Noreen Mdege

Research Database

Noreen’s research focuses on tobacco use, second hand smoke (SHS) exposure and alcohol consumption with an emphasis on low and middle income countries (LMICs). She investigates individual-level and population-level health perspectives and approaches with a focus on specific populations such as HIV positive and TB patients. She investigate the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco use or second hand smoke exposure in specific populations (e.g. HIV positive and TB patients) or settings; their determinants; their impact on health outcomes; interventions to address these behaviours/ exposures; and the impact of those interventions both on the behaviours/exposure and treatment outcomes (TB/ HIV treatment outcomes) including mortality. She is co-investigator (Co-I) on an ongoing project addressing smoking, alcohol misuse and medication adherence among TB patients in South Africa; another on addressing tobacco use, alcohol use, poor diet and physical inactivity among people with severe mental illness in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; and another on tobacco control in The Gambia. She is project manager for a project investigating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a community-based Smoke Free Homes intervention, with or without Indoor Air Quality feedback, in reducing non-smokers’ SHS exposure in the home in Bangladesh. She is coordinating tobacco taxation research projects in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Uganda and South Africa.  She is also Principal Investigator on a project in the UK and the US evaluating the efficacy of positive affect and episodic future thinking interventions on promoting healthy eating; and Co-I on a pilot study to examine brain activation, temporal discounting, food demand and food choices related to positive affect and episodic future thinking guided imagery in the US.