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Dr Sarah Kehoe

A head and shoulders photo of Sarah Kehoe

Dr Sarah Kehoe (PhD)

Assistant Professor in Global Health
E: s.kehoe@bsms.ac.uk
Location: Global Health and Infection Department, Room 3.08 Medical Teaching Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9PX

Area of expertise: Public Health Nutritionist working in Global Health education and research

Research areas: Child and adolescent health, nutrition, physical activity, health promotion, public health, planetary health, sustainability

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Biography

Dr Sarah Kehoe is a Public Health Nutritionist working in Global Health education and research. She studied BSc Physiology and Psychology at the University of Southampton followed by a Masters in Public Health Nutrition during which she became interested in global health issues. She joined the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in 2006 and investigated associations between early life nutrition exposures and later risk of cardiometabolic disease working extensively with research teams in rural and urban India on cohort studies and randomised controlled trials. Her PhD thesis was entitled “The effect of a micronutrient-rich supplement on women’s health and nutrient status”.

Following her PhD, Sarah continued to work in India and led qualitative research projects to study the challenges of food and nutrition security in these communities. She has worked with adolescents and caregivers in South Asia and Africa to understand barriers and facilitators to consuming a high-quality diet and being physically active and co-design lifestyle interventions. Sarah then took on a Senior Research Fellow role with the NIHR funded Global Health Research Group: INPreP (Improved Nutrition Preconception, Pregnancy and Postpartum) which involved collaborating with teams in Burkina Faso, Ghana and South Africa on community engagement research activities as well as reviewing WHO and national level maternal and child nutrition policies. As part of this role she was also Training and Capacity Building Lead.

Research

Sarah's research focuses on the social and environmental determinants of child and adolescent diet and physical activity, as well as intervention design and implementation, community engagement and the food environment in low- and middle-income countries.

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Teaching

Sarah lectures in Global Health and has extensive experience of teaching a wide range of topics including determinants of health and disease, nutrition, research methods, numeracy and statistics and professional practice. She supervises students at BSc, MSc and PhD level and has led on several training and capacity building activities within global health research and education.

Sarah led the MSc Health Promotion programme at the University of Brighton as well as Level 6 and 7 modules including 'Principles of Health Promotion and Behaviour Change', 'Global Perspectives on Public Health' and 'Strategy and planning in health'. Sarah has taught on the MSc Public Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, as well as on the Specialist Community Public Health Nursing course BSc Sport and Exercise Science, so has experience with students from a wide range of academic and professional backgrounds.

Sarah's approach to teaching is to ensure students are empowered and encouraged to think critically and creatively in order to develop ideas and strategies to tackle health challenges. She believes that all students have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share, and it is important that we all learn from each other.

Selected publications

Sarah H Kehoe, Sargoor R Veena, K N Kiran, T K Nagabharana, Shama V Joseph, Kalyanaraman Kumaran, Joanne E Arsenault, Nazia Binte Ali, Sabri Bromage, Megan Deitchler, Carolina Batis, Anali Castellanos Gutierrez, Caroline H D Fall, Ghattu V Krishnaveni, How Are Global Diet Quality Scores at 9 Years Associated With Cardiometabolic Disease Risk in Early Adolescence in Mysore, India?, Nutrition Reviews, Volume 83, Issue Supplement_1, May 2025, Pages 72–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuaf002

Joanne E Arsenault, Nazia Binte Ali, Agata M P Atayde, Carolina Batis, Elodie Becquey, Sabri Bromage, Megan Deitchler, Loty Diop, Aulo Gelli, Anali Castellanos Gutierrez, Sarah H Kehoe, Ghattu V Krishnaveni, Sofia Leonardo, Mourad Moursi, Brunhilda Tegomoh Nkengfack, Development and Validation of the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) for Children 5 to 9 Years of Age, Nutrition Reviews, Volume 83, Issue Supplement_1, May 2025, Pages 37–49, https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuae146

Mahendra A, Kehoe SH, Crozier SR, et al. Peri-conceptional diet patterns and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus in South Indian women. Public Health Nutrition. 2023;26(4):779-791. doi:10.1017/S1368980022001288

Watson, D., Mushamiri, P., Beeri, P., Rouamba, T., Jenner, S., Proebstl, S., Kehoe, S.H., Ward, K.A., Barker, M., Lawrence, W. and INPreP Study Group, 2023. Behaviour change interventions improve maternal and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review. PLOS global public health, 3(3), p.e0000401.

Nonterah, E. A., Welaga, P., Chatio, S. T., Kehoe, S. H., Ofosu, W., Ward, K. A., Godfrey, K. M., Oduro, A. R., Newell, M.-L., & as members of the INPreP study group (2022). Children born during the hunger season are at a higher risk of severe acute malnutrition: Findings from a Guinea Sahelian ecological zone in Northern Ghana. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 18, e13313. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13313

Sahariah, S.A., Gandhi, M., Chopra, H., Kehoe, S.H., Johnson, M.J., Di Gravio, C., Patkar, D., Sane, H., Coakley, P.J., Karkera, A.H. and Bhat, D.S., 2022. Body composition and cardiometabolic risk markers in children of women who took part in a randomized controlled trial of a preconceptional nutritional intervention in Mumbai, India. The Journal of nutrition, 152(4), pp.1070-1081.

Kehoe SH, Wrottesley SV, Ware L, et al. Food insecurity, diet quality and body composition: data from the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) pilot survey in urban Soweto, South Africa. Public Health Nutrition. 2021;24(7):1629-1637. doi:10.1017/S136898002100046X

Kehoe, S.H., Krishnaveni, G.V., Veena, S. et al. Active children are less adipose and insulin resistant in early adolescence; evidence from the Mysore Parthenon Cohort. BMC Pediatr 19, 503 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1855-2

Kehoe SH, Dhurde V, Bhaise S, et al. Barriers and Facilitators to Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Among Rural Indian Women of Reproductive Age. Food and Nutrition Bulletin. 2019;40(1):87-98. doi:10.1177/0379572118816459

Potdar RD, Sahariah SA, Gandhi M, Kehoe SH, Brown N, Sane H, Dayama M, Jha S, Lawande A, Coakley PJ, Marley-Zagar E, Chopra H, Shivshankaran D, Chheda-Gala P, Muley-Lotankar P, Subbulakshmi G, Wills AK, Cox VA, Taskar V, Barker DJP, Jackson AA, Margetts BM, Fall CHD. Improving women’s diet quality pre-conceptionally and during gestation: effects on birth weight and prevalence of low birth weight; a randomized controlled efficacy trial in India. Am J Clin Nutr. 2014;100(5):1257-68. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.114.084921