Fully funded 3-year PhD studentship - Sleep health after sustaining serious physical combat injuries and the impact on mental/physical health: An analysis on the ADVANCE study cohort

Start Date: 1st February 
Award: One 3-year PhD studentship fully funded by the ADVANCE Study charity

Supervisors: 

1st supervisor Prof Nicola T. Fear, Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London. 
Email: Nicola.t.fear@kcl.ac.uk
2nd supervisor Howard Burdett
Email howard.burdett@kcl.ac.uk

Department: Psychological Medicine

We are looking for a PhD candidate who is interested in investigating the relationship between physical health, mental health and sleep by analysing complex, cross-sectional and longitudinal data in the context of serious physical injuries sustained by UK Armed Forces personnel in combat. 

The ADVANCE study has, over the past few years, studied a sample of 579 battlefield casualties from Afghanistan and another 566 non-injured but deployed UK military personnel. Baseline data collection as well as the first follow up assessment has been completed, and the study is progressing through subsequent phases of data collection. The study focuses on the health of battlefield casualties, including mental health and wellbeing, utilising a group of UK military personnel who sustained serious physical battlefield injuries and a demographically similar comparison group who sustained no such injuries. The study is a 20-year undertaking involving a number of institutions including the Academic Department of Military Rehabilitation (ADMR) at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Stanford Hall, Imperial College London, and King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR), King’s College London (KCL), the last of which will supervise this studentship.

The proposed studentship is a mixed-methods project assessing differences in sleep health between those that sustained serious physical combat injuries and those that did not. The specific direction of the studentship is flexible, but potential avenues of exploration would include:

1. Utilising self-reported data at baseline and follow up assessments to explore sleep quality and sleep duration by different injury types and their longitudinal course.
2. A technical investigation of the association between subjective (self-reported) and objective (accelerometer) measures of sleep.    
3. Investigating the associations between sleep health and mental health, as well as other aspects of physical health (e.g. cardiovascular, pain, functional impairment, and age (including premature ageing, i.e. DNA methylation)).
4. Qualitatively exploring experiences of sleep among those who indicate poor quality of sleep (based on quantitative indicators) to ascertain the impacts of sleeping problems upon quality of life and supports accessed or needed. A qualitative examination will capture the nuances underpinning sleep problems, e.g. insomnia, (post-traumatic stress-related) nightmares, effects of alcohol/medications, and sleep apnea (which can be a consequence of injury).

This studentship will include comprehensive training in relevant analytical and academic skills, and the possibility of teaching as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Essential Criteria

• 2:1 honours (or overseas equivalent) BSc or MSc in relevant subject area ( epidemiology, psychology or a related health field).
• (Close to) Postgraduate level of skill in statistical analysis, using at least one of Stata or R, and able and willing to extend skills
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Strong time and personal management skills and ability to work to deadlines
• Good communication skills (spoken and written)
• Excellent working knowledge of Excel, Word, PowerPoint

Desirable criteria

• Experience in performing interview studies and qualitative analysis
• Experience of working with military personnel or groups with traumatic injuries (e.g. amputation injuries) or disabilities
• Experience working with quantitative datasets
• To have published in peer-reviewed journals