INTRODUCTION
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My name is Julius Ohrnberger and I am a first
year PhD researcher in Health and Development Economics. My A-levels were in
English, German, Mathematics and History. After graduating from high school in
Germany, I studied Economics for my first degree at Heidelberg University in
Germany. I then did a Masters in Economics and Development Economics in 2014 at
the Free University in Amsterdam. Prior to my PhD, I worked for a year as
researcher in Health Economics for the University of Manchester.
In winter 2015, I started my PhD
in Health Economics and Development Economics at the Centre for Health
Economics at the University of Manchester. In my research, I aim to analyse the
effect of cash transfers on health outcomes of poor families living in
developing countries. I furthermore want to understand how the effect on health
has potential in reducing poverty in the long-run.
IN DEPTH
Imagine that you have to live on
less than £1 a day: £1 for food, clothing, the bus ticket, your mobile phone
bills, etc. Imagine that public services like the GP, hospitals or your school
are of very poor quality and there is far too few for all people, and you have
to pay for it out of your pocket with the £1 a day. These are the challenges
the global poor living in the developing world every day.
I want to understand in my
research how regular cash transfers to this group of people affect their mental
health and physical health outcomes. Furthermore, how the effect on mental and
physical health relates to long term poverty alleviation. Mental health is a
state of emotional well-being. A mental health outcome can be how often you
were sad or felt restless the past week. Physical health is defined as a state
of physical well-being. A physical health outcome can be your blood pressure or
the number of health days in the past month. It is very likely that more income
through the cash transfer has an effect on both the mental health and the
physical health. Improving either is essential in helping the poor to improve
their lives and especially to help them to leave a state of poverty.
I look in my research at three
different countries namely Indonesia a South-East Asian country, South Africa a
sub-Saharan African country, and Mexico a Latin American country. I use large
datasets for each of these countries. The data entails information about the
mental health outcomes of the poor people such as depression or anxiety,
physical health outcomes such chronic diseases or blood pressure, and if the
person received a cash transfer. The same poor people are observed and
interviewed over several years and thus it is possible to identify changes in
health and poverty due to the cash transfers.
My
research is important as it is a unique project which sets poverty into the
light of both mental and physical health outcomes. Mental health is a strongly
neglected topic in international development policies, but mental health
problems are one of the leading causes of illnesses worldwide and especially in
the developing world. My research seeks to immediately address this gap, and to
provide an analysis which could be important for future development policies
centred on mental health.
GOING FURTHER
For updates on my research
activities, follow me on Twitter: @JWEO_O
To get more information about
mental health in developing countries, visit: http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/en/
And http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/may/10/mental-illness-developing-world
For information what we are up to
in the Manchester Centre for Health Economics, visit our website: http://www.population-health.manchester.ac.uk/healtheconomics/
or follow us on twitter: @HealthEcon_MCR
Introduction
My name is
Nicola Beer and I work as a Graduate Intern for the Student Recruitment and
Widening Participation department at the University of Manchester. Prior to
this, I completed a degree in Psychology (also at the University of Manchester)
and I graduated in July this year.
As part of my
degree I was required to undertake a final year project under the supervision
of an academic researcher at the University of Manchester. One area that
particularly interested me throughout my degree was Health Psychology and so I
was pleased when the supervisor I was allocated to was a researcher in this
area.
My research
project involved investigating factors that influence people’s intentions to take
on a particular health behaviour. The health behaviour that I focused on in my
research was sexual health behaviour. More specifically, I focused on what
influenced people to use a self-test kit to test themselves for STI infections.
In Depth
In order to
carry out my research, I tested factors from a theory used by many Health
Psychologists, called Protection Motivation Theory. One factor from this model that
is believed to influence people’s health behaviour is ‘self-efficacy’. Self-efficacy
is defined as one’s belief in their own ability to change their behaviour; if
they have high self-efficacy they are more likely to engage in positive health
behaviours. Another factor is ‘fear’. Does how fearful someone is about a
particular health outcome (e.g. obtaining a sexually transmitted disease, as I
investigated in my research) influence the health behaviour they display?
In order to collect
data for my research, I developed a questionnaire with my supervisor that
contained questions designed to measure what influences peoples’ intentions to
use a self-test kit. I ran various statistical tests on the questionnaire to
check its internal consistency
(whether several items that propose to measure the same general construct
produce similar scores). It was then sent out to all first and second year
undergraduate Psychology students who completed it online.
What I found…
I analysed the results
using a hierarchical multiple regression and found, consistent with much other
research in the area, that two factors significantly predicted individual’s
intentions to self-test for Chlamydia. These factors were vulnerability and
self-efficacy; therefore those
who perceived themselves to be more vulnerable
to the health risk, and those with higher self-efficacy, were more likely to
intend to self-test, i.e. more likely to carry out the positive health
behaviour.
What this
means…
My research has
practical applications to the real-world suggesting that increasing an individuals’ self-efficacy will result in
them being more likely to use self-test kits. An example of this practical
application could be to provide clear instructions with self-test kits with the
aim of increasing individual’s confidence in their ability to use the kit.
My research was also useful in that it can
be used to inform academics of future areas that research could be carried out
in. For example, more research could go into examining further the role of fear
in predicting behavioural intentions (which did not produce a significant
result in my research).
I enjoyed my final year research project
because I got the chance to use skills gained during my degree (e.g.
statistical analysis and data collection skills) to carry out research into an
area that interested me.
Going Further…