What is the association between multimorbidity, infection and antimicrobial resistance?
Supervisors:
Prof Nicholas Feasy, St Andrews University Medical School
Prof Colin McCowan, Population and Behavioural Sciences Division, Medical School (University of St Andrews)
Dr Sarah Mills, Population and Behavioural Sciences Division, Medical School (University of St Andrews)
Summary:
People living with multimorbidity have more regular exposure to healthcare than those without multimorbidity. In Scotland, multimorbidity has highest prevalence in the elderly and is closely linked to deprivation, both of which are independent risk-factors for increased use of antibiotics. This PhD will use a variety of research techniques to explore the relationship between multimorbidity, bacterial infection and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The successful applicant will undertake a scoping literature review before using large available datasets to understand the impact of multimorbidity on infection, AMR and mortality. Building on findings, they will set-up a prospective, longitudinal cohort study to investigate the association between multimorbidity and infection acquisition. A deep-dive into infection acquisition will be undertaken by whole genome sequencing of E. coli isolated from the cohort by NHS Fife and by placing this in the context of E. coli contemporaneously isolated in order to infer whether pathogens are likely to have been acquired in the community or through healthcare exposure.