Applicability of hypertension treatment recommendations for the prevention and management of multimorbidity in people with health inequalities
Supervisors:
Dr Daniel Morales, Population Health & Genomics Division, School of Medicine (University of Dundee)
Dr Chris Cole, Population Health & Genomics Division, School of Medicine (University of Dundee)
Prof Isla Mackenzie, Molecular and Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine (University of Dundee)
Prof Bruce Guthrie, Advanced Care Research Centre, Usher Institute (University of Edinburgh)
Summary:
Health inequalities are strongly associated with multimorbidity and impact not only on how health services are delivered, but also on how research is generated. People with health inequalities may have different susceptibility to developing cardiovascular disease and related comorbidities, as well as different patterns of adherence to antihypertensive treatments and a greater need for polypharmacy. These differences may influence the effectiveness and safety of these treatments in people with health inequalities. However, people with health inequalities are typically underrepresented or excluded from clinical trials that are used to strongly inform national guideline recommendations. The aim of this PhD is to examine the applicability of hypertension guideline treatment recommendations in people with health inequalities for the prevention and management of multimorbidity. The successful candidate will obtain training in quantitative research methods including systematic review and meta-analysis, epidemiological training with pharmacoepidemiological methods applied to large electronic medical records databases, and data science methods including software coding and data visualization.