News and Publications

Discover key publications, impactful media coverage, and conference highlights from the MaaCiwara study on topics like microplastics in drinking water, communal handwashing practices, and malnutrition trends.

Global Health Research at the University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham has a strong track record in global health research, attracting more than £10m of research projects annually. Our researchers work closely with partners in low and middle-income countries to deliver locally relevant and impactful health research, helping to improve the lives of the poorest in society.

Key study outputs

Publications

Asamane EA, Quinn L, Watson SI, Lilford RJ, Hemming K, Sidibe C, Rego RT, Bensassi S, Diarra Y, Diop S, Gautam OP, Islam MS, Jackson L, Jolly K, Kayentao K, Koita O, Manjang B, Tebbs S, Gale N, Griffiths P, Cairncross S, Toure O, Manaseki-Holland S. Protocol for a parallel group, two-arm, superiority cluster randomised trial to evaluate a community-level complementary-food safety and hygiene and nutrition intervention in Mali: the MaaCiwara study (version 1.3; 10 November 2022). Trials. 2023 Jan 30;24(1):68. doi: 10.1186/s13063-022-06984-5. PMID: 36717923; PMCID: PMC9885702.
New study reveals tiny plastic particles may boost risk from major diseases: https://www.watermagazine.co.uk/2024/07/29/new-study-reveals-tiny-plastic-particles-may-boost-risk-from-major-diseases/ (Water Magazine, news article, 2024)
The potential of micro- and nanoplastics to exacerbate the health impacts and global burden of non-communicable diseases: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(24)00273-8 (Cell Reports Medicine, 2024)

Conference papers

October 2022: Oral presentation: “Washing hands in a common bowl before eating is part of our tradition”: A qualitative study of communal handwashing practice in urban and rural Mali, West Africa” at the Water & Health global conference, The Water Institute, University of North Carolina, USA. See related studies for more details.
May 2022: Oral poster Presentation: Communal Handwashing without soap or changing the water as a source of contamination in households: Mixed-methods study from Mali including a randomised control trial (RCT) at the Forum for Global Challenges, The University of Birmingham. See related studies for more details.
May 2022: Preventing diarrhoea and growth delay through community-level complementary-food safety and hygiene and nutrition intervention in Mali: Formative research data for intervention adaptation at the Forum for Global Challenges, The University of Birmingham.

Achievements

We are delighted to announce that a separate trial, The CIS43LS study, conducted by our MaaCiwara Professor Kassoum Kayentao in collaboration with his NIH colleague won two awards in 2023:

Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award
Distinguished Clinical Research Achievement Award

We are also delighted to congratulate our Mali PI’s Professor Ousmane Toure’s literary award of Literary Return from Mali, European Union Prize First Novel for the book entitled HODARE.

Highlighted media and communications

Media coverage

Malnourished children live in poorer African households whilst overweight children are in rich homes (The Medical News, Australia)
African Children Face Malnutrition Risk, Rich Kids Become Obese (Mirage News, Australia)
Poor African Children Face Malnutrition Risk, Whilst Rich Kids Become Obese (African Eye Report, Ghana)
It became clear that poor African children suffer from exhaustion, and rich — from obesity (Seldon News, Russia)
The Paradox of Malnutrition and Obesity: A Tale of African Children (TOP AFRICA NEWS, Rwanda)
Study: Poor African children face malnutrition risk, while rich kids become obese (Medical Xpress, United Kingdom)