About the Project
We are seeking a talented graduate in epidemiology, public health, or other relevant quantitative or health discipline wishing to develop strong interdisciplinary skills at the interface of population health, behaviour science and digital and social media data analysis. This project is a unique opportunity for a student with strong quantitative skills to apply causal inference methods to social media data and gain practical experience in novel sentiment analyses of online engagement, to optimise the impact of safety messaging in pregnancy.
The PhD student would start in October 2021, splitting their time between Bristol and Bath. When in Bristol, you will be based in the Medical Research Council-funded Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MRC IEU), within the Department of Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, a leading centre for excellence in causal inference methods for population health science. In Bath, you will be based in the Centre for Motivation and Health Behaviour Change (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Bath). Both teams have thriving and expanding groups of PhD students working on population health policy relevant areas.
Background and Project Aims
Prevention of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is a global public health priority, and the leading preventable cause of developmental disability worldwide. Despite the UK Chief Medical Officer recommending abstaining from all alcohol throughout the entire pregnancy since 2016, over 50% of UK women still report drinking at some point in pregnancy, and 25% of 18-25 year olds are unaware of the message to abstain. One possible explanation could be that the message is not well communicated or well accepted in the UK. Some critics of the message have suggested that there is a collateral danger for maternal mental health, with women suffering from anxiety and even seeking abortion, driven by guilt and fear of the consequences of their alcohol intake. However, evidence of this does not exist at present. The abstinence message seems more accepted elsewhere in the world, with some celebrities endorsing it publicly (eg Meghan Markle, the Kardashians). The effect of such endorsements both in terms of raising awareness and acceptability, as well as effectiveness in terms of changing prenatal drinking behaviour, has never been investigated before, and neither have any potential unintended consequences of the message itself.
Social media/digital data, including trends in Google searches, offer a rich, timely and accessible way of evaluating awareness and impact of the abstinence in pregnancy message in the UK. The new UKRI Strategy recognises social media as a key forum to engage the public in “discussions about research and its application through innovation.“ Using a combination of publicly available data from Google searches, Twitter/Reddit/Instagram and individual-level data from the Children of the Children of the 90s Study, this project aims to:
1. Review the literature on evaluating messaging on prenatal health
2. Evaluate the acceptability of the abstinence in pregnancy message through engagement and thematic analyses of digital/social media content
3. Validate the effectiveness of different types of communication of the abstinence in pregnancy message, including official guidance dissemination and celebrity/influencers endorsement
4. Investigate potential unintended consequences of the abstinence in pregnancy message, in particular maternal guilt, anxiety, termination.
Knowledge advances will be translated to shape health promotion campaigns for messages around risks and behaviours in pregnancy, an area of great public health significance, thus maximising the impact of this doctoral research.
How to apply
Student applications can be made via the GW4 BioMed website: https://www.gw4biomed.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is 5pm on Monday, 23rd November 2020. Shortlisted applicants will be invited for an informal interview (over the phone, on Skype or Zoom) with the lead supervisor (Dr Luisa Zuccolo) between Monday 4th and Friday 15th January 20201. The formal interview will be held virtually on 20-21 January 2021.
A GW4 BioMed MRC DTP studentship includes full tuition fees at the UK/Home rate, a stipend at the minimum UKRI rate (£15,285 for 20/21), a Research & Training Support Grant (RTSG) valued between £2,000-£5,000 per year and £300 annual travel and conference grant based on a 3.5-year full-time studentship. These funding arrangements will be adjusted pro-rata for part-time studentships.
The GW4 BioMed MRC DTP studentships are available to UK, EU and International applicants. International students (including EU applicants) are now eligible to apply for these studentships but should note that they may have to pay the difference between the home UKRI fee and the International student fee.
For any informal queries about the studentship, please contact Dr Luisa Zuccolo ([Email Address Removed]).
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