Prof Amelia (Mia) Crampin graduated MBCHB from Manchester Medical School and completed internships and clinical and pathology rotations in Manchester. After a DTM&H at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, she became interested in Public Health and Epidemiology and joined a Public Health Specialist Registrar rotation in South East London, including secondments to Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre at (now) Public Health England and a Masters in Public Health at St Georges, London. On completing specialist training, through an appointment at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in 1998 she took up a field epidemiologist post at the Karonga Prevention Study (now Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit- MEIRU) and has been living and working in Malawi since; currently as Director of MEIRU. MEIRU has urban and rural study platforms in Lilongwe and Karonga, and includes a demographic surveillance site in rural Karonga. In 2018, she joined the Institute of Health and Wellbeing as part of a partnership agreement between the University of Glasgow and MEIRU.
She has published widely in the epidemiology of HIV and TB, but current work explores chronic conditions in Malawi, including hypertension, diabetes, obesity and depression. Her work includes epidemiology and mechanistic studies of the origins of chronic conditions, but also interventions; from community based interventions aimed at reducing cardiovascular risk for future generations to those aimed at improving management in clinical settings. She is involved in several large data sharing initiatives and is the principal investigator of the African Non-communicable Disease Longitudinal data Alliance (ANDLA).
Selected Grants
- Research Enrichment – Public Engagement – Healthy Lives Malawi: an intergenerational chronic conditions cohort
Wellcome Trust
2021 – 2024
- SARS-CoV-2 seroepidemiology in Wellcome-funded urban and rural cohorts in Malawi: generating evidence to inform regional medium and long term decision making
Wellcome Trust
2020 – 2022
- Multimorbidity in Africa – Increasing Understanding of the Patient Experience and Epidemiology (MAfricaEE)
Medical Research Council
2020 – 2021
- Healthy Lives – Malawi, Intergenerational family cohort of chronic conditions
Wellcome Trust
2019 – 2024
- DIPLOMATIC
National Institute for Health Research
2018 – 2021
- NIHR Global Health Research Group on estimating the prevalence, quality and life, economic and societal impact of arthritis in Tanzania: a mixed methods study at University of Glasgow
National Institute for Health Research
2018 – 2022
Selected Publications
Banda, J., Dube, A., Brumfield, S., Amoah, A., Crampin, A. , Reniers, G. and Helleringer, S. (2021) Knowledge, risk perceptions and behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Malawi. Demographic Research, 44, pp. 459-480. (doi: 10.4054/DemRes.2021.44.20)
Leon, N., Namadingo, H., Bobrow, K., Cooper, S., Crampin, A. , Pauly, B., Levitt, N. and Farmer, A. (2021) Intervention development of a brief messaging intervention for a randomised controlled trial to improve diabetes treatment adherence in sub-Saharan Africa. BMC Public Health, 21, 147. (doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-10089-6) (PMID:33451308) (PMCID:PMC7811237)
Dasgupta, A. N. Z., Makoka, D., Dudha, Z., Steohebsib, B. and Crampin, A. C. (2021) Fish hooks and gumboots: the language of pregnancy prevention in northern Malawi. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 99(1), pp. 67-68. (doi: 10.2471/blt.20.250456) (PMID:33658736) (PMCID:PMC7924892)
Soares ALG, Banda L, Amberbir A, Jaffar S, Musicha C, Price A, Nyrienda MJ, Lawlor DA, Crampin AC. Sex and area differences in the association between adiposity and lipid profile in Malawi. BMJ Global Health 2019;4:e001542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001542
Nakanga WP, Prynn JE, Banda L, Kalyesubula R, Tomlinson LA, Nyirenda M, Crampin AC. Prevalence of impaired renal function among rural and urban populations: findings of a cross-sectional study in Malawi. Wellcome Open Res 2019,4:92. https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15196.1
Mvula H, Chisambo C, Nyirenda V, Geis S, Glynn JR, Crampin AC, Nyirenda M, Smeeth L, Walker R, Price AJ. Community-Level Knowledge and Perceptions of Stroke in Rural Malawi. Stroke. 2019 Jun. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.025105. PMID: 31164071
Coates MM, Kamanda M, Kintu A, (9 authors…) Crampin AC, Macete EV, Kyobutungi C, Meremikwu MM, Otieno W, Adjaye-Gbewonyo K, Marx A, Byass P, Sankoh O, Bukhman G. A comparison of all-cause and cause-specific mortality by household socioeconomic status across seven INDEPTH network health and demographic surveillance systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Glob Health Action. 2019;12(1):1608013. doi:10.1080/16549716.2019.1608013.PMID:31092155
NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults. Nature.2019 May;569(7755): 260-264
Prynn J, Banda L, Amberbir A, Price AJ, Kayuni N, Jaffar S, Crampin AC, Smeeth L, Nyirenda M. Dietary sodium intake in urban and rural Malawi, and directions for future interventions. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2018Jun30. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqy125. PMID: 29982267
Rathod S, Crampin AC, Musicha M, Kayuni N, Banda L, Saul J, McLean E, Branson K, Jaffar S, Nyirenda MJ. Glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) for detection of diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose in Malawi: a diagnostic accuracy study. BMJ Open May 2018, 8 (5) e020972; DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020972
Glynn JR, Sunny BS, DeStavola B, Dube A, Chihana M, Price AJ, Crampin AC. School failure predicts teenage pregnancy and marriage: a large population-based cohort study in Northern Malawi. Plos One 2018 May 14;13(5):e0196041. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196041. eCollection 2018. PMID: 29758040
Mudie DL, Lawlor DA, Pearce N, Crampin AC, Tomlinson L, Tafatatha T, Musicha C, Nitsch D, Smeeth L, Nyirenda MJ. How does the association of general and central adiposity with glycaemia and blood pressure differ by gender and area of residence in a Ma lawian population: A cross-sectional study. Int J Epidemiol. 2018 Apr 10. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyy047
Vaughan M, Dube A, Namadingo H, Crampin A, Gondwe L, Kapira G, Mbughi J, Nyasulu M. Dietary change, noncommunicable disease and local knowledge: results of a small-scale study of the views of older Malawians [version 1; referees: awaiting peer review]. WellcomeOpenRes2018,3:158 https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.14887.1
Price AJ*, Crampin AC*, Amberbir A et al. The prevalence of obesity, hypertension and diabetes, and cascade of care in sub -Saharan Africa: a large population-based study in rural and urban Malawi. Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology 2018 Published OnlineJan 19, 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(17)30432-1 *equal contribution
McLean E, Price AJ, Chihana M, Kayuni N, Marsden M, Koole O, Nyirenda M, Zaba B, Crampin AC and the ALPHA Network Changes in Fertility at the Population Level in the era of ART in Rural Malawi. Journal of AIDS 2017 Aug 1;75(4):391-398.
Price A, Glynn JR,Chihana M, Kayuni N, Floyd S, Slaymaker E, Reniers G, Zaba B, McLean E, Kalobekamo F, Koole O, Nyirenda M, Crampin AC. Sustained 10-year gain in adult life expectancy following antiretroviral roll-out with increasing decentralisation of care in rural Malawi. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2016 doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw208
Adamu AL, Crampin A, Kayuni N, Amberbir A, Koole O, Phiri A, Nyirenda M, Fine P. Prevalence and risk factors for anemia severity and type in Malawian men and women: urban and rural differences. Popul Health Metr. 2017 Mar 29; 15:12. doi:10.1186/s12963- 017-0128-2. eCollection 2017. PMID: 28360823