Professor Miranda Pallan MBChB, MPH, PhD, FFPH

Professor Miranda Pallan

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Professor of Child and Adolescent Public Health

Contact details

Email
m.j.pallan@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Murray Learning Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Miranda’s research mainly focuses on the health of children and adolescents. She undertakes research in the areas of the epidemiology, prevention and management of overweight and obesity in children, school food provision and environments, and adolescent nutrition, mental wellbeing and physical activity. Her research seeks to improve health at an early stage of the life course to reduce longer term ill health, chronic disease and premature death.

Within these research areas Miranda has developed expertise in complex intervention development and evaluation, multi-methods research, and research with disadvantaged and ethnically diverse communities in the UK.

Qualifications

  • Fellowship (FHEA), AdvanceHE 2020
  • Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health 2012
  • PhD in Public Health, University of Birmingham, 2011
  • Masters in Public Health, University of Birmingham, 2003
  • Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners 2001
  • MBChB, University of Birmingham, 1997
  • BSc (Hons) Pharmacology, University of Birmingham, 1994

Biography

Miranda graduated with a MBChB degree from Birmingham Medical School in 1997 and qualified as a General Practitioner in 2001. In 2002 she commenced specialist training in Public Health, and joined the Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Birmingham in 2005 to sub-specialise in academic Public Health.

Miranda completed her specialist training in Public Health in 2010 and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. She completed a PhD degree in 2011, which focused on childhood obesity prevention targeting South Asian communities in the UK. Since then, she has continued to focus her research on childhood obesity and its prevention in school-aged children, as well as expanding to related areas of child and adolescent public health. She led and supported multiple nationally funded studies in this research field. She has worked closely with schools and community healthcare teams to develop and evaluate interventions aiming to improve diet, physical activity and health and wellbeing in children and adolescents.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Miranda is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

  • Childhood obesity: epidemiology and prevention
  • Food provision and environments in secondary schools
  • Wellbeing, diet and physical activity in childhood and adolescence
Miranda has successfully supervised multiple PhD/MSc by Research students to completion.

Research

Research interests

  • Food provision and environments in secondary schools and adolescent nutrition
  • Free school meal provision and impact on nutrition and food insecurity
  • Adolescent smartphone and social media use and impact on mental wellbeing and physical activity
  • School-based complex interventions to prevent childhood obesity
  • Weight management intervention in children
  • Weight management in adults

Current projects

Other activities

  • Honorary consultant contract held with Public Health England (since 2013) 
  • Co-Chair of the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine Child Health Special Interest Group

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Smith, FT, Kipping, R, Yoong, SL, Hannam, K, Langford, R, Barnes, C, Cooper, J, Pallan, M, Lum, M, Hales, D, Burney, R, Herr, M & Willis, EA 2025, 'Adapting the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment: A Cross-Country Case Study of Improving Early Childhood Health Environments in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom', Childhood Obesity. https://doi.org/10.1089/chi.2024.0371

Goodyear, VA, James, C, Orben, A, Quennerstedt, M, Schwartz, G & Pallan, M 2025, 'Approaches to children’s smartphone and social media use must go beyond bans', BMJ, vol. 388, e082569. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-082569

Pokhilenko, I, Frew, E, Murphy, M & Pallan, M 2025, 'Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom on adolescent’s time use (CONTRAST study)', PLOS ONE, vol. 20, no. 1, e0310597. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0310597

Goodyear, V, Randhawa, A, Adab, P, Al-Janabi, H, Fenton, S, Jones, K, Michail, M, Morrison, B, Patterson, P, Quinlan, J, Sitch, A, Twardochleb, R, Wade, M & Pallan, M 2025, 'School phone policies and their association with mental wellbeing, phone use, and social media use (SMART Schools): a cross-sectional observational study', The Lancet Regional Health - Europe. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2025.101211

Murphy, M, Coffey, A, Pallan, M & Oyebode, O 2024, 'Changing the food environment in secondary school canteens to promote healthy dietary choices: a qualitative study with school caterers', BMC Public Health, vol. 24, no. 1, 1970. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19513-7

Pallan, M, Murphy, M, Morrison, B, Sitch, A, Adamson, A, Bartington, S, Dobell, A, Duff, R, Frew, E, Griffin, T, Hurley, K, Lancashire, E, McLeman, L, Passmore, S, Pokhilenko, I, Rowland, M, Ravaghi, V, Spence, S & Adab, P 2024, 'National school food standards in England: a cross-sectional study to explore compliance in secondary schools and impact on pupil nutritional intake', The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, vol. 21, 123. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-024-01672-w

Pallan, M, Murphy, M, Morrison, B, Pokhilenko, I, Sitch, A, Frew, E, Rawdin, C, Adams, R, Adamson, A, Bartington, S, Dobell, A, Duff, R, Griffin, T, Hurley, K, Lancashire, E, McLeman, L, Passmore, S, Ravaghi, V, Spence, S & Adab, P 2024, 'School food policy in secondary schools in England and its impact on adolescents’ diets and dental health: the FUEL multiple-methods study', Public Health Research, vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 1-167. https://doi.org/10.3310/TTPL8570

Randhawa, A, Pallan, M, Twardochleb, R, Adab, P, Al-Janabi, H, Fenton, S, Jones, K, Michail, M, Patterson, P, Sitch, A, Wade, M & Goodyear, VA 2024, 'Secondary school smartphone policies in England: a descriptive analysis of how schools rationalize, design, and implement restrictive and permissive phone policies', Journal of Research on Technology in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2024.2363204

Mohamed, M & Pallan, M 2024, 'Tracking changes in weight status in primary school children in Birmingham: an analysis of the National Child Measurement Programme - a retrospective cohort study', BMJ Paediatrics Open, vol. 8, no. 1, e002547. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2024-002547

Kipping, R, Pallan, M, Hannam, K, Willis, K, Dobell, A, Metcalfe, C, Jago, R, Johnson, L, Langford, R, Martin, CK, Hollingworth, W, Cochrane, M, White, J, Blair, P, Toumpakari, Z, Taylor, J, Ward, D, Moore, L, Reid, T, Pardoe, M, Wen, L, Murphy, M, Martin, A, Chambers, S & Simpson, SA 2023, 'Protocol to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an environmental nutrition and physical activity intervention in nurseries (Nutrition and Physical Activity Self Assessment for Child Care - NAP SACC UK): a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial', BMC Public Health, vol. 23, no. 1, 1475. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16229-y

Conference article

GENIUS network, Woodside, JV, O'Kane, N, Pallan, M, Evans, CEL, Defeyter, G, Brownlee, I, Murphy, M, Parnham, JC, Lalli, GS, Bryant, M, McKinley, MC, Gallagher, AM, Schliemann, D, McConnell, C, Olgacher, D & Spence, S 2024, 'The Generating Excellent Nutrition in UK Schools (GENIUS) network: working towards a more health-promoting food and nutrition system in UK schools', The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665124007560

Editorial

Pallan, M & Adab, P 2023, 'Preventing obesity through school-based approaches to improve nutrition', BMJ Medicine, vol. 2, e000463. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000463

Review article

Ladi-Akinyemi, TW, Pallan, M, Jones, L & Jackson, LJ 2025, 'Economic evaluations of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): a systematic review', BMJ open, vol. 15, no. 3, e092837. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-092837

Randhawa, A, Wood, G, Michail, M, Pallan, M, Patterson, P & Goodyear, V 2024, 'Safeguarding in adolescent mental health research: navigating dilemmas and developing procedures', BMJ open, vol. 14, no. 2, e076700. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076700

Grey, E, Griffin, T, Jolly, K, Pallan, M, Parretti, H, Retzer, A & Gillison, F 2023, 'Extended brief interventions for weight management and obesity prevention in children: a rapid evidence review', Obesity Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13633

View all publications in research portal