Karen Megranahan
Current research interest is focussed on the effectiveness of creative arts as an intervention treatment for substance misuse. Broad research interests include non-pharmacological treatments for embedded long-term substance misuse with untreated trauma and drug induced psychosis.
Previous experience as a business entrepreneur and founder of a leading international employee assistance programme, holds an MSc in Addiction Studies from IOPPN, Kings College London, UK.
Related publications include ‘Do creative arts therapies reduce substance misuse? A systematic review’ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.10.005; ‘The research output on interventions for the behavioural risk factors alcohol & drug use and dietary risk is not related to their respective burden of ill health in countries at differing world bank income levels’ http://www.jogh.org/documents/issue202002/jogh-10-020401.pdf.
Future opportunities of interest embrace continuation of investigative and implementation research to inform and deliver new approaches to advance effectiveness in UK substance misuse treatment services.
Does research output on interventions for two behavioural risk factors correlate with their respective burden of ill health in countries at differing World Bank income levels?
Aims: Alcohol & drug use (A&D) and dietary risks are two increasingly important risk factors. This study examines whether there is an association between the burden of these risk factors in countries of specific income bands as defined by the World Bank, and the number of primary studies included in Cochrane Systematic Reviews (CSRs) conducted in those countries.
Methods: We extracted data from primary studies included in CSRs assessing these two risk factors as outcomes. For each, we obtained data on its overall burden in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) by World Bank Income Levels and tested for an association between DALYs and the number of primary studies and also their participants.
Results: We included 1601 studies from 95 CSRs. Only 18.3% of the global burden for A&D is in high income-countries (HICs) but they produced 90.5 % of primary studies and 99.5% participants. Only 14.2% of the dietary risk burden is in HICs but they produced 80.5% of primary studies and 98.1% participants.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates the significant imbalance of research heavily weighted towards HICs for A&D and dietary risks. More initiatives are required to address this inequality and promote health research in low and middle- income countries.