Dr Sharon Carstairs
Lecturer
Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences
Contact
Biography
Sharon joined the School of Health Sciences part-time as a Lecturer (Teaching and Research) in October 2022.
Sharon completed her BSc (Hons) in Physiology Sports Science and Nutrition at the University of Glasgow and started her career in academia as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Abertay Dundee lecturing and co-ordinating modules in the fields of Nutrition and Physiology. She went on to undertake her PhD investigating the “Determinants of seafood inclusion in pre-school age children” at the University of Aberdeen. She has held research positions at the University of St Andrews working on a variety of research projects in fields of pre-school feeding and social prescribing and community-based physical activity promotion from primary care.
Sharon has experience of teaching and supervision. She has been awarded Higher Education Fellowship status and is a member of the Nutrition Society, The British Feeding and Drinking Group, and the Social Prescribing Network.
Research
Sharon has experience working on a variety of research projects including:
- pre-school feeding projects investigating the effects of external cues (e.g. portion size) and individual characteristics (e.g. child trait eating behaviours, parental feeding practices) on eating behaviour and consumption
- social prescribing and community-based physical activity promotion from primary care
She additionally provided interim project organisational and reporting support on the project “Enabling Learning NHS Care Systems utilizing Electronic Medical Records (ELeCtra) in Fife: Innovative opportunities to support the NHS Fife Clinical Strategy”.
Sharon has research experience in mixed methodology approach, and has expertise in designing and conducting quantitative surveys, dietary interventions, Q Methodology think aloud interviews and analysis, and qualitative focus group discussions, internet discussion forums, and one-to-one interviews. Sharon has an interest in co-design and participatory research methods and was a co-organiser and committee member of the Design St Andrews initiative which aimed to provide a network opportunity to connect, inspire and exchange design ideas.
Research Interests
Sharon is part of the Mother, Infant and Child Health research group and is also a member of the Living Well with Long-Term Conditions research group. Her primary research interest is within the field of childhood nutrition and enabling healthy diet and feeding practices in young children. She has a particular interest in the introduction of solid foods and early years feeding, a key developmental period when children learn to accept healthy foods and establish dietary patterns. In addition, she has a keen interest in research and practice that centres on working with families to establish effective support for healthy dietary choices.
Sharon’s wider research interests include health promotion and behaviour change, including social prescribing of physical activity and its implementation to improve health and wellbeing.