Noortje Uphoff

Research Database

Noortje works for the Cochrane Common Mental Disorder group at the University of York. She manages a portfolio of systematic reviews and projects relating to mental health prevention, health inequalities, global mental health and comorbidity of mental and physical health. She first became interested in global health when researching prescribing of antibiotics for children with respiratory infection in Ecuador.

Previously Noortje worked with the Born in Bradford study and Better Start Bradford project. Bradford is a city of great ethnic and social diversity, and there are enormous challenges as well as opportunities in providing children with a healthy start in life. Some examples of topics include early years interventions for families with young children in deprived areas, the impact of economic recession on smoking during pregnancy, ethnic composition of neighbourhoods and maternal and infant health, socioeconomic gradients in childhood asthma, and social capital.

Noortje has methodological expertise relating to cohort studies, social and ethnic inequalities in health, and systematic reviews in public health.

Noortje is interested in applying a health inequality perspective to reviews and dissemination in the field of mental health, answering questions around the wider social determinants of mental health, equal opportunities for prevention, access to mental health, and equity in effectiveness of interventions. In her current job, she works on projects such as IMPACT, on mental and physical comorbidities in South Asia, and the Cochrane Global Mental Health Satellite, which identifies and takes forward priority topics for systematic reviews in global mental health.