Professor Emma Frew PhD, MSc, BA (Hons)

Professor Emma Frew

Department of Applied Health Sciences
NIHR Research Professor
Professor of Health Economics

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)7748141677
Email
e.frew@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@EFrew12
View my research portal
Address
Health Economics Unit
Applied Health Sciences
Public Health Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham, B15 2TT

Emma’s research interests are in the Economics of Obesity and the use of health economics methods to generate evidence to support public health decision making.  The application of these methods includes economic evaluation, econometric and decision-analytic modelling methods. 

Emma leads The Centre for Economics of Obesity, a new Centre for using health economics to support obesity policy tackling the wider determinants of disease including the impact of greenspace, transport, retail, schools and workplace.  She works closely with policy and commercial partners and is particularly interested in ensuring the evidence produced aligns with the decision-making needs within public health appreciating the complex systems that obesity policy fits within. 

Qualifications

  • PhD in Health Economics, University of Nottingham, 2003
  • MSc in Health Economics, University of York, 1998
  • BA (Hons) Economics and Marketing, University of Strathclyde, 1997

Biography

Emma is an NIHR Research Professor (awarded 2020) and Professor in Health Economics at the Department of Applied Health Sciences.

Emma studied at The University of Strathclyde for a BA (Hons) in Economics and Marketing (1993-1997) and at The University of York for a MSc Health Economics (1997-1998). She joined the Economics Department, University of Nottingham in 1998 as a Research Assistant and during that time completed a PhD in Health Economics (1999-2003) under the supervision of Professor David Whynes and Dr Jane Wolstenholme.  She joined the University of Birmingham in 2002.  

Following her PhD, Emma was responsible for undertaking reviews of economic evidence as part of the NICE appraisal process and supporting clinical trials with economic evaluation. 

In 2015 she was awarded a personal fellowship as a NIHR Career Development Fellow to work closely with Birmingham City Council Public Health team managing and developing services to help tackle childhood obesity. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2008, Reader in 2016 and Professor in 2019.

Teaching

Teaching activity:

  • MSc Health Economics
  • BA (Hons) Economics
  • Public Health MPH/Diploma/Certificate

Postgraduate supervision

If you are interested in doing a PhD that aligns with Emma’s research interests then please get in touch.

Research

To see Emma present at the Knowledge Translation meeting hosted by the National University Ireland (June 2018)
To see Emma present at the International Health Economics Association main-congress meeting in Boston on her research in childhood obesity (June 2017)

Emma’s research interests are in the Economics of Obesity and the use of health economics methods to generate evidence to support public health decision making.  The application of these methods includes economic evaluation, econometric and decision-analytic modelling methods. 

Emma leads The Centre for Economics of Obesity, a new Centre for using health economics to support obesity policy tackling the wider determinants of disease including the impact of greenspace, transport, retail, schools and workplace.  She works closely with policy and commercial partners and is particularly interested in ensuring the evidence produced aligns with the decision-making needs within public health appreciating the complex systems that obesity policy fits within. 

Emma’s research programme is seeking to answer the following key questions around obesity policy.  Common across all these questions is an understanding of what and how evidence meets public health decision making needs:

  1. What is the economic value of green space?
  2. How can workplaces impact on lifestyle behaviours?
  3. What are the short- and long-term impacts from the National School Food standards?
  4. What is the economic value of interventions within the retail space to improve purchasing habits?
  5. What is the cost-effectiveness of active travel policy?

Other activities

  • Elected Board member, International Health Economics Association (iHEA)
  • Member of Strategic Council All-Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity
  • Committee member, iHEA Student Paper Award
  • Founding member of the iHEA Special Interest Group on Economics of Obesity
  • Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Association member:

  • Health Economists’ Study Group (HESG)
  • International Health Economics Association (iHEA)
  • Association of Study of Obesity (ASO)

Editorial board member:

  • International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity
  • Pharmacoeconomics-Open

Publications

Aguar M, Andronis L, Hogler W, Frew E. Micronutrient deficiencies and health-related quality of life (HRQoL): the case of children with Vitamin D deficiency. Public Health Nutrition2018; in press.

Mollan S, Aguiar M, Evision F, Frew E, Sinclair A. The expanding burden of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension. Eye2018; in press. 

Frew E, Joanna Coast, Bruce Hollingsworth, Shuwen Ng, Richard Smith.  How can economics contribute to obesity?  Obesity2018; 26: 7, 1112-1113.

Peak J, Goranitis I, Day E, Copello A, Freemantle N, Frew E. Predicting health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-5L) and capability wellbeing (ICECAP-A) in the context of opiate dependence using routine clinical outcome measures: CORE-OM, LDQ and TOP.  BMC Health and Quality of Life Outcomes2018; 16: 106, doi: 10.1186/s12955-018-0926-7

Adab P, Barrett T, Bhopal R, Cade JE, Canaway A, Cheng KK, et al. The West Midlands ActiVe lifestyle and healthy Eating in School children (WAVES) study: a cluster randomised controlled trial testing the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a multifaceted obesity prevention intervention programme targeted at children aged 6-7 years. Health Technology Assessment 2018;22(8). 

Eminson K, Canaway A, Lancashire E, Adab P, Pallan M, Frew E. How does age affect the relationship between weight and health utility during the middle years of childhood? Quality of Life Research 2018; 26:6:1455-1462.

Day E, Copello A, Seddon JL, Christie M, Bamber D, Powell C, Bennett C, Akhtar S, George S, Ball A, Frew E, Goranitis I, Freemantle N. A pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial of an adjunct brief social network intervention in opiate substitution treatment services.  BMC Psychiatry,2018, 18: 8 DOI 10.1186/s12888-018-1600-7. 

Aguiar M, Andronis L, Pallan M, Hogler W, Frew E.  Preventing vitamin D deficiency (VDD): A systematic review of economic evaluations. European Journal of Public Health2017; Apr 1;27(2):292-301. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckw270.

Frew E.  Aligning health economics methods to fit with the changing world of public health. Applied Health Economics and Health Policy. Editorial. 2017 March 4. Doi: 10.1007/s40258-017-0319-9.

Frew E and Hollingsworth B.  How financial incentives could tackle Britain’s childhood obesity problem.  The Conversation. March 2, 2017. https://theconversation.com.

Frew E and Hollingsworth B. How financial incentives could tackle Britain’s childhood obesity problem.  The Independent. Monday 6 March 2017. http://www.independent.co.uk.

Aguiar M, Andronis L, Pallan M, Hogler W, Frew E.  Preventing vitamin D deficiency (VDD): A systematic review of economic evaluations. European Journal of Public Health. (in press)

Goranitis I., Coast J., Day E., Copello A., Freemantle N., and Frew E. Maximising health or sufficient capability in economic evaluation?  A methodological experiment of treatment for drug addiction. Provisionally accepted (Medical Decision Making-MDM-16-048).

Li Bai, Liu WJ, Cheng KK, Pallan MJ, Hemming K, Frew E, Lin R, Liu W, Adab P. Development of the theory-based Chinese primary school children physical activity and dietary behaviour changes intervention (CHIRPY DRAGON): development of a cluster randomised controlled trial. The Lancet 388: S51, October 2016.

Kaambwa B, Bryan S, Frew E, Bray E, Greenfield D, McManus R, on behalf of the TASMINH2 investigators.  What drives responses to willingness-to-pay questions? A methodological inquiry in the context of hypertension self-management? Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, 2016; in press.

Pallan M, Griffin T, Lancashire E, Hurley K, Blissett J, Frew E, Gill P, Griffith L, Hemming K, Jolly K, McGee E, Mulhern C, Parry J, Thompson JL, Adab P.  Cultural adaptation of a children’s weight management programme for Bangladeshi and Pakistani familities in the UK.  A cluster randomised feasibility study.  BMC Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 2016; in press.

Goranitis I, Sneddon J, Day E, Copello A, Freemantle N, Frew E. Measuring health and broader wellbeing benefits in the context of drug addiction: the psychometric performance of the ICECAP-A and EQ-5D-5L.  Value in Health, 2016; in press

Sanghera S, Frew E, Gupta J, Kai J, Roberts T. Willingness-to-pay and sensitivity to scale within the context of menorrhagia. Health Expectations, DOI: 10.1111/hex.12452.

Frew E. Economic evaluation of childhood obesity: reflection and suggestions. Pharmacoeconomics. 2016; 34: 733-740.

Craig F. Munns, Nick Shaw, Mairead Kiely,…Frew E et al. Global Consensus Recommendations on Prevention and Management of Nutritional Rickets.  Joint publication in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2016; 101 (2): 394-415. Jan 8:jc20152175. and Hormone Research in Paediatrics 2016; 85: 83-106. DOI: 10.1159/000443136.

Emma Frew, Miranda Pallan, Emma Lancashire, Karla Hemming, Peymane Adab, on behalf of the WAVES Study co-investigators. Using the CHU9D to assess the relationship between quality of life and BMI: the UK WAVES Study. BMC Pediatrics. 2015, 15:211. DOI: 10.1186/s12887-015-0526-1.   

Lambe T, Frew E, Al Janabi H, Martin T. 2015. Local Economic Implications of the Portsmouth Protocol: Financial Incentives and Competing Motivations. British Journal of Healthcare Management. 2015,  DOI: 10.12968/bjhc.2015.21.11.537 

Sanghera S, Frew E, Gupta J, Kai J, Roberts T. 2015 Exploring the use of Cost-Benefit Analysis to compare pharmaceutical treatments for menorrhagia. PharmacoEconomics,33:957-965.

P Adab, M J Pallan, E R Lancashire, K Hemming, E Frew, T Griffin, T Barrett, R Bhopal, J.E. Cade , A Daley, J Deeks, J Duda, U Ekelund, P Gill, E McGee, , J Parry, S Passmore, KK Cheng.   2015 A cluster-randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a childhood obesity prevention programme delivered through schools, targeting  6-7 year old children: the WAVES study protocol. BMC Public Health. 15(1) 488. DOI: 10-1186/S12889-015-1800-8.

Frew E, Harrison M, Rossello Roig M, Martin T P C. 2015 Providing an extended use of an otological-specific outcome instrument to derive cost-effectiveness estimates of treatment.  Clinical Otolarnygology, DOI:10.1111/coa.12424.

Sabina Sanghera, Emma Frew and Tracy E Roberts. 2015 Adapting the CHEERS statement for reporting cost-benefit analysis. Letter to the Editor, PharmacoEconomics, May; 33(5):533-4. doi: 10.1007/s40273-015-0265-z.

Sanghera S, Barton P, Frew E, Gupta J, Kai J, Daniels J, Middleton L, Gerard L, Roberts T. 2014. Levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system vs. usual medical treatment for menorrhagia: An economic evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial. PLoS One, Published: March 17, 2014 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091891

Gait C, Frew E, Martin T, Jowett S, Irving R.  2014. Conservative management, surgery, and radiosurgery for treatment of vestibular schwannomas: cost-effectiveness analysis.  Clinical Otolaryngology, 39, 22-31.

Adlard N, Kinghorn P, Frew E. 2014. Is the UK NICE ‘reference case’ influencing the practice of paediatric QALY measurement within economic evaluations?, Value in Health,  published online 30 April 2014 

Webb, N., Frew, E., Brettell, E., Milford D, Bockenhauer D, Saleem M, Christian M, Hall A, Koziell A, Maxwell H, Hegder S, Finlay E, Gilbert R, Booth J, Jones C, McKeever K, Cook W, Ives N on behalf of the PREDNOS 2 study group. 2014. Short course daily prednisolone therapy at the time of upper respiratory tract infection inchildren with relapsing steroid sensitive nephrotic syndrome: PREDNOS 2 study.Trials 15:147 (27 April 2014)

Stephen C, Hamira S, Frew E. 2014. Telecare service for people with dementia: a cost-benefit analysis.  Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, Volume 20 Issue 3 April 2014 pp. 139 - 144.

Mistry H, Oppong R and Frew E. 2014. Health Economics website (HEe): a tool to enhance health economics teaching in the United Kingdom.  Journal of Economics Education,45 (1), pp. 79.

Frew E, Bhatti M, Win K, Lyon A, Pallan M, Adab P.  2014. Cost-effectiveness of a community based physical activity programme for adults (Be Active) in the UK: an economic analysis within a natural experiment.  British Journal of Sports Medicine,48, pp. 207-212.

Stephen C, Hamira S, Frew E.  2013 Telecare service for people with dementia: a cost-benefit analysis.  Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, in press.

Canaway A and Frew E.  2013. Measuring preference based quality of life in children aged 6-7 years:  A comparison of the performance of CHU-9D and EQ-5D-Y.  The WAVES pilot study.  Quality of Life Research, 22 (1), pp.173-182.

Gait C, Frew E, Martin T, Jowett S, Irving R. 2013 Conservative management, surgery, and radiosurgery for treatment of vestibular schwannomas: cost-effectiveness analysis.  Clinical Otolaryngology, in press.

Canaway A and Frew E.  2013. Utility based health related quality of life in children aged 6-7 years: is it affected by Body Mass Index (BMI)?: The WAVES pilot study.  International Journal of Obesity, in press.

Sanghera S, Frew E, Kai J, Gupta J, Roberts T. 2013. An Assessment of Economic Measures used in Menorrhagia: A Systematic Review.  Social Science & Medicine, 98, pp. 162-168.

Goodwin E and Frew E.  2013. How useful is programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA)?:  A reflection from an English Primary Care Trust (PCT).  Social Science & Medicine, 98, pp. 149-153.

Mistry H, Oppong R and Frew E. 2013. Health Economics website (HEe): a tool to enhance health economics teaching in the United Kingdom.  Journal of Economics Education, in press.

Oppong R, Mistry H and Frew E. 2013. Health economics education in undergraduate medical training: introducing the health economics education (HEe) website.  Medical Education, 13; pp. 126.

Edward Day, Copello Alex, Jennifer L Seddon, Marilyn Christie, Deborah Bamber, Charlotte Powell, Sanju George, Andrew Ball, Emma Frew and Nicholas Freemantle. 2013. Pilot Study of A Social Network Intervention For Heroin Users In Opiate Substitution Treatment: Study Protocol. Trials, 14: pp. 264

Kaambwa, B., Frew, E., 2013. Health economics in the UK: Capacity, constraints and comparisons to US health economists. International Review of Economics Education, 12, pp. 1-13.

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