How Commercial Determinants of Health influence the development of Multimorbidity
Supervisors:
Prof Frank Sullivan, School of Medicine (University of St Andrews)
Dr Margaret McCartney, School of Medicine (University of St Andrews)
Dr Bernie O’Hare, School of Medicine (University of St Andrews)
Summary:
Commercial companies contribute to health and society in many positive ways, however a substantial group of companies contribute to the development of illness and overdiagnosis of multiple morbidities (MM). Some policy solutions to mitigate the commercial determinants of health (CDoH) on the development of MM have been proposed but many are not being implemented. We propose to study the costs of harm caused by some products and practices, exiting approached to reduce harm and to develop additional interventions that may be effective.
The successful applicant for this PhD will joining researchers in St Andrews working on these problems and the community of practice developed as part of the Multimorbidity Doctoral training Programme. They will receive additional training and support to develop skills in mixed methods research, including a range of qualitative and data science methods and experience with systematic reviews. We plan at least four publications from this work, In the latter stages engagement with policymakers will be part of the dissemination process.
The final output will be of wide practical use across the UK. Informal discussions are welcome.