Dr Susannah Westbury
Dr Susannah Westbury
Combined Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health degree
I’ve always been interested in public health and health equity, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). I connected with my supervisor through an MPH unit that involved a global health practical placement.
Dr Susannah Westbury was one of the University’s first students to undertake our new combined MD/MPH degree course, in which medical students take a year during their studies to complete a fast-tracked Master of Public Health (MPH). The one-year Masters takes them on a deep dive of the medical research world. Having completed her thesis, Dr Westbury was able to utilise her final year Scholarly Intensive Placement as an opportunity to write up her findings for peer reviewed publication, a unique and valuable learning experience.
During her Masters, she was supervised by global health expert A/Professor Oyinlola Oyebode from our UK-based partner organisation, Warwick University Medical School.
Dr Westbury says, “I’ve always been interested in public health and health equity, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). I connected with my supervisor through an MPH unit that involved a global health practical placement.
We conducted a systematic review looking into food environments and human health in LMICs. Food environments describe the factors such as the physical, economic, political, social, and cultural conditions that drive diet and nutrition – which we know are leading causes of global morbidity and mortality.
My project involved synthesizing evidence around the relationship between urban food environments and diet, nutrition, and health outcomes in LMICs. We aimed to better understand which factors of these unique food environments are associated with different diet, nutrition, and health outcomes.”
Dr Westbury used a conceptual model of the food environment that assessed eight distinct parameters: availability, price, vendor and product properties, marketing and regulation, accessibility, affordability, convenience, and desirability.
“Our international research team, spanning across Australia, the UK, Pakistan and Nigeria, screened 1,322 papers. In the end, 74 papers were eligible to be incorporated.
“Our strongest finding was an association between the availability and accessibility of food and dietary behaviour, which was also linked to health or nutrition outcomes. Our findings will support the development and implementation of interventions to optimise dietary behaviours, and highlighted information gaps where more research is needed.
The Scholarly Intensive Placement is a six-week placement offered to final year Monash MD students. Dr Westbury was pleased to have used her placement to generate this first-author publication, which is now available on BMJ Global Health. Dr Westbury is currently completing her medical internship at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, with plans to pursue a career as a clinician scientist.