Lucia D’ambruoso

Biographic Data

ID1727293
NAMELucia D’ambruoso
GIVEN NAMESLucia
FAMILY NAMED’ambruoso
SIGNATURED’AMBRUOSO L
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Aberdeen
ORCID0000-0002-8505-3368
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS34
TOTAL CITATIONS11
AUTHOR COUNT34
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2005
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX2

  • A systems approach to understanding injury care in LMICs using causal loop diagrams

    Open AccessJustine Ina Davies, Kathryn Chu et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2026

    BACKGROUND: Around 40% of mortality after injuries is avoidable with access to quality care. Investments in interventions which maximise the number of injured persons who access and receive quality care are paramount, especially in low-resourced settings. Selecting such interventions within complex adaptive health systems is challenging due to the multiple interactions within these systems. METHODS: We created a conceptual map, or causal loop dia…

  • A qualitative study of the lived experiences of working age adults living with adventitious total bilateral blindness in Nigeria

    Open AccessNneoma Dike, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEGlobal Public Health2026

    Working age adults living with adventitious blindness (occurring from age five) in Nigeria face significant challenges, including rehabilitation, depriving them of the quality of care required for successful adaptation and integration. This study aimed to explore their lived experiences to inform policy and service delivery. Dahlgren and Whitehead's socioecological model underpinned this study to highlight how institutions and society shape parti…

  • Wicked problems and the recovery of meaning

    Open AccessLucia D’ambruoso, Kathryn Chu et al.ARTICLECritical Public Health2026

    Injuries cause 6 million deaths and 40 million disabilities annually. Over 90% of deaths occur in low-and-middle-income-countries (LMICs), and nearly half are preventable. This Commentary examines the possibilities and limitations of data to support injury care in LMIC settings. We frame injury care as a wicked problem with complex causality, contested goals, unintended consequences, and an incomplete evidence base. We use critical realism (CR) t…

  • How does the Nigerian health system serve people living with disabilities? A socio-ecological analysis on people living with visual impairment

    Open AccessNneoma Dike, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2025

    People living with disabilities (PLWD) in Nigeria experience significant disparities in health outcomes and access to care. Among them, individuals living with visual impairment (VI) face compounded barriers due to structural inequities and social exclusion. This paper explores how the Nigerian health system serves PLWD through a socioecological lens, with a focus on those living with VI. We conducted a narrative review using databases such as Me…

  • Space to see the future”? A political economy analysis of child and adolescent mental health and well-being in Ethiopia including routes for change

    Open AccessKibur Engdawork, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Sociology2025References: 13

    The government's tendency to formulate national programs and strategies is positive, but lack of regional funding and support limit effectiveness. Schools and healthcare environments can play powerful roles supporting mental health, however, experience considerable challenges related to resourcing, and lack spaces and processes for multisectoral working. There is a pressing need to resource and support implementation and collaboration capabilitie…

  • A protocol for a critical realist synthesis of school mindfulness interventions designed to promote pupils’ mental wellbeing

    Open AccessPamela Abbott, Graeme Nixon et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Public Health2024

    Introduction The review described in this protocol will be the first critical realist review of the literature reporting on the impact of school-based mindfulness interventions on the mental wellbeing of pupils. Mindfulness interventions are increasingly being introduced into schools to promote children’s (and teachers’) wellbeing. Findings from impact evaluations, including systematic reviews and metanalysis, suggest that school-based mindfulnes…

  • Cost of Living/Cost of Smoking

    Open AccessLucia D’ambruoso, Amanda Stephens et al.ARTICLESocial Policy and Administration2024References: 1

    Smoking is responsible for over 8 million deaths globally per annum. While socially disadvantaged communities are disproportionately affected, few interventions effectively reach these groups. We progressed a participatory action research (PAR) study on smoking‐related health inequalities in the context of the current UK cost‐of‐living crisis. We worked with people living in deprived neighbourhoods in rural northeast Scotland. The objective was t…

  • Realising radical potential

    Open AccessDenny Mabetha, Temitope Ojewola et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal for Equity…2023

    Community power-building in rural PHC was multidimensional, non-linear, and deeply relational. Collective mindsets and capabilities for joint action and learning were built through a pragmatic, cooperative, adaptive process, creating spaces where people could produce and use evidence to make decisions. Impacts were seen in demand for implementation outside the study setting. We offer a practice framework to expand community power in PHC: (1) prio…

  • ‘Voice needs teeth to have bite’! Expanding community-led multisectoral action-learning to address alcohol and drug abuse in rural South Africa

    Open AccessLucia D’ambruoso, Denny Mabetha et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2022

    There is limited operational understanding of multisectoral action in health inclusive of communities as active change agents. The objectives were to: (a) develop community-led action-learning, advancing multisectoral responses for local public health problems; and (b) derive transferrable learning. Participants representing communities, government departments and non-governmental organisations in a rural district in South Africa co-designed the …

  • Burden of mortality linked to community-nominated priorities in rural South Africa

    Open AccessPyry Mattila, Justine Ina Davies et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2022

    BACKGROUND: Community knowledge is a critical input for relevant health programmes and strategies. How community perceptions of risk reflect the burden of mortality is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To determine the burden of mortality reflecting community-nominated health risk factors in rural South Africa, where a complex health transition is underway. METHODS: Three discussion groups (total 48 participants) representing a cross-section of the c…

  • Prioritising and mapping barriers to achieve equitable surgical care in South Africa

    Open AccessTamlyn Mac Quene, Luné Smith et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2022

    Background Surgical healthcare in South Africa is inequitable with a considerable lack of resources in the public health sector. Identifying barriers to care and creating research priorities to mitigate these barriers can contribute to strategic interventions to improve equitable access to quality surgical care.Objective To use the Four Delays Framework to map barriers to surgical care and identify priorities to achieve equitable and timely acces…

  • Lessons from community participation in primary health care and water resource governance in South Africa

    Open AccessJennifer Hove, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2022

  • Building back fairer in public health policy requires collective action with and for the most vulnerable in society

    Open AccessLucia D’ambruoso, Pamela Abbott et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2021

    The authors gratefully acknowledge the inputs of Professor Tim Carey Director of the Institute of Global Health Equity Research at the University for Global Health Equity to earlier drafts

  • Identifying knowledge needed to improve surgical care in Southern Africa using a theory of change approach

    Open AccessDanyca Shadé Breedt, Maria Lisa Odland et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2021

    Surgical healthcare has been prioritised in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional intergovernmental entity promoting equitable and sustainable economic growth and socioeconomic development. However, challenges remain in translating political prioritisation into effective and equitable surgical healthcare. The AfroSurg Collaborative (AfroSurg) includes clinicians, public health professionals and social scientists from six S…

  • Equitable recovery from Covid-19

    Open AccessRene Loewenson, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2021

  • Developing stakeholder participation to address lack of safe water as a community health concern in a rural province in South Africa

    Open AccessJennifer Hove, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2021

    BACKGROUND: Despite legislative and policy commitments to participatory water governance in South Africa, and some remarkable achievements, there has been limited progress to improve the water infrastructure servicing in marginalized rural communities. Around five million South Africans still do not have access to safe water. OBJECTIVE: This paper seeks to understand and advance processes to engage multisectoral stakeholders to respond to lack of…

  • Refining circumstances of mortality categories (Comcat)

    Open AccessLucia D’ambruoso, Jessica Price et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2021

    BACKGROUND: Recognising that the causes of over half the world's deaths pass unrecorded, the World Health Organization (WHO) leads development of Verbal Autopsy (VA): a method to understand causes of death in otherwise unregistered populations. Recently, VA has been developed for use outside research environments, supporting countries and communities to recognise and act on their own health priorities. We developed the Circumstances of Mortality …

  • Understanding non-communicable diseases

    Open AccessEilidh Cowan, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2021

    Background: NCDs are non-infectious, long-term conditions that account for 40 million deaths per annum. 87% of premature NCD mortality occurs in low- and middle-income countries.Objective: The aims were:develop methods to provide integrated biosocial accounts of NCD mortality; and explore the practical utility of extended mortality data for the primary health care system.Methods: We drew on data from research programmes in the study area. Data we…

  • Time-critical conditions

    Open AccessAndrew Fraser, Jessica Newberry Le Vay et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2020

    Background: Time-critical conditions (TCC) are estimated to cause substantial mortality in low and middle-income countries. However, quantification of deaths and identification of contributing factors to those deaths are challenging in settings with poor health records. Aim: To use verbal autopsy (VA) data from the Agincourt health and sociodemographic surveillance system in rural South Africa to quantify the burden of deaths from TCC and to eval…

  • Building cooperative learning to address alcohol and other drug abuse in Mpumalanga, South Africa

    Open AccessOladapo Oladeinde, Denny Mabetha et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2020

    There is significant willingness and capacity among community stakeholders to work in partnership with authorities to address priority health concerns. As a process, participation can help to raise and frame issues, which may help to better inform action and encourage shared responsibility. Broader understandings of participation require reference to, and ultimately transfer of power towards, those most directly affected, developing community voi…

  • Enhancing the value of mortality data for health systems

    Open AccessLaith Hussain‐Alkhateeb, Laith Hussain-Alkhateeb et al.ARTICLEGlobal Health Action2019

    Half of the world's deaths and their causes pass unrecorded by routine registration systems, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Verbal autopsy (VA) collects information on medical signs, symptoms and circumstances from witnesses of a death that is used to assign likely medical causes. To further contextualise information on mortality, understanding underlying determinants, such as logistics, barriers to service utilisation and heal…

  • Rethinking collaboration

    Open AccessLucia D’ambruoso, Maria van der Merwe et al.ARTICLEHealth Policy and Planning2019Cited by: 4References: 41

    Following 50 years of apartheid, South Africa introduced visionary health policy committing to the right to health as part of a primary health care (PHC) approach. Implementation is seriously challenged, however, in an often-dysfunctional health system with scarce resources and a complex burden of avoidable mortality persists. Our aim was to develop a process generating evidence of practical relevance on implementation processes among people excl…

  • Initiating a participatory action research process in the Agincourt health and socio–demographic surveillance site

    Open AccessOghenebrume Wariri, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEJournal of Global Health2017

    BACKGROUND: Despite progressive health policy, disease burdens in South Africa remain patterned by deeply entrenched social inequalities. Accounting for the relationships between context, health and risk can provide important information for equitable service delivery. The aims of the research were to initiate a participatory research process with communities in a low income setting and produce evidence of practical relevance. METHODS: We initiat…

  • Community perspectives on HIV, violence and health surveillance in rural South Africa

    Open AccessNitya Hullur, Lucia D’ambruoso et al.ARTICLEJournal of Global Health2016

    BACKGROUND: South Africa faces a complex burden of disease consisting of infectious and non-communicable conditions, injury and interpersonal violence, and maternal and child mortality. Inequalities in income and opportunity push disease burdens towards vulnerable populations, a situation to which the health system struggles to respond. There is an urgent need for health planning to account for the needs of marginalized groups in this context. Th…

  • Quality of integrated chronic disease care in rural South Africa

    Open AccessSoter Ameh, Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch et al.ARTICLEHealth Policy and Planning2016Cited by: 2References: 26

    The integrated chronic disease management (ICDM) model was introduced as a response to the dual burden of HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in South Africa, one of the first of such efforts by an African Ministry of Health. The aim of the ICDM model is to leverage HIV programme innovations to improve the quality of chronic disease care. There is a dearth of literature on the perspectives of healthcare providers and users on the qualit…