Knowledge: Research Councils UK Research Fellow

PI and Co-applicants: Jacky Swan (WBS), Davide Nicolini (RCUK Fellow, WBS)

Funding body: RCUK

Amount: £125,000

Abstract: In 2005 the University of Warwick received funding for 14 Academic Fellowships in key research areas of strategic importance. One was granted to Swan in WBS for a fellow in Managing and Exploiting Knowledge to focus on the translation of scientific knowledge into new forms of medical treatments and practices. The successful candidate (Davide Nicolini) joined Warwick Business School’s ‘Innovation, Knowledge and Organizational Networks’ research centre (IKON) and is playing a key role in forging IKON’s future research strategy in health innovation and in developing interdisciplinary links with others departments (WMG/WIMRC and WMS) and other institutions (e.g. Nottingham University).