Dr Sophie Budge PhD

Dr Sophie Budge

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Research Fellow

Contact details

Email
s.g.budge@bham.ac.uk
Address
Murray Learning Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Sophie Budge is a Research Fellow in the Department of Applied Health Sciences working in global health. Sophie’s interests are in the epidemiology of child growth and nutritional status, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and infectious disease transmission.

Please get in touch if you would like to chat.

ResearchGate

Qualifications

  • PhD Water and Global Health, 2021
  • MSc Demography and Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2015
  • BSc (Hons) Human Nutrition, University of Greenwich, 2014
  • Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) qualified assessor

Biography

After completing a BSc in Human Nutrition with Epidemiology and Biochemistry at the University of Greenwich, Sophie completed an MSc in Demography and Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (ESRC scholarship). Following she joined a study at MRC The Gambia to support research on infant growth and development, before beginning her PhD in 2017 with Cranfield University. Her PhD was jointly funded by the NGO People in Need, and explored the links between gastrointestinal infection/zoonoses, undernutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in infants in Ethiopia to inform health programming and policy.

Following her PhD, Sophie held Research Fellow roles at the University of Bristol and LSHTM, contributing to research on supplementary nutrition in the treatment of acute malnutrition, and food systems, WASH, and public health across East and West African settings.

Mid-2024 Sophie moved to Applied Health Sciences to work alongside Dr Semira Manaseki-Holland and colleagues to support ongoing research on child health and complex community/health systems interventions. She maintains a strong interest in the intersection of infection, WASH and nutritional status, with a focus on study design and analysis and translational epidemiology.

Teaching

Sophie is currently co-supervising students on the MSc Public Health and PhD students alongside Dr Manaseki-Holland.

Research

Sophie’s research interests are inherently collaborative, with a focus on low-resource settings.

Her work now primarily centres on:

  • Understanding the drivers and interaction of disease, development and nutritional status in early childhood, through mixed-methods studies and randomised trials
  • Improving study design, implementation and analysis in complex and low-resource settings
  • Developing research translation into contextually sensitive public health practice, through collaboration with NGOs, governments, and global agencies.

Publications

Nijhawan, A., Budge, S., Reddy, O., Bartram, J. & Howard, G. (2024), Environmental hygiene in outdoor food markets in Africa: a scoping review. Journal of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene for Development, 13(4): 276–288.

Budge, S., Allan, R. & Sauskojus, H. (2023), What sounds like Aedes, acts like Aedes, but is not Aedes? Lessons from dengue virus control for the management of invasive Anopheles. Lancet Global Health, 11(1): e165–e169.

Budge, S., Ambelu, A., Bartram, J., Brown, B. & Hutchings, P. (2022), Environmental sanitation and the evolution of water, sanitation and hygiene. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 100(4): 286–288.

Budge, S., Hutchings, P., Parker, A., Norton, S., Garbutt, C., Woldemedhin, F., Jemal, M., Moges, M., Hussen Adem, S. & Beyene, H. (2021), A randomised controlled feasibility trial of a BabyWASH household play space: The CAMPI study. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 15(7): e0009514.

Budge, S., Parker, A., Hutchings, P., Garbutt, C., Woldemedhin, F., Jemal, M., Moges, M., Williams, L. & Engineer, B. (2020), Multisectoral participation in the development of a BabyWASH playspace for rural Ethiopian households. American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, 104(3): 884–897.

Budge, S. & Jaworowska, A. (2020), Measured and perceived body weight status of women in the Peruvian Amazon. Medicina, 56(8): 375.

Budge, S., Barnett, M., Hutchings, P., Parker, A., Tyrrel, S., Hassard, F., Garbutt, C., Moges, M., Woldemedhin, F. & Jemal, M. (2020), Risk factors and transmission pathways associated with infant Campylobacter spp. infection and malnutrition: A formative study in rural Ethiopia. PLoS One, 15(5): e0232541.

Mathers, W., Hutchings, P., Budge, S. & Jeffrey, P. (2020), Association between water and sanitation service levels and soil-transmitted helminth infection risk factors: a cross-sectional study in rural Rwanda. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, trz119.

Budge, S., Hutchings, P., Parker, A., Tyrrel, S., Tulu, T., Gizaw, M. & Garbutt, C. (2020), Do domestic animals contribute to bacterial contamination of infant transmission pathways? Formative evidence from Ethiopia. Journal of Water & Health, 17(5): 655–669.

Lloyd-Fox, S., Blasi, A., McCann, S. & the BRIGHT project team (2020), Habituation and novelty detection fNIRS brain responses in 5- and 8-month-old infants: The Gambia and UK. Developmental Science, 22: e12817.

Budge, S., Hutchings, P., Parker, A. & Garbutt, C. (2019), Environmental enteric dysfunction and child stunting. Nutrition Reviews, 77(4): 240–253.