Causes and Patterns of Disease
Theme leads: Judith Rankin & Mark Pearce
The Causes and Patterns of Disease (CaPoD) research theme contributes to the understanding, prevention and treatment of chronic non-communicable disease across the life course, both within the UK and internationally. The research theme encompasses four research strands:
- Chronic disease
- Environment and health
- Maternal & perinatal health
- Paediatric health
Our work is multidisciplinary engaging with colleagues in public health, clinical medicine, sociology, anthropology, health economics, medical physics, statistics, epigenetics and with the public. We adopt a broad range of methodological approaches including: epidemiology; demographic methods; modelling disease trends; systematic reviews; genetic epidemiology; spatio-temporal analyses; and longitudinal and intervention studies. We also strive to build research capacity and to inform national and international policy.
Members of the theme work closely with the other IHS research themes, with colleagues in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, the Institute of Genetic Medicine, the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability (NIRES) and clinical colleagues from a number of specialties. We also have strong collaborations both nationally and internationally.
We have built research programmes around the high quality surveys we work closely with including those held at the Regional Maternity Survey Office in Newcastle, the Newcastle Thousand Families Study (a birth cohort established in 1947), and the North of England Young Persons’ Malignant Disease Register.
We provide supervision and training to medical and biomedicine undergraduates and students at master’s and doctoral levels. To find out more about us please contact one of the research theme leads.
Selected Projects
- Can the KIDSCREEN questionnaire be used to measure quality of life in children born with congenital anomalies?
Project Leader(s): Professor Judith Rankin - Congenital anomalies in the offspring of women with diabetes
Project Leader(s): Dr Ruth Bell - Factors Associated with Recurrence and Length of Survival Following Relapse in Patients with Neuroblastoma: A pilot study
Project Leader(s): Dr Richard J.Q. McNally (PI), Professor Deborah Tweddle (Co-I), Dr Richard Feltbower (University of Leeds, Co-I), Dr Guy Makin (University of Manchester, Collaborator), Professor Andrew Pearson (Royal Marsden, Collaborator) - Improving pregnancy outcome in obese pregnant women: the UPBEAT programme
Project Leader(s): Dr Ruth Bell, Professor Steve Robson (ICM) - Improving screening and management of gestational diabetes in sub Saharan Africa
Project Leader(s): Dr Eugene Sobngwi, Dr Ruth Bell - Long-term sequelae of radiation exposure due to computed tomography in children and young people
Project Leader(s): Dr Mark Pearce - Survival and predictors of survival in children born with congenital heart defects.
Project Leader(s): Professor Judith Rankin, Ms Kate Best - The epidemiology of osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma in children and adults aged 0-49 years: further investigations of aetiology and survival
Project Leader(s): Dr Richard J.Q. McNally (PI), Dr Richard Feltbower (Co-I, University of Leeds), Dr Roger Parslow (Co-I, University of Leeds) - The Newcastle Thousand Families Birth Cohort
Project Leader(s): Dr Mark Pearce
