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Mr Robert Dreibelbis

MPH PhD

Associate Professor

Room
411

LSHTM
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom

My research focuses on understanding the determinants of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and WASH-related behaviours and developing and evaluating WASH / WASH behaviour change interventions in households, communities, and institutions.

I serve as Deputy Director for LSHTM's Environmental Health Group, LSHTM's research group focusing on the links between Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and health.

I serve as the Director of the COVID-19 Hygiene Hub, a free service housed at LSHTM to support actors to rapidly design, share, adapt and evaluate hygiene interventions to combat coronavirus. 

Recent research interest include:

Hygiene and infection prevention in health care facilities: I am the Principal Investigator for the study Changing Hygiene around Maternal Priorities (CHAMP) which will design and test an innovative approach to hand hygiene behaviour change during labour and delivery in Cambodia. I previously led research on hand hygiene practices during delivery in Nigeria in partnership with Save the Children.

Domestic Pathogen Exposures: I am Principal Investgator / Co-Investigator for a number of studies understanding the determinants and impact of child exposures to enteric pathogens in the domestic environments. I am the Home Environment lead for the GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub. I lead formative and qualiative research on behavioural, social, and contextual determinants of food hygiene practices in Kenya that informed an infant food hygiene intervention that will be evaluated in the Safe Start Trial.

WASH In Schools: I am the Principal Investigator for impact evaluations of school-based WASH and WASH behaviour change interventions in Bangladesh, the Phillipines, and a forth-coming evaluation of urban shool WASH programs in Ethiopia and India.

I hold a PhD in International Health - Social and Behavioural Interventions from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and completed my MPH in Global Environmental Health at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.

Affiliations

Department of Disease Control
Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases

Teaching

I am the Module Organiser for Water, Santiation, and Hygiene (WASH) and Health (formerly Tropical Environmental Health). I also lecture in a number of LSHTM modules, including Foundations for Health Promotion.

I am the Department Research Degree Coordinator for the Disease Control Department and provide support and supervision to over 20 PhD and DrPH students. I am also co-supervise PhD students at LSHTM and partner instutions in Kenya. 

Research

Research Area
Child health
Health outcomes
Hygiene
Maternal health
Sanitation
Water
Adolescent health
Behaviour change
Environmental Health
Gender
Global Health
Impact evaluation
Methodology
Mixed methods
Qualitative methods
Schools
Discipline
Epidemiology
Social Sciences
Disease and Health Conditions
Infectious disease
Tropical diseases
Country
Bangladesh
Ethiopia
Indonesia
India
Kenya
Cambodia
Madagascar
Mozambique
Nigeria
Tanzania
Region
East Asia & Pacific (all income levels)
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa (all income levels)

Selected Publications

Using path analysis to test theory of change: a quantitative process evaluation of the MapSan trial.
Bick S; Buxton H; Chase RP; Ross I; Adriano Z; Capone D; Knee J; Brown J; Nalá R; Cumming O
2021
BMC Public Health
Hand hygiene during facility-based childbirth in Cambodia: a theory-driven, mixed-methods observational study.
Nalule Y; Buxton H; Ir P; Leang S; Macintyre A; Pors P; Samol C; Dreibelbis R
2021
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
The determinants of handwashing behaviour in domestic settings: An integrative systematic review.
White S; Thorseth AH; Dreibelbis R; Curtis V
2020
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYGIENE AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Hygiene During Childbirth: An Observational Study to Understand Infection Risk in Healthcare Facilities in Kogi and Ebonyi States, Nigeria.
Buxton H; Flynn E; Oluyinka O; Cumming O; Esteves Mills J; Shiras T; Sara S; Dreibelbis R
2019
International journal of environmental research and public health
Behaviour settings theory applied to domestic water use in Nigeria: A new conceptual tool for the study of routine behaviour.
Curtis V; Dreibelbis R; Buxton H; Izang N; Adekunle D; Aunger R
2019
Social Science and Medicine
Child's play: Harnessing play and curiosity motives to improve child handwashing in a humanitarian setting.
Watson J; Dreibelbis R; Aunger R; Deola C; King K; Long S; Chase RP; Cumming O
2018
International journal of hygiene and environmental health
Comparing the behavioural impact of a nudge-based handwashing intervention to high-intensity hygiene education: a cluster-randomised trial in rural Bangladesh.
Grover E; Hossain MK; Uddin S; Venkatesh M; Ram PK; Dreibelbis R
2017
Tropical medicine & international health
Sustained adoption of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions: systematic review.
Martin NA; Hulland KRS; Dreibelbis R; Sultana F; Winch PJ
2017
Tropical medicine & international health
Sanitation-related psychosocial stress: A grounded theory study of women across the life-course in Odisha, India.
Sahoo KC; Hulland KRS; Caruso BA; Swain R; Freeman MC; Panigrahi P; Dreibelbis R
2015
Social science & medicine (1982)
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