Karen Devries BSc PhD

Lecturer in Social Epidemiology

I am a social epidemiologist at the Gender, Violence and Health Centre.  I first joined the LSHTM in 2003 to do a PhD, and have recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Professor Charlotte Watts.  My main interests relate to gender, sexual violence and coercion, and prevention strategies for sexual violence and its sequelae.

Affiliation

Teaching

I supervise MSc students, give a lecture on how disease burden is measured, and teach on several distance learning courses for the Distance Learning MSc Epidemiology (Reading and Writing Papers, and Genetic Epidemiology).

Research

I am currently involved in two main projects.  First, I coordinate the GVH Centre’s involvement in the current round of Global Burden of Disease Study. Our group is producing estimates of the prevalence of and disease burden associated with intimate partner violence, childhood sexual abuse, and non-partner sexual violence, for every region of the world.  I am also taking on coordination of SASA!, a cluster-randomised trial of a violence and HIV prevention intervention in Kampala, Uganda.  I will be based in Kampala from September 2010.

My previous research has been focused mainly on the sexual health of urban and rural Canadian indigenous adolescents, including determinants of suicidal behaviour, and links between sexual behaviour and experiences of sexual violence.  Prior to joining the school, I was at the BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health in Vancouver, Canada, doing research on tobacco use among pregnant women, low-income women and Aboriginal peoples.

Research areas

  • Sexual health
  • Social and structural determinants of health
  • Systematic reviews

Disciplines

  • Epidemiology

Disease and Health Conditions

  • HIV/AIDS
  • Sexually transmitted disease
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