Research Associate
Email: ma2089@medschl.cam.ac.uk
Background
Mifuyu has worked for the third sector in Ecuador and Fiji on health and social inequalities, and also with academics and government in Japan on healthy ageing.
Following her posting in a cardiology ward in Japan, she was selected by the Japan International Cooperation Agency to work in an indigenous community in collaboration with the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health. She conducted research in determinants of access to health care services by home visits in the community; delivered results in report form, and supported implementation measures by running a conference for local health professionals. This experience led to her strong interest in undertaking masters in social epidemiology to understand social determinants of health, and to develop research skills in epidemiology.
In 2016, after masters degree at University College London (UCL), she was posted to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Fiji, being involved in developing a monitoring and accountability system of non-communicable diseases called the Pacific Monitoring Alliance for Non-communicable Disease Action dashboard, which included aspects of governance as well as preventive policies. Also, using the dashboard, she assessed progress on the implementation of agreed policies and actions in Fiji, Samoa and other countries.
In 2017 she joined a longitudinal ageing study group in Japan. She coordinated a collaborative project with the WHO; delivered the mid-term evaluation of the Japan national health policy; and administered a project with a local authority with the aim of reducing long-term care needs among older people.
She was awarded a PhD in Epidemiology and Social Science from UCL in 2022, funded by UCL Doctoral School Fellowship. With her strong interest in cardiovascular epidemiology, she started being involved in Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit.
Additional Information
Selected publications:
1. Islam S, Ahmed S, Greiner R, Sarker SJ, Akasaki M, Khanom M, Blundred D, Cozzi-Lepri A, Palmeiro-Silva Y. COVID-19: Online Not Distant—MSc Students’ Feedback on an Alternative Approach to Teaching ‘Research Methods and Introduction to Statistics’ at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. InTeaching Biostatistics in Medicine and Allied Health Sciences 2023 Jun 17 (pp. 111-120). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
2. Akasaki M. Adverse childhood experiences and coronary heart disease: investigation of neuroendocrine and autonomic nervous systems pathways (Doctoral dissertation, UCL (University College London)).
3. Akasaki M, Nicholas O, Abell J, Valencia-Hernández CA, Hardy R, Steptoe A. Adverse childhood experiences and incident coronary heart disease: a counterfactual analysis in the Whitehall II prospective cohort study. American Journal of Preventive Cardiology. 2021 Sep 1;7:100220.
4. Akasaki M, Hardy R, Steptoe A. 1348 Childhood adversities and diurnal patterns of salivary cortisol in adulthood: two UK-based prospective cohort studies. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2021 Sep 1;50(Supplement_1):dyab168-022.
5. Akasaki M, Kivimäki M, Steptoe A, Nicholas O, Shipley MJ. Association of attrition with mortality: findings from 11 waves over three decades of the Whitehall II study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2020 Oct 1;74(10):824-30.
6. Akasaki M, Ploubidis GB, Dodgeon B, Bonell CP. The clustering of risk behaviours in adolescence and health consequences in middle age. Journal of adolescence. 2019 Dec 1;77:188-97.