Research Associate
(BA (Hons), MPhil)
Email: rl423@medschl.cam.ac.uk | Office: East Forvie Building | ORCID
Background
Becky graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2013 with a degree in Natural Sciences. She joined the Primary Care Unit in September 2015 to work as a Research Assistant looking at timely diagnosis of cancer before moving on to complete an MPhil in Public Health at the University of Cambridge in 2017. Her thesis examined the association between psychosocial factors and lifestyle behaviour change following intervention.
Becky’s PhD, funded by the NIHR SPCR, described the development of type 2 diabetes in women with a history of gestational diabetes, and identified primary care-based approaches that can be used to reduce the risk of developing diabetes in this population. This work was conducted with the view to develop interventions and recommendations related to both postpartum diabetes screening and promotion of a healthy lifestyle, through literature reviews and primary research using qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Research Interests
Becky is working on a project funded by CRUK to explore the social and ethical implications of risk stratified cancer screening. She will use a community jury study and a discrete choice experiment to identify appropriate strategies to move from screening programmes based on age and sex to those based on estimated risk of disease.
Alongside these projects, she is continuing research into the postpartum care of women with a history of gestational diabetes. This includes describing current diabetes screening practices using anonymous routine medical record data.
Additional Information
Becky is funded by a Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre Early Detection Programme Pump Priming award and National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research bridging funding.
Selected publications
Lachmann EH, Fox RA, Dennison RA, Usher-Smith JA, Meek CL, Aiken CE. Barriers to completing oral glucose tolerance testing in women at risk of gestational diabetes. Diabet Med. 2020;37(9):1482–1489.
Dennison RA, Fox RA, Ward RJ, Griffin SJ, Usher-Smith JA. Women’s views on screening for Type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes: a systematic review, qualitative synthesis and recommendations for increasing uptake. Diabet Med. 2020;37(1):29–43.
Dennison RA, Ward RJ, Griffin SJ, Usher-Smith JA. Women’s views on lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes: a systematic review, qualitative synthesis and recommendations for practice. Diabet Med. 2019;36(6):702–717.
Dennison RA, Feldman AL Usher-Smith JA, Griffin SJ. The association between psychosocial factors and change in lifestyle behaviour following lifestyle advice and information about cardiovascular disease risk. BMC Public Health. 2018;18(1):731.