PhD Studentship: Improving Prediabetes Conversations: Training Medical Students to Deliver Effective Behaviour Change Support in Underserved Coastal Communities

Primary supervisor - Dr Ellen Lowry

Preventative healthcare is central to the NHS Long Term Plan, with emphasis on early intervention, chronic disease prevention and reducing health inequalities. Prediabetes represents a critical “teachable moment” in which progression to type 2 diabetes can be prevented through medication and lifestyle modification. Yet despite prediabetes affecting 6.3 million people in the UK, uptake of the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP) remains low. Approximately 11% of UK adults now live with type 2 diabetes, contributing substantially to primary care workload and costing the UK around £14 billion annually. 

This PhD project addresses a pressing public health challenge and is aimed at improving engagement with diabetes prevention services in deprived coastal communities. Barriers to diabetes prevention programme uptake include low health literacy, limited understanding of personal risk, reduced self-efficacy and missed opportunities for meaningful clinician–patient communication. Addressing these barriers is essential to reducing health inequalities and strain on the NHS workforce. 

This innovative, community-based research will pilot a structured and person-centred educational and behavioural intervention in primary care. Empowering medical students to deliver supervised, theory-informed, person-centred consultations to adults with prediabetes registered at general practices in deprived coastal areas of Norfolk. 

The intervention translates classroom-based and simulated communication training into real-world clinical encounters. It creates structured opportunities for personalised healthcare, delivered through health promotion conversations that may otherwise not occur due to NHS capacity pressures. At the same time, enhancing experiential learning, reflective practice, and communication skills among future doctors. 

The study will adopt a mixed-methods observational design within UK primary care. Outcome measures will include i) feasibility and acceptability of student-led behavioural change consultations in general practice, ii) educational impact, including changes in medical students’ communication confidence, competence, and satisfaction and iii) patient-level outcomes, including changes in risk understanding, perceived self-efficacy, readiness for lifestyle change, and intention to engage with the NDPP. 

This interdisciplinary PhD integrates clinical communication, medical education, public health, primary care research, health psychology, behavioural science, behaviour change, and health services research. The underlying communication and behaviour change framework is highly transferable across multiple long-term conditions, with potential implications for sustainable NHS workforce models and prevention-focused care delivery. 

Entry requirements

Healthcare, medical education, psychology, social science background or relevant Healthcare Professions training/ related disciplines are encouraged to apply. Masters level training or relevant research training needs to be demonstrated.

Mode of study: Full-time

Start date: 1 October 2026

Additional Funding Information

This project is fully funded for 3 years. Funding includes tuition fees, an annual tax-free maintenance allowance and a research training support budget.

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