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

Maishman, R, Dobell, A, Pallan, M, Blair, PS, White, J, Simpson, SA, Martin, A, Kipping, R, Jago, R & Hannam, K 2025, 'Accelerometer-Measured Physical Activity in UK Early Childhood Education and Care Settings: A Cross-Sectional Study', Journal of physical activity & health. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2025-0316

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

Hatch, L, Tinner, L, Khofi-Szeremley, C, Darling, F, Clohessy, S, Tanner, J, Robinson, H, Jago, R, Summerbell, C, Mazzoli-Smith, L, Pallan, M, Defeyter, MA & Murphy, M 2025, 'Challenges and opportunities for inclusive, equitable and accessible school holiday clubs for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)', International Journal for Equity in Health, vol. 24, no. 1, 236. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-025-02607-y

Pokhilenko, I, Pallan, M, Murphy, M, Adab, P, Morrison, B, Sitch, A, Adamson, A, Bartington, S, Duff, R, Griffin, T, Hurley, K, Lancashire, E, McLeman, L, Passmore, S, Rowland, M, Ravaghi, V, Spence, S & Frew, E 2025, 'Economic evaluation of the national school food standards across secondary schools in The Midlands, UK (the FUEL study): methodological challenges of undertaking health economics research within non-health settings', The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, vol. 22, 142. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-025-01840-6

Ram, B, Gullett, N, Benkhelfa, A, Cunningham, M, Taghavi Azar Sharabiani, M, van Sluijs, E, Siddiqui, N, Hillsdon, M, Summerbell, C, Pallan, M & Saxena, S 2025, 'Exploring associations between active school environments and children’s physical activity, mental health and educational performance in Greater London primary schools: the Health and Activity of Pupils in the Primary Years (HAPPY) study protocol', BMJ open, vol. 15, no. 7, e103463. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-103463

Floredin, I, Husbands, S, Hancock, J, Mitchell, PM, Coast, J, Frew, E, Adab, P, Murphy, M, Clarke, J, Pallan, M & Peters, TJ 2025, 'Factors associated with changes in capability-wellbeing for children and young people of secondary school age during the first covid-19 lockdown', Child Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-025-10294-y

Alving-Jessep, E, Pallan, M, Ansell, E, Hamill, L, McConnell, C, McIlwee, D, McKinley, MC, Moore, SE, Murphy, M, Neville, C, O’Neill, C, Sevel, E, Adab, P, Bryant, M, Chambers, S, Cardwell, CR, Ensaff, H, Evans, C, Reid, S, Holford, A, Bradley, J, Spence, S & Woodside, J 2025, 'Free school meals, diet quality and food insecurity in secondary school students: protocol for a multiple-methods study – the CANTEEN study', BMJ open, vol. 15, no. 10, e101428. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-101428

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

Darling, F, Mazzoli-Smith, L, Robson, M, Tinner, L, Murphy, M, Pallan, M, Tanner, J, Hatch, L, Jago, R & Summerbell, C 2025, 'Reflections of a Research Team on Using Creative Facilitation for the First Time: Illuminating the Lived Experience of the School Holidays for Children and Families Living in Poverty Across England', International Journal of Qualitative Methods, vol. 24, 16094069251369293. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069251369293

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

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 2025, '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, vol. 57, no. 5, pp. 1113-1132. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2024.2363204

Ashraf, A, Murphy, M, Duff, R, Adab, P & Pallan, M 2025, 'Sustainability of Diets Consumed by UK Adolescents and Associations Between Diet Sustainability and Meeting Nutritional Requirements', Nutrients, vol. 17, no. 13, 2140. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17132140

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

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

View all publications in research portal