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Staff Profile

Professor Mark Pearce

Professor of Applied Epidemiology

Background

Introduction

I am Professor of Applied Epidemiology within the Population Health Sciences Institute and work within the Reproduction, Development and Child Health research theme. I am the Director of the Newcastle Thousand Families Study, a birth cohort established in 1947 and lead a programme of epidemiological research assessing risk factors for and causal pathways to adverse health and behavioural outcomes, and more generally I am able to adapt to most areas of epidemiology. I am open to collaborations in any epidemiological field and to approaches from potential MRes (Epidemiology) and PhD students.

Roles and Responsibilities

Programme lead of the MRes in Epidemiology

Module lead for MRes Clinical Epidemiology module

Chair of the MRes Examination and PEC Committees

Director, The Newcastle Thousand Families Study

Qualifications

BSc (Hons), 1993, University of Wales

MSc in Medical Statistics, 1994, University of Leicester

PhD Epidemiology, 2000, Newcastle University 

Previous Positions

DELT for PHSI 2019-2021.

Reader, Newcastle University, 2011-2015

Senior Lecturer, Newcastle University, 2008-2011

Lecturer, Newcastle University, 2005-2008

Senior Research Associate, Newcastle University, 2003-2005

Research Associate, Newcastle University, 2002-2003 

Post-doctoral Fellow, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, 2000-2001

Research Associate, Newcastle University, 1997-2000

Junior Research Associate, Newcastle University, 1995-1997

Research Assistant, Institute of Cancer Research (London), 1994-1995 

Google Scholar: Click here.

Research

Research Interests

My research is centred within the field of aetiological epidemiology with an ability to adapt to changing research needs or collaborative requests.to cover most aspects of epidemiology. 

 

Research Roles 

I am the Director of the Newcastle Thousand Families Study, a birth cohort established in 1947, a co-investigator on two other birth cohorts based at Newcastle University, the Gateshead Millennium Study and the Newcastle Pre-Term Birth Cohort, and a collaborator with the Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort. The key theme within these studies is to identify aetiological risk factors for chronic diseases,  in both childhood and adulthood. We quantify the relative importance of different risk factors, and the pathways between them, so as to identify areas that should of most interest for public health interventions and thus translation. As part of this, I am also investigating factors that influence health behaviours, such as physical activity, as it is likely that interventions will work differently in different groups of people.

I am also involved in a number of other externally funded research projects, including a wide range of collaborative studies with colleagues in Child Health.

 

Postgraduate Supervision

I am currently supervising a number of postgraduate students. Details of these and those post submission can be found under the teaching tab. 

Teaching

MRes

  • Programme lead for MRes (Epidemiology) 
  • Module lead - Clinical epidemiology (also open to MClinRes and MSc Medical Sciences students)
  • Lecturer on the Global Health module
  • Dissertation supervisor, dissertation examiner, personal tutor
  • Previously Chair of the examination and PEC committees


MSc in Public Health and Health Services Research

  • Module lead for the Dissertation Module
  • Co-lead of the Fundamentals of Health Research Module
  • Lecturer on the Applied Epidemiology and Chronic Disease Epidemiology modules
  • Dissertation supervisor, dissertation examiner


PGClinRes

  •  Lecturer on the Research Study Design and Data Interpretation module


MBBS

  • Personal tutor, Annual appraisals, Assignment marker, Lecturer


BSc Biomedical Sciences, BSc Biology, BSc Food & Human Nutrition

  • Dissertation supervisor and examiner


Current Postgraduate Students

     PhD

  • Lelanie Brewer - Early self-care development in 3-6 year old children with and without motor impairments: A longitudinal study 

  • Mohammed Esa - The inter-relation and prediction of structural morphology of the knee, ankle, hand and wrist joints on MRI, ultrasound, radiographs and DEXA: the Newcastle Thousand Families Study.
  • Samuel Hadjo - Malaria in pregnancy: Prevalence and pregnancy outcomes in Papua, the highest plasmodium endemicity province in Indonesia. 
  • Tania Jones - Circulating microRNAs in musculoskeletal ageing: An epidemiological study of the Newcastle Thousand Families Birth Cohort 
  • Christo Tsifilis - Investigating Health Status and Quality of Life in Patients with Autosomal Dominant Hyper-Immunoglobulin E Syndrome.
  • Helen Elliott - To what extent is breast density a problem in the UK and is molecular breast imaging the solution?
  • Haifa Aldhamy - Knowledge, attitude and practice of infection prevention and control precautions among laboratory staff in Saudi Arabia.
  • Colette Kirk - A longitudinal study of factors that impact on the quality of life intestinal failure patients treated with home parenteral nutrition.
  • Celestine Effiong - Adherence to HIV medication in pregnant and breast-feeding women in Nigeria.
  • Nia Cartwright - Intersectionality, between ethnicity and sexuality, and the impact on quality of life 

         

 Completed PhD Students

  • Rakesh Ghosh - Interaction between environmental factors and gender on perinatal outcomes
  • Simon Kerr - The prevalence of neurocardiovascular instability and its clinical associations in community-dwelling older people
  • Jane Salotti - An epidemiological survey of Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis in children in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland 
  • Basilio Gomez-Pozo -Spatial epidemiology of lung cancer mortality: Geographical heterogeneity and risk factors assessment
  • Richard Morris - Knee joint kinematics associated with osteoarthritis in an older cohort
  • Fiona Pearson - Diabetes and the risk of tuberculosis: how strong is the association and what is its public health impact?
  • Abdulkareem Al-Quwaidhi - Modelling of diabetes prevalence in Saudi Arabia
  • Matthew Thomas - The increasing incidence of childhood empyema thoracis: epidemiology and clinical aspects
  • Ajay Abraham - Lifecourse influences on osteoarthritis of the knees, hips and hands as defined by musculoskeletal ultrasound
  • Theresa Cole - A comparison of clinical outcome, quality of life, emotional well being and cognitive function in those with Chronic Granulomatous Disease managed conservatively and curatively.
  • Claire McDonald - A prospective evaluation of the associations of neurocardiovascular instability in community dwelling older people.
  • Alex Battersby - An investigation into the physical and psychological health of carriers of X-linked chronic granulomatous disease in the United Kingdom.
  • Richard Harbron - Radiation doses and associated risks from cardiac catheterization in children and young adults.
  • Intan Abd Hamid -The effect of genotype and chemotherapy conditioning on the long term immunological reconstitution and function, physical health, psychological development and quality of life in a cohort of infants transplanted for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency.
  • Majid Althaqafy - Seroimmunity profile and associated knowledge and concerns of Hepatitis B, varicella and measles infections among employees in the Saudi National Guard, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - A mixed methids study.
  • Kay Mann - The estimation of wholegrain food intake and influence on health: The National Diet and Nutrition Survey and the Newcastle Thousand Families Study.
  • Inalegwu Oonu - Understanding the patterns of spread of HIV/AIDS in Bebue State and the middle belt of Nigeria - what factors have sustained the spread?
  • Jo Wildman - Well-being, health and the transition to retirement: a mixed-methods study.
  • Rhiannon O'Connor - What are the lifecourse and recent determinants of poor oral health in later life?
  • Natassia Robinson - DNA Methylation as a potential mediator of early life exposures and subsequent obesity. 
  • Eleanor Mitchell - Investigating mortality rates in gram-negative bloodstream infection without sepsis cases at South Tees Hospital Trust.
  • Ben Shillitoe - Clinical health outcomes and quality of life for XLA patients in England and Wales. 
  • Charlotte Currie - Investigating problem orientated patient pathways: Toothache to Treatment



MD

  • Paul Johnson - A case-control study of multiple sclerosis among Cypriots in the Republic of Cyprus.

PhD Examinations

  • Newcastle University, Edinburgh University, Imperial (London), RMIT (Melbourne), University of Bristol, Swansea University, Oxford University, Leeds University, University of Melbourne, University of Barcelona, University of Tampere, University of Zurich.

 

External Examiner Appointments

Current

  • Swansea University BSc (Population Health Science)

Previous

  • Aberdeen University MSc (Public Health)
  • Cambridge University MPhil (Epidemiology)


 

 

Publications