Sarah Abdi

Biography

My ambition is to lead my own research projects and create evidence-based innovations with societal impact. In pursuit of my ambition, I successfully joined a PhD programme at the School of Health and Related Research in January 2018. In my PhD, I am exploring the potential of emerging and future developments of technology to meet the care and support priorities of older people living at home with chronic conditions. This area of research has the potential of having an impact on the lives of older adults, people who care for them, the care system and the entire society, both nationally and internationally.

To date I have worked in both academic and clinical research settings, where I have been involved in a range of studies including randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews, feasibility and user-centred design studies, cross-sectional and mixed methods research. In these projects, I have worked closely with researchers and academics to design and develop protocols, obtain ethics and governance approvals, collect and analyse quantitative and qualitative data, and publish journal articles in peer-reviewed journals.

I am a dietitian by professional background, and I practiced for eight years before I decided to pursue my research career. I have experience in medical nutrition therapy for diabetes, insulin pump, bariatric surgery and weight management. I was also involved in designing, developing and delivering two behavioural lifestyle programmes (BLIS and LIFE8). Both of these programmes were published as research articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Current research projects

• PhD project: the potential of emerging and future technologies to meet the care and support priorities of older people living at home with chronic conditions.

• A mobile diagnostic and screening toolkit for urban slums in India.

• BLIS: a behavioural lifestyle intervention study for Emirati patients with type 2 diabetes.

• Life 8: a behavioural lifestyle intervention for weight loss.

• Relationship between sleep quality and glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes.