Research at Global Health Section
Via the research themes below you can find an overview of research projects with participation from researchers at the Global Health Section.
Current research projects
- Disaster Risk Creation in Urban Resettlement Processes
In an ever changing global and urbanizing world and with high numbers of people living in slums/informal settlements, there has been a call by many governments to resettle urban slums in the light of extreme weather events and disasters such as urban floods. However, relocation and resettlement processes post-disasters been proven unsuccessful in the past as post-disaster resettlements have shown that resettled communities continue to be affected by flooding and other disasters. In this context, this project will investigate how resettlement of urban slums might create new disaster risks.
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LINKS ‘Strengthening links between technologies and society for European disaster resilience’
LINKS is a comprehensive study on disaster governance in Europe. The overall objective of LINKS is to strengthen links between technologies and society for improved European disaster resilience, by producing sustainable advanced learning on the use of SMCS in disasters. -
Combating cholera caused by climate change in Bangladesh
Combating cholera caused by climate change (C5) is a multi-disciplinary study that examines the risk and effects of climate-induced cholera on water stress on household hygiene in Bangladesh and other climate change vulnerable low-income areas worldwide.
For more on Disaster Research, please visit the Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research (COPE) website.
Current research projects
Experiences and Challenges of Students during the 2020 Campus Lockdown
This survey based project investigates how Danish and Swedish university students experienced the online emergency teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020. Funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark. Contact: Lasse Jensen.
Current research projects
- Building resilience to climate-sensitive mosquito-borne viral diseases; preventing epidemics through integrated mosquito control and sentinel surveillance in Zanzibar hospitals
Climatic change and mosquito-borne viral diseases epidemics interlink as increasing temperature, humidity and precipitation exert direct effects on the biological processes of mosquitoes and their capacity as disease vectors. The project seeks to prevent hospital-transmission and acute epidemic spread of climate-sensitive mosquito-borne viral diseases by combining locally tailored mosquito control and sentinel disease surveillance at selected hospital facilities in support of the national disease control and surveillance programmes of Zanzibar.
The project runs from 2022-2027 and is funded by Danida, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and administered by Danida Fellowship Centre. Contact: Karin Schiøler (PI) - SCHIMDA
The research project in Malawi sets out to test the effectiveness of community-directed interventions against schistosomiasis. Mass drug administration has proven effective in preventing disease and death but it is yet to be discovered if there is a more effective way to administer the current drug distribution. Contact: Peter Furu - Environmental Sustainability of Hotels on Zanzibar (EnSuZa)
This new project takes a point of departure in the synergy between sustainable tourism and innovation, and the research generated will inform sustainable development within the hotel sector in tropical and subtropical regions. - Dengue: Transmission patterns and entomology studies (larval stages)
The overall objective of this project is to determine the spatio-temporal patterns of dengue cases and vectors, as well as the demographic and environmental risk factors for dengue transmission in the modern urban setting of Kaohsiung City (KH) and the low infrastructure rural setting of Pintung (PT), Taiwan.
Current research projects
- Young People’s Climate Change Engagement in Tanzania (Y-ENGAGE)
Y-ENGAGE aims to generate understandings of the patterns of daily life that shape how young people experience, interpret and respond to climate change. The project is participatory and seeks to co-construct theories and practical models for engaging young people in locally relevant and empowering climate actions. - ALIVE: Improving Adolescent mentaL health by tackling the Impact of poVErty
ALIVE aims to develop and conduct a feasibility randomized controlled trial of an intervention focused on reducing poverty and improving mental health of adolescents. The project focuses on youth in urban areas affected by poverty in Colombia, Nepal, and South Africa. ALIVE is led by Kings College London. The Section of Global Health at the University of Copenhagen is involved, with a particular focus on a realist review to help build the theoretical framework for the intervention.
Project period: Sep 2021 – Aug 2026. Funded by the Welcome Trust. Contact: Wietse Tol - SH+ 360: Scaling up an evidence-based mental health intervention through multi-sectoral partnerships in Uganda
Previous research found a guided self-help intervention, developed by WHO, to be effective in improving mental health of female South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda. Based on these findings, this project aims to understand how SH+ could be brought to scale. The project tests scaling up through a technical support hub (SH+ 360), which supports the integration of SH+ in the programming of agencies currently working at scale in diverse humanitarian sectors.
Project period: Dec 2020 – Dec 2022. Funded by: Humanitarian Innovation Fund (Elrha). Contact: Jura Augustinavicius (McGill University) & Wietse Tol. - SH+ Men: Improving mental health of refugee men through guided self-help; a scalable intervention for a critical link in humanitarian programming
This project aims to adapt a guided self-help intervention (Self Help Plus, SH+) for male South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda. SH+ was previously found to be effective for female South Sudanese refugees. A key adaptation concerns combining SH+ with a scalable intervention for substance use concerns. The project aims to develop the intervention and conduct a feasibility randomized controlled trial of the intervention. The project is managed by HealthRight International.
Project period: Jul 2020 – Dec 2022. Funded by: Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC, Elrha). Contact: Wietse Tol - CHANGE: AlCohol use in HumanitariAN settings: a programme of work to address alcohol and associated adversities among conflict-affected populations in UGanda and UkrainE
CHANGE seeks to develop a transdiagnostic intervention addressing mental health comorbidities (alcohol misuse, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders) among conflict-affected populations in Uganda and Ukraine. Project period: July 2020-June 2025. Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health and Social Care, through the National Institute for Health Research using the UK’s Official Development Assistance Funding.T he project is led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The University of Copenhagen is one of the consortium partners. Uganda site co-PIs: Wietse Tol & Eugene Kinyanda - Online with suicidal thoughts: Consequences and opportunities for prevention
The research project focuses on an online community for people living with suicidal thoughts. Using an online and offline qualitative research approach, the project explores how individuals communicate within the online community, how they value being part of the community and how it forms a part of their daily life. - Scaling up of a community-based alcohol education program in rural Sri Lanka
The aim of this project is to scale up and widen implementation of a successful pilot study of a community-based alcohol intervention carried out in a Sri Lankan rural village. - Mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian settings – Research priorities for 2021-2030 (MHPSS SET 2)
MHPSS SET 2 aimed to build a consensus-based research agenda to strengthen mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian settings for the period 2021-2030. The project was implemented under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies, and led by HealthRight International and the University of Copenhagen. The project is currently working on dissemination of results. Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC, Elrha). Contact: Wietse Tol
Current research projects
- Mobility and continuity of chronic disease care amongst forcibly displaced persons (CONTINUITY)
CONTINUITY seeks to develop an understanding of the intersections between mobility, community support and (dis)continuity of cardiometabolic disease care amongst South Sudanese refugees in South Sudan or Uganda. - Coexistence of obesity and anaemia during pregnancy
The overall purpose of this project is to develop and pilot an intervention seeking to prevent adverse health outcomes due to the co-existence of obesity and anaemia in pregnancy.
- Access to Health Services for Key population in Tanzania
This project aims to work with KP communities to increase access to health services through studying factors which influence the use of health services (pull and push factors) and test the effectiveness of CHIP delivery modalities with and for them in Tanzania. - Health and Antibiotics in Vietnamese Pig Production
The VIDA-PIG project will use established ‘One Health’ approaches to map the many drivers of antibiotics use and antibiotic resistance across the Vietnamese pig value chain. - Halting the dual tuberculosis and diabetes epidemic
The aim of this research project is to develop a model that will strengthen health systems by shifting traditional vertical programmes to an adaptive diseases control approach through integrating communicable and non-communicable diseases using the tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes mellitus (DM) dual epidemic respectively as a case study in Tanzania - Family matters: A new approach to identify individuals at risk of type 2 diabetes
This project aims to investigate the degree of household clustering of fixed (age, sex, ethnicity, chronic disease status) and modifiable risk factors (e.g. blood glycaemia, anthropometry, blood pressure, health service utility) related to T2D in different geographical settings at various stages of epidemiological transition, and in different health systems and welfare policies. - Foetal Exposure and Epidemiological Transition (FOETALforNCD)
This project investigates if anaemia, in particularly Hb <8 g/dL, in early pregnancy or even before, may programme the foetus towards increased risk for NCDs when growing up in a society in fast transition. - The Kenya Diabetes Study
Type 2 diabetes is a rapidly growing problem in developing countries. This increase is due to changes in the life-style (e.g. diet and physical activity) in combination with genetic predisposition. - The association between maternal malaria exposure and cardiometabolic risk in the offspring: a 20 year follow-up study
The objective is to determine the possible additive, detrimental effect of maternal malaria in the placenta on the offspring in regard to epigenetic changes in skeletal muscle and subsequent risk of cardiometabolic disease in adulthood. - Physical activity and cardio-metabolic health in Mexican Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is highly prevalent in Mexico, especially in acculturated populations of indigenous people. Based on studies in US Pima, indigenous people of North America seem to be highly susceptible to T2D.
Current research projects
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Enabling Best Possible Childbirth Care in Tanzania - The PartoMa Project
To examine whether the PartoMa pilot intervention approach of tailoring clinical guidance and training to a specific hospital context, can be replicated at scale to improve maternal and perinatal health, and whether the process can serve as pre-service training of health students and as a model for other areas of health care. -
Foetal Exposure and Epidemiological Transition (FOETALforNCD)
This project investigates if anaemia, in particularly Hb <8 g/dL, in early pregnancy or even before, may programme the foetus towards increased risk for NCDs when growing up in a society in fast transition.
