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Biography
Sarah Redsell trained as a nurse in London; she subsequently undertook a degree in Psychology (University of Loughborough) and completed her health visitor training in Nottingham (Nottingham Trent University). Sarah worked for several years in Nottingham City as a health visitor before studying for a PhD in Behavioural Science (University of Nottingham). Following her PhD studies, Sarah worked at the University of Leicester as a Research Fellow (2000-2004) and at the University of Nottingham as a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Health Sciences (2004-2012). Sarah was employed at Anglia Ruskin University as a Professor of Public Health (2013-2019). Sarah is Professor of Children's Community and Public Health in the Centre for Children and Young People's Health Research (CYPHR). She has developed the Community and Public Health theme for CYPHR, which is a partnership between the University, NHS, local authorities, members of the public and other stakeholders.
Sarah is currently Associate Deputy Head of School, Research in the School of Health Sciences. During her career Sarah has undertaken of a wide variety of academic leadership roles, such as University and Faculty, Athena Swan Deputy Lead and Chair of the School Research Ethics Committee (at Anglia Ruskin University). She has also been Director of Clinical Academic Careers in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham. Sarah has significant PhD supervision, coaching and mentoring experience and particularly enjoys working with clinical academics. Sarah contributed to the nursing response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a Test and Trace worker for Public Health England.
Research Summary
Sarah has an international reputation for research around healthy growth and overweight prevention during infancy. She has led and co-led several externally funded, multidisciplinary research… read more
Recent Publications
Current Research
Sarah has an international reputation for research around healthy growth and overweight prevention during infancy. She has led and co-led several externally funded, multidisciplinary research projects in collaboration with academic, community, allied and public health professionals. The findings of these projects have been published in academic journals (see Publications) and disseminated to health professionals delivering care to infants and young children. This has led to significant local and national impact, particularly in relation to infant feeding guidelines.
Babies at Greater Risk of Overweight (BabyGRO)
Sarah previously worked with a multidisciplinary team to a) develop an Infant Risk of Obesity Checklist (IROC) and b) systematically review the literature for interventions to prevent rapid weight gain during infancy (see Publications). For the BabyGRO project Sarah worked with Professor Cris Glazebrook (Faculty of Medicine) and Professor Heather Wharrad (HELM) to develop two on-line Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs) to translate the IROC and review evidence into tools and training for health professionals.. These RLOs enable health visitors to 1) identify infants at greater risk of overweight and 2) support parents to make changes to infant feeding. They have been accredited by the Institute of Health Visiting and can be accessed here:
Caregivers' Responsive feedIng Behaviour (CRiB)
Sarah conducted a mixed method systematic review of the barriers and enablers to responsive infant feeding using a best fit framework synthesis with the COM-B model. This was in collaboration with colleagues from University College Cork (Dr Karen Matvienko-Sikar) and City, University of London (Dr Ellinor Ollander).. PROSPERO registration: CRD42019144570 (06/08/2019).
The protocol has been published and can be found here: CRiB Protocol
The published paper can be found here: CRIB systematic review
Sarah and a team (Professor Helen Spiby, Professor Heather Wharrad, Dr Karen Matvienko-Sikar and Ciara Tierney (public lead) have received funding from the NIHR-RfPB programme for a project entitled: Co-production of a Caregivers intervention around Responsive Infant feeding Behaviours to prevent childhood obesity (CRIB). This project started on 1st March 2023 and will last for 18 months.
Cognitive and motor skills of preterm infants
Sarah has been a co-investigator on a Randomised Controlled Trial of an intervention to improve the cognitive and motor skills of preterm infants, funded by Action Medical Research. The project is led by Dr Ruth Ford (Anglia Ruskin University) and the team includes Professor Sam Johnson (University of Leicester) and Dr Angela D'Amore (Consultant Neonatologist, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust). Recruitment took place between 2017 and 2022 in Neonatal Units across the East of England. Data collection is complete and the team are currently undertaking the final analysis/
Further details of the project can be found here. Action Medical Research GN2542
.
Past Research
In 2008, Sarah led a collaboration with academics and clinicians from the NHS that developed a multidisciplinary research programme exploring overweight prevention during infancy. This resulted in five externally funded research projects starting with a project which identified parents' and health professionals' priorities around infant feeding leading to the development of tools and training which have been translated for health visiting practice. The peer reviews outputs from these studies can be found in the Publications section. Further details of these projects are available on request.
- Glazebrook C, Wharrad H, Redsell SA, Weng S. Babies at Greater Risk of Overweight (BabyGRO). Training materials for health visitors. Nottingham Impact Accelerator Award (Hermes) Impact development 1st September 2018-31st August 2019, £19,770.
- Redsell SA, Glazebrook C, Wharrad H, Swift J, Weng S, Nathan D, Siriwardena ANS, Lakshman R, Ong K, McMaster F. Development and feasibility testing of an interactive, educational programme to facilitate PROactive Assessment of Obesity RiSK during Infancy (ProAsk). Medical Research Council -Public Health Intervention Development PH01/14-15 1st September 2014-28th February 2016, £151,576.
- Glazebrook C, Weng S, Sayer K, Redsell SA, Nathan D, Swift J. External validation of the Infant Risk of Obesity Checklist (IROC). Nottingham/Leicestershire CLAHRC-NDL (NIHR) 1st February 2013 - 31st August 2013, £10,105.
- Redsell SA, Glazebrook C, Swift J, Siriwardena N, Nathan D, Yang M, Weng S, (plus clinicians from Nottingham City Care Partnership). Systematic review of behavioural and non-behavioural interventions to prevent childhood obesity and development of a guideline for health visitors to use with parents at risk of developing childhood obesity. Burdett Trust for Nursing 1st April 2012-31st March 2013, £49,966.
- Redsell SA. Systematic review and development/validation of an Infant Risk of Obesity Checklist (IROC) for the prevention of childhood obesity. NHS Nottinghamshire County PCT Flexibility and Sustainability 1st April 2010-31st July 2012, £10,000.
- Redsell SA, Glazebrook C, Swift J, Siriwardena N, Nathan D. Early Prediction and Prevention of Obesity during Childhood (EPPOC). Burdett Trust for Nursing 1st April 2008-31st October 2009, £51,359 (+ £5,260 Service Support Costs from Primary Care Research Network (PCRN).