Measuring the impact of obesity on child health
Human Biology graduate Nicola Hawley explains where her degree at Loughborough University took her.
At Loughborough University we pride ourselves on providing our biosciences students with the skills and knowledge to tackle global health issues. Human Biology graduate, Nicola Hawley, was inspired to do just that in the Pacific region.
Tackling global health issues
Teaching is delivered by world-leading academic researchers in the areas of child growth, ageing, nutrition and metabolism, epigenetics and human genomics, and more.
Research informed teaching, placements and the opportunity for students to conduct their own research means our students are prepared to tackle some of the most signifcant health issues affecting communities around the globe.
Human Biology graduate Dr Nicola Hawley, has used the skills and knowledge developed at Loughborough to tackle these issues.
She believes that the Human Growth and Development module she took during her Human Biology degree was the start of her career.
I had been searching for a way to use my interest in health without pursuing clinical medicine, and that class taught me that there was a place for human biology-focused research in driving clinical decision making. That led to my focus on public health, and the rest is history...
Promoting health in the Pacific
Now an academic herself at Yale University in the USA, Dr Hawley leads a programme of global health research across the Pacific Islands.
Her research focuses on how chronic diseases – such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension – impact maternal and child health in the region.
My work so far has led to new policies to protect and promote breastfeeding in Samoa and the creation of new models of prenatal care in American Samoa that are designed to integrate obesity and diabetes prevention into routine care.
Another of our interventions to support women in advocating for gestational diabetes screening has led to increases in screening uptake and improved risk awareness. In the future we hope to see some of our interventions scaled to become part of national clinical practice.
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