In this post, I am going briefly introduce the research projects that I am involved besides my PhD study. I involved myself in six research activities in the area of Health Economics until this point during my doctoral study. These activities involved preparation and publication of both journal articles and research reports.
First, I will summarise the subject matter of journal articles where I have contributed. Two of the four articles are related to economics of smoking of adolescent of Bangladesh. In both papers, I am working as the first author. The first paper examines the family and peer influence on the behaviour of smoking of urban young and adolescents of Bangladesh. The study also explores how knowledge on harmful effects of smoking affects the participation decision of smoking by young adults and adolescents. The second paper will estimate the price and income elasticity of demand of tobacco smoking for the same subjects mentioned above. This paper will have implication regarding taxation in the context of public policy. While the first paper is submitted for peer review in a reputed journal, the work is still in progress for the second paper. Third article presents the economic value of undertaking a Midwifery-Initiated Oral Health Dental Service (MIOH-DS) Program involving oral health education and screening by midwives with referral of pregnant women to cost free dental services compared to current practice. The research uses the data from the multi centre randomised controlled trial of the MIOH-DS program across three hospitals in Greater Western Sydney involving 638 pregnant women. We completed three-quarter of the work and expect to be ready for submission in high impact factor journal soon. The fourth paper I am working on along with co-authors is related to estimating economic burden of eating disorder in South Australia. The work is at its initial stage. We are also hopeful to get it published in a reputed journal.
Besides working on publishable papers, I also contributed in two research reports during my higher degree by research study. We analysed different aspects of the IAG compulsory third-party insurance compensation claims. The main objective of the report was to assess different factors that influence or affect the length of claim time. The report was successfully completed in the first half of my PhD. In the second report, we forecasted population with diabetes in all local government area (LGA) of South-Western Sydney local health districts (LHD) by gender and age. In addition, we incorporated uncertainty in the forecasting process in terms of incidence rate, population growth and change in technology to compare different forecasting outcomes.
Overall, I do not bind myself only with my doctoral thesis. I have realised that it is important to engage myself in various research activities because it gives an opportunity to expand the network of peers and to show the expertise in my field. Obliviously, in this process, I am making sure that I am not compromising with my PhD thesis.