Dr Seyi Soremekun

Seyi is an Assistant Professorship in Epidemiology based in the Maternal and Child Health Intervention Research Group. Her research interests are broadly aimed at designing and evaluating low-cost interventions and programmes (mainly community-based) to reduce the burden of disease and improve development in children in low-income settings. 

Seyi research activities include:

NEWHINTS STUDY: The WHO/DFID/SNL-funded ‘Newhints’ randomised controlled trial assessing the impact of routine home visits by community health volunteers during pregnancy and after delivery on neonatal mortality in rural Ghana. The study is also interested in the effect of the health volunteer scheme on the level and type of infant care (immediately post birth and in the first year of life) provided by mothers.

INSCALE PROJECT: This is a collaboration with the Malaria Consortium (malariaconsortium.org) and the Institute of Global Health at UCL on the Inscale project, which builds on the WHO/UNICEF-endorsed Integrated Community Case Management of Childhood diseases (iCCM) strategy. Inscale is a Gates Foundation-funded project which is trialling two novel and innovative community and mHealth-based programmes to improve Community Health Worker motivation, retention and performance in two sites in rural east Africa (Uganda and Mozambique). 

AMANHI VPM PROJECT: A WHO-coordinated, Gates Foundation-funded multi-country project (AMANHI) to evaluate the distribution of causes of death of babies and women of reproductive age. The project uses verbal post mortem data (VPM) collected during large-scale conducted as part of newborn health studies in low and middle income countries in Africa and Asia. By harmonising data from multiple sites, the Amanhi VPM study will produce one of the largest datasets of newborn and maternal health indicators to help us better understand the epidemiology of maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity. 

SPRING PROJECT: Seyi is responsible for the satistical evaluation of this two-site child development programme in India and Pakistan. The SPRING programe aims to improve cognitive and growth outcomes in infants (at 18 months of age) using a community-based agents to support mothers and families in improved nutrition and increased interaction with children in the first 2 years of life.