SSM featuring 2022’s top scoring abstracts … Nicholas Adjei

SSM featuring 2022’s top scoring abstracts … Dr Nicholas Adjei!

Nicholas Adjei is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Public Health, Policy, and Systems at the University of Liverpool. At 2022’s ASM in Exeter, his abstract Impact of parental mental health and poverty on the health of the next generation: a multi-trajectory analysis using the UK Millennium Cohort Study was one of the top 10 highest scoring. Below, he shares a little about this work.

Nicholas Adjei University of Liverpool Postdoctoral Research Associate

Tell us about the work you presented at 2022’s ASM

Parental mental illness and family poverty are growing public health problems affecting children and young people (CYP) globally. The aim of the study was to investigate life course trajectories of parental caregivers’ mental health and poverty from childhood to early adolescence, estimate the association of these trajectories with adolescent developmental outcomes, and evaluate their potential impact at a population level using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.

We found that over half of children in the UK experienced continuous and long-term exposure to either poverty and/or poor parental (primary and secondary caregiver) mental health. These exposures singly or in combination were associated with worse adolescent mental and behavioural outcomes. Our findings suggest that levelling up parental mental health and child poverty so that all UK children experienced the optimum conditions currently experienced by only 47% of children could reduce the overall population burden of adolescent socioemotional behavioural problems by as much as 40% and cognitive disability by 24%.

Tell us a little bit about yourself

My research focusses on socioeconomic, ethnic, and child health inequalities in the UK, Europe, and LMICs, including Ghana and Zimbabwe. I have worked on the impacts of adverse socioeconomic conditions and childhood experiences on children’s health; and mental health impact of interventions. My current project, funded by the Health Foundation, explores the complex interrelationship between wider social determinants, family support and young people’s mental health. Before joining the University of Liverpool in 2020, I was a Research Fellow at the Leibniz Institute of Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen, Germany, where I led the EDISON (Ethnic and Gender Differences in Metabolic Syndrome) project. I hold a BA in Sociology from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, an MSc in Demography from Stockholm University, Sweden, and a PhD in Public Health (Magna cum Laude) from the University of Bremen, Germany.

This is a special edition of our blog series that celebrates SSM members and their work. Over the next few months we will be featuring the authors of top-scoring abstracts from 2022’s ASM. To find out more visit socsocmed.org.uk/blog or email ecr.ssm@gmail.com.