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Professor Lars Åke Persson

MD PhD

Professor
of Public Health Evaluation

The Dagu team
Ethiopian Public, Health Institute,
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Tel.
+46702870357 (international), +251909563988 (Ethiopia)

Paediatrician and epidemiologist with a focus on global child health. Earlier Director, Public Health Sciences Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, and Professor of International Child Health at Uppsala University. From 2016 Professor of Public Health Evaluation at LSH&TM and posted at Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Addis Ababa. My research focuses (1) community-based interventions for child health and survival, (2) prenatal nutrition interventions and short- and long-term effects, and (3) social conditions in family and society and effects on child health.

Affiliations

Department of Disease Control
Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases

Centres

Centre for Evaluation
Centre for Maternal Adolescent Reproductive & Child Health (MARCH)

Teaching

Teaching and supervision of Ph.D. students from four Ethiopian Universities. Responsible for the Ethiopian ORCA program (Operational Research and Coaching of Analysts) that is an education and support program for analysts from the Federal Ministry of Health, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the Pharmaceutical Supply Agency.

Research

The Dagu project in Ethiopia includes implementation research and research capability strengthening. A large intervention that aims at improved utilisation of primary child health services will be evaluated. In this effort, the Federal Ministry of Health, regional health bureaus, four Ethiopian Universities, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and LSH&TM collaborate. The project includes training of 10 PhD students. In the MINIMat trial (Maternal and Infant Nutrition Interventions in Matlab) in Bangladesh, pregnant women were randomised to different food- and micronutrient alternatives. We have documented effects on infant survival, child growth and metabolic markers at five years. The cohort is being followed up, currently around puberty. This cohort has generated around 100 scientific publications and 20 PhD theses. In the NeoKIP trial in Quang Ninh province in Vietnam local stakeholder groups were engaged in problem-solving cycles that halved neonatal mortality in the intervention areas. Studies of social differentials in child health in Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Rwanda have demonstrated unfair gaps in health and survival but also shown that wise health politics and interventions might close these gaps. Studies of gender-based violence against women have contributed to improved laws to protect women in Nicaragua and Bangladesh. We have also shown that gender-based violence against women also markedly increases the risk of childhood diseases, impaired growth, and mortality in childhood.

Research Area
Child health
Clinical trials
Health inequalities
Micronutrients
Perinatal health
Public health
Evaluation
Global Health
Impact evaluation
Neonatal health
Randomised controlled trials
Violence
Discipline
Life-course epidemiology
Epidemiology
Medicine
Nutrition
Country
Bangladesh
Ethiopia
Nicaragua
Rwanda
Sweden
Vietnam
South Africa
Region
East Asia & Pacific (all income levels)
European Union
Latin America & Caribbean (developing only)
Sub-Saharan Africa (all income levels)

Selected Publications

A facilitated social innovation: stakeholder groups using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles for perinatal health across levels of the health system in Cao Bang province, Vietnam.
Bergström A; Hoa DP; Nga NT; Hoa T; Tu TT; Lien PTL; Trang T; Wallin L; Persson L-Å; Eriksson L
2023
Implementation science communications
Quality of sick child management by health extension workers: role of a complex improvement intervention.
Daka DW; Wordofa MA; Berhanu D; Persson LÅ; Woldie M
2023
BMC health services research
Is Women's Engagement in Women's Development Groups Associated with Enhanced Utilization of Maternal and Neonatal Health Services? A Cross-Sectional Study in Ethiopia.
Gebregizabher FA; Medhanyie AA; Bezabih AM; Persson LÅ; Abegaz DB
2023
International journal of environmental research and public health
Early Life Environmental Exposure to Cadmium, Lead, and Arsenic and Age at Menarche: A Longitudinal Mother-Child Cohort Study in Bangladesh.
Malin Igra A; Rahman A; Johansson ALV; Pervin J; Svefors P; Arifeen SE; Vahter M; Persson L-Å; Kippler M
2023
Environmental health perspectives
Wealth and Education Inequities in Maternal and Child Health Services Utilization in Rural Ethiopia.
Wuneh AD; Bezabih AM; Okwaraji YB; Persson LÅ; Medhanyie AA
2022
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
See more Publications