Scholastica Zakayo
DPhil Student
Scholar is a Wellcome Trust-funded DPhil student based at the Ethox Centre under the supervision of Professor Patricia Kingori and Professor Proochista Ariana of the Nuffield Department of Medicine.
Scholar’s DPhil is embedded within the Wellcome Trust-funded research project, ‘Fakes, Fabrications and Falsehoods? Interrogating the social, ethical and political features of pseudo-global health’ (209830/Z/17/Z), led by Patricia Kingori.
She will investigate real-world practical and ethical challenges for frontline health workers regarding the quality of medicine in the context of maternal health, with the aim of understanding how frontline health workers identify fake products, what contextual factors influence their ability to discern what is genuine or degraded, their perceptions, challenges, and what informs their decisions/actions, especially in limited-resource settings.
Scholar holds an MSc in International Health & Tropical Medicine from the University of Oxford and a BA in Anthropology from Moi University in Kenya. She is keen on promoting the value of social sciences in contributing to global health and in particular, in improving access to and quality of maternal health care.
Akin to her interests, Scholar has previously worked and collaborated on interdisciplinary studies investigating socio-cultural and structural determinants of maternal and new-born health service provision and utilisation in resource-constrained countries such as Kenya and Papua New Guinea. She has also published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and aims to contribute to high-quality research outputs.
More recently, Scholar has been responsible for supporting and coordinating activities and communications on the Social Sciences hub of the Global Health Network website.
Recent publications
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Layered vulnerability and researchers' responsibilities: learning from research involving Kenyan adolescents living with perinatal HIV infection.
Journal article
Kimani M. et al, (2024), BMC Med Ethics, 25
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Treatment-seeking and recovery among young undernourished children post-hospital discharge in Bangladesh: A qualitative study.
Journal article
Uddin MF. et al, (2022), PLoS One, 17
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Strengthening the role of community health workers in supporting the recovery of ill, undernourished children post hospital discharge: qualitative insights from key stakeholders in Bangladesh and Kenya.
Journal article
Njeru RW. et al, (2021), BMC Health Serv Res, 21
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Vulnerability, Agency, and the Research Encounter: Family Members' Experiences and Perceptions of Participating in an Observational Clinical Study in Kenya.
Journal article
Zakayo SM. et al, (2021), J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics, 16, 238 - 254
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Gender-related influences on adherence to advice and treatment-seeking guidance for infants and young children post-hospital discharge in Bangladesh.
Journal article
Uddin MF. et al, (2021), Int J Equity Health, 20