Meena Daivadanam

I have a background in medicine and a PhD in public health interventions. I work in Global Health with intervention and implementation research, particularly community-based complex interventions for primary and secondary prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Asia. I am increasingly focusing on upstream determinants such as local health systems and food environments using more inclusive participatory and design methods to bridge the equity gap.

PREVENT: Co-design for reduction of Cardiometabolic Risk: implementation and effectiveness of a Tele-Health Coaching intervention with community outreach in Region Uppsala. Funded by Swedish Research Council; Period: 2022-26.

PREVENT aims to co-design, implement and test a tele-health coaching intervention with
community outreach for the reduction of cardio-metabolic risk among high-risk population in
Region Uppsala. It builds on the previous EU project (2015-20) and uses a mixed methods approach comprising two parts: 1) six-step co-design of a community outreach component by community stakeholders, participants and research team; and 2) pragmatic randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a staggered intervention that integrates tele-health coaching and community outreach. The interdisciplinary consortium comprises two higher education institutions (Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet), Region Uppsala and the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation specializing in co-design for system and policy transformations. Understanding the process and outcome pathways of innovative interventions to reduce cardiometabolic risk and improve healthy behaviours is important for their transferability, scalability and to promote actions towards improving health equity.

SHIFT Framework and Compendium of Good Practices: Shifting to equitable health and nutrition through food environment transformations. Funded by World Health Organization & EAT Forum; Period: 2020-22

A transformative change of our food environment is urgently needed to improve human health and nutrition, planetary health and meet the Sustainable Development Goals. The SHIFT Framework assists technical staff working in nutrition and health through a process of identifying and implementing equity focused interventions related to the food environment. It includes: 1) A 4-step Framework for developing contextualized interventions for improved equity in health and nutrition through food environment actions; 2) the Compendium of Good Practices, a searchable database of 68 good practices on equity-focused actions on the food environment searched; and 3) Tools for Transformation, a set of selected online tools to assist technical staff in implementing health and nutrition interventions to transform the food environment in their setting. This work was carried out with the technical and financial support from the Unit of Multi-sectoral Action in Food Systems, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. The SHIFT Framework and Compendium of Good Practices for equity focus in food environment transformations was launched in June 2022.

SMART2D: A people-centred approach through Self-Management and Reciprocal learning for the prevention and management of Type-2-Diabetes. Funded by EC Horizon 2020; Period: 2015-2020

SMART2D was a 5-yr collaborative project and we are a consortium of six partners: Makerere University school of Public Health, Uganda; University of Western Cape School of Public Health, South Africa; Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp; Collaborative Care Systems Finland; Uppsala University; and Karolinska Institutet (coordinating institute). Our overall objective was to strengthen capacity for type-2-diabetes care through a contextually appropriate self-management approach with integrated health facility and community components in three sites: Uganda, South Africa & Sweden. In Sweden, SMART2D had partnered with Stockholm County Council and had established connections with the primary care centres (vårdcentral) and citizen's offices (medborgarkontor) of selected municipalities within Stockholm county, where we implemented a feasibility trial. The trial and project are now concluded and analysis is ongoing.

Innovating health systems and healthcare delivery in rural Uganda: towards building critical capacity to tackle the rising Type 2 Diabetes challenge. Funded by Swedish International Development Agency (Sida); Period: 2015-2022

A capacity building programme to enhance and build critical capacity for chronic care in Uganda, through education, training.at doctoral and post-doctoral level, and research evidence generation, within an overall research framework to innovate and strengthen health systems. This work is being carried out through a team of supervisors from Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology; and Karolinska Institutet partners (includes Uppsala University). Considering the challenges associated with the prevention and management of chronic non-communicable diseases, this capacity building programme is embedded within a research framework to strenghthen both community and facility capacity for chronic care, using Type 2 Diabetes as an example. This project is coordinated from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm.