Aleksandra (Ola) Borek

I am a qualitative post-doctoral researcher in the Infectious Diseases Research Group currently working on the ‘Improving the uptake and SusTainability of Effective interventions to promote Prudent antibiotic Use in Primary care’ (STEP-UP) study. The study aims to accelerate the uptake and maximise the sustainability of interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing in primary care, and I use qualitative methods to investigate the how such interventions work (i.e. their mechanisms of action).

My background is in Sociology and Social Research Methods (BA & MA from the University of York) and, more recently, health psychology and behaviour change. In my PhD (University of Exeter Medical School) I investigated how group-based behaviour-change interventions work by focusing on interpersonal, social change processes in weight loss and diabetes prevention groups. I explored this topic further when working on the ‘Mechanisms of Action in Group-based Interventions’ (MAGI) study and when developing a group-based, peer-support intervention to promote health and wellbeing of parent carers of children with disabilities and additional needs (the Healthy Parent Carers programme) in the Peninsula Cerebra Research Unit (PenCRU) at the University of Exeter Medical School. 

My research interests include qualitative methods, intervention design and process evaluation, health promotion and behaviour change interventions and theories.