Public and Population Health

Congenital anomalies cause significant childhood mortality and disability globally. In order to know how prevalent they are in any community, how to prevent them, and how to improve service provision, accurate diagnosis is needed. The Global Birth Defects app was developed in response to the Zika epidemic for Low and Middle Income Countries and is being increasingly used for surveillance and research. Ulster continues to develop this app (see https://globalbirthdefects.tghn.org)  with partners in Africa and Latin America, and on associated projects developing new AI-assisted approaches to the early detection of congenital heart disease.

The most inactive people in our community stand to benefit the most from increasing their physical activity levels, but they may require support to do this. Peer-led physical activity programmes could be an important way to help increase older adults’ physical activity levels – by providing support to increase physical activity - but this needs to be tested. The Walk with Me study is testing the effectiveness of a peer-led physical activity intervention (the Walk with Me programme), that is delivered in the community by trained peer mentors.