PhD Studentship - Reducing the Population Impact of Hip Fractures in Aberdeen

Overview

As one of the most common reasons for people requiring unscheduled hospital care in Grampian, with about 600 cases a year, hip fractures have a significant impact on the achievement of the Community Plan Stretch Target 11, healthy life expectancy. If the same age and sex specific rate of fractures continues, there will be around a 50% increase in fractures by 2030. Many people with fractures are not able to regain their former level of mobility and/or return home. The costs of a hip fracture to the health service are around £15,000; however, more research is needed on costs of social care and to carers. There are significant uncertainties regarding best prevention and management of fractures, especially Allied Health Professions (AHP) interventions. Grampian is unique in Scotland in having a fracture liaison service dataset as part of the Grampian Data Safe Haven (University of Aberdeen) and is therefore very well placed for research.

We are looking for a PhD student to undertake research that will contribute to reducing the population impact of fractures. There are a range of related questions to be answered, and the project would be tailored to the student’s interests and background. Our team proposes a multi-method PhD Programme including epidemiological, economic, and qualitative elements. Potential studies include: An epidemiological study of the Aberdeen City cohort of hip fracture patients, including a description of factors such as age, sex, deprivation pentile, where the patients were living before their fracture, environmental factors associated with the fracture and outcome (return home, going into residential home, death etc), services provided before and after fracture, access to services, and social inequalities.

A qualitative study exploring what patients’, carers and health and care professionals consider important for the prevention of and recovery from hip fractures, linking to what services are available/need to be developed in the local area. An economic study, using Discrete Choice Experiment methods, to quantify the strength of patient and/or carer preference on which services would be optimal for prevention and management of fracture in the community An economic study, linking the cohort of fracture patients to their social and residential care journey, to quantify the costs of fractures from both the perspective of Aberdeen City Council and carers.

Training and City Council Engagement

This project will provide training in a range or methods including epidemiology, qualitative methods, and health economics, including undertaking the formal RGU PgCert Researcher Development programme during the first 2 years of registration. A multi-disciplinary steering group will be created which will meet regularly and will include appropriate professional and managerial team members, such as finance officer, community planner and social worker from the City Council.

The Award

Studentship funding awards made will provide full UK tuition fees and include provision of a tax-free annual stipend (set at current UKRI level for session 2023/24). Although the amounts have not yet been finalised by UKRI, in session 2022/23 these were a tuition fee of £4,596 and annual stipend of £17,668. The revised UKRI amounts for session 2023/24 will be offered to those applicants who are successful in being awarded a 3 year-fully funded studentship.

The maximum funded period for all awards is 36-months. All students will be registered for a further 12-months to a maximum completion period of 48-months. The assessment period fee for the final 12-months will also be covered by this studentship award, although it should be noted no stipend will be offered during this final year.

These awards cannot be held concurrently with any other source of funded scholarships and only available on the basis that no other funding is being provided.