Noreen Mdege
Senior Research Fellow (Associate Professor)

Profile

Biography

Noreen Mdege's research interests cover alcohol consumption, tobacco use, medication adherence and low and middle income countries (LMIC). She is interested in individual-level and population-level health perspectives and approaches, and specific populations such as HIV positive and TB patients.

Her main interests are in observation research; intervention development and evaluation; intervention mechanisms of action; intervention implementation and scale-up; and how alcohol and tobacco affect the incidence, trajectory and outcomes of other comorbidities such as AIDS-related and non-AIDS-related cancer and other non-cancer conditions among HIV positive and TB patients. Noreen is also interested in HIV/AIDS or TB related health outcomes. She uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of York
• Master of Public Health (MPH with distinction), University of Leeds
• Bachelor of Pharmacy Honours Degree, University of Zimbabwe

Departmental roles

• Member of the Health Sciences Research Governance Committee
• Member of the Master of Public Health programme management team

Research

Overview

Noreen is interested in applied health research aimed at maximizing the benefits and equity in developing and developed health systems; design, planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of interventions and public health programmes. Her specific areas of research interest are addiction, alcohol misuse, drug abuse, and smoking, HIV prevention, treatment and care.

Projects

• Tobacco farming in Zimbabwe: Exploring novel approaches to offer and evaluate viable alternative livelihoods (Zimbabwe)
• Tobacco use among people living with HIV in low and middle income countries
• Muslim Communities Learning about Second-hand Smoke in Bangladesh (MCLASS II): An effectiveness implementation hybrid study (Bangladesh)
• Improving TB outcomes by modifying lifestyle behaviours through a brief motivational intervention (PROLIFE) (South Africa)
• Changing How People Think and Feel about Cancer Prevention Behaviours: Translating Neuroscience into Population Health
• Building capacity for applied research to reduce harm in low and middle income countries (LMICs)
• Tobacco smoking among people living with HIV in Uganda: understanding the problem to inform effective interventions

Completed projects

• Novel psychoactive substances in the UK
• Development and evaluation (through a randomised controlled trial) of a psychosocial intervention for preventing blood borne viruses in people who inject drugs
• Assessment of sexuality, sexual health and risk behaviour, sexually transmitted infections, blood borne viruses, and family planning for people who have serious and enduring mental health problems
• Translational psychometrics for psychosocial change in refugees: assessment of psychosocial dimensions of mental health following humanitarian crisis 
• Health Link between the Pharmaceutical Society/Pharmacist Council of Zimbabwe and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain for pharmacist led public health programmes in Zimbabwe
• CLAHRC- ARiAS: Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care - Addiction Research in Acute Setting
• Estimating the costs to the NHS of smoking in pregnancy for pregnant women and infants

Research group(s)

• Public Health and Society

Publications

Full publications list

• Noreen Mdege's publications

Teaching

Postgraduate

• Infection and Disease (guest speaker)
• MSc Dissertation supervisor

External activities

Memberships

• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of Pharmaceutical Society of Zimbabwe
• Member of Association of Research Pharmacists in Zimbabwe  
• Member of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco
• Member of the SRNT Treatment network

Visiting research posts

• Associate Fellow, African Institute for Development and Policy (AFIDEP); Nairobi, Kenya

Teaching involvement outside the University of York

• Guest lecturer, Research Project Proposal online module, MPH programme, University of Roehampton
• Guest lecturer, Substance use in low and middle income countries, non-communicable diseases module, MPH and BSc International Health programmes, University of Leeds

Editorial duties

• 2015 - present: Editorial Board Member, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy
• 2016: Editor for a supplement 'Proceedings of the First International Conference on Stepped Wedge Trial Design' for the journal 'Trials'

Invited talks and conferences

• Poster presentation- Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco 2017 Annual Meeting, March 8-11, 2017, Firenze Fiera Congress & Exhibition Center Florence, Italy. ‘Tobacco use among people living with HIV: analysis of data from Demographic and Health Surveys from 28 low- and middle-income countries.’
• Invited speaker- York Patient Safety Conference, 9 June 2017, York, United Kingdom. ‘How to write for publication.’
• Oral presentation- UK Society for Behavioural Medicine 12th Annual Scientific Meeting, 1-2 December 2016, Cardiff, Wales. ‘Scoping review with narrative synthesis of selected bodies of evidence on what is known about novel psychoactive substance use, related harms and responses.’ 
• Invited speaker- The Union World Conference on Lung Health, 26-29 October 2016, Liverpool, United Kingdom. ‘Prevalence of tobacco use in HIV patients in low and middle income countries: secondary data analyses based on Demographic and Health Surveys.’
• Oral presentation- INEBRIA Conference, 22-23 September 2016, Lausanne, Switzerland. ‘Attitudes and perceptions on community pharmacy (CP)- based alcohol interventions: a scoping review.’
• Poster presentations- Society for the Study of Addiction Annual Symposium, 08-09 November 2012, York, United Kingdom. ‘Screening instruments for detecting illicit drug use/abuse that could be useful in general hospital wards: a systematic review.’
• Poster presentation- HSRN Symposium- Delivering better health services, 19-20 June 2012, Manchester, United Kingdom. ‘Screening instruments for detecting illicit drug use/abuse that could be useful in general hospital wards: a systematic review.’

Awards and prizes

• April 2017: NCI-CRUK Knowledge Integration Sandpit travel award
• August 2014: Reviewer of the Year - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
• March 2014: Top reviewer of the Year 2013, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy