Professor Miranda Pallan MBChB, MPH, PhD, FFPH

Professor Miranda Pallan

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Professor of Child and Adolescent Public Health

Contact details

Email
m.j.pallan@bham.ac.uk
Address
Murray Learning Centre
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Miranda’s research mainly focuses on the health of children and adolescents. She undertakes research in the areas of the epidemiology, prevention and management of overweight and obesity in children, school food provision and environments, and adolescent nutrition, mental wellbeing and physical activity. Her research seeks to improve health at an early stage of the life course to reduce longer term ill health, chronic disease and premature death.

Within these research areas Miranda has developed expertise in complex intervention development and evaluation, multi-methods research, and research with disadvantaged and ethnically diverse communities in the UK.

Qualifications

  • Fellowship (FHEA), AdvanceHE 2020
  • Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health 2012
  • PhD in Public Health, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, 2011
  • Masters in Public Health, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, 2003
  • Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners 2001
  • MBChB, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, 1997
  • BSc (Hons) Pharmacology, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, 1994

Biography

Miranda graduated with a MBChB degree from Birmingham Medical School in 1997 and qualified as a General Practitioner in 2001. In 2002 she commenced specialist training in Public Health, and joined the Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø in 2005 to sub-specialise in academic Public Health.

Miranda completed her specialist training in Public Health in 2010 and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. She completed a PhD degree in 2011, which focused on childhood obesity prevention targeting South Asian communities in the UK. Since then, she has continued to focus her research on childhood obesity and its prevention in school-aged children, as well as expanding to related areas of child and adolescent public health. She led and supported multiple nationally funded studies in this research field. She has worked closely with schools and ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø healthcare teams to develop and evaluate interventions aiming to improve diet, physical activity and health and wellbeing in children and adolescents.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Miranda is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

  • Childhood obesity: epidemiology and prevention
  • Food provision and environments in secondary schools
  • Wellbeing, diet and physical activity in childhood and adolescence
Miranda has successfully supervised multiple PhD/MSc by Research students to completion.

Research

Research interests

  • Food provision and environments in secondary schools and adolescent nutrition
  • Free school meal provision and impact on nutrition and food insecurity
  • Adolescent smartphone and social media use and impact on mental wellbeing and physical activity
  • School-based complex interventions to prevent childhood obesity
  • Weight management intervention in children
  • Weight management in adults

Current projects

Other activities

  • Honorary consultant contract held with Public Health England (since 2013) 
  • Co-Chair of the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine Child Health Special Interest Group

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Smith, FT, Kipping, R, Yoong, SL, Hannam, K, Langford, R, Barnes, C, Cooper, J, Pallan, M, Lum, M, Hales, D, Burney, R, Herr, M & Willis, EA 2025, '', Childhood Obesity.

Goodyear, VA, James, C, Orben, A, Quennerstedt, M, Schwartz, G & Pallan, M 2025, '', BMJ, vol. 388, e082569.

Ram, B, Gullett, N, Benkhelfa, A, Cunningham, M, Taghavi Azar Sharabiani, M, van Sluijs, E, Siddiqui, N, Hillsdon, M, Summerbell, C, Pallan, M & Saxena, S 2025, '', BMJ open, vol. 15, no. 7, e103463.

Pokhilenko, I, Frew, E, Murphy, M & Pallan, M 2025, '', PLOS ONE, vol. 20, no. 1, e0310597.

Goodyear, V, Randhawa, A, Adab, P, Al-Janabi, H, Fenton, S, Jones, K, Michail, M, Morrison, B, Patterson, P, Quinlan, J, Sitch, A, Twardochleb, R, Wade, M & Pallan, M 2025, '', The Lancet Regional Health - Europe.

Ashraf, A, Murphy, M, Duff, R, Adab, P & Pallan, M 2025, '', Nutrients, vol. 17, no. 13, 2140.

Murphy, M, Coffey, A, Pallan, M & Oyebode, O 2024, '', BMC Public Health, vol. 24, no. 1, 1970.

Pallan, M, Murphy, M, Morrison, B, Sitch, A, Adamson, A, Bartington, S, Dobell, A, Duff, R, Frew, E, Griffin, T, Hurley, K, Lancashire, E, McLeman, L, Passmore, S, Pokhilenko, I, Rowland, M, Ravaghi, V, Spence, S & Adab, P 2024, '', The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, vol. 21, 123.

Pallan, M, Murphy, M, Morrison, B, Pokhilenko, I, Sitch, A, Frew, E, Rawdin, C, Adams, R, Adamson, A, Bartington, S, Dobell, A, Duff, R, Griffin, T, Hurley, K, Lancashire, E, McLeman, L, Passmore, S, Ravaghi, V, Spence, S & Adab, P 2024, '', Public Health Research, vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 1-167.

Randhawa, A, Pallan, M, Twardochleb, R, Adab, P, Al-Janabi, H, Fenton, S, Jones, K, Michail, M, Patterson, P, Sitch, A, Wade, M & Goodyear, VA 2024, '', Journal of Research on Technology in Education.

Mohamed, M & Pallan, M 2024, '', BMJ Paediatrics Open, vol. 8, no. 1, e002547.

Conference article

GENIUS network, Woodside, JV, O'Kane, N, Pallan, M, Evans, CEL, Defeyter, G, Brownlee, I, Murphy, M, Parnham, JC, Lalli, GS, Bryant, M, McKinley, MC, Gallagher, AM, Schliemann, D, McConnell, C, Olgacher, D & Spence, S 2024, '', The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.

Review article

Ladi-Akinyemi, TW, Pallan, M, Jones, L & Jackson, LJ 2025, '', BMJ open, vol. 15, no. 3, e092837.

Randhawa, A, Wood, G, Michail, M, Pallan, M, Patterson, P & Goodyear, V 2024, '', BMJ open, vol. 14, no. 2, e076700.

Grey, E, Griffin, T, Jolly, K, Pallan, M, Parretti, H, Retzer, A & Gillison, F 2023, '', Obesity Reviews.