About
Dr Kate Morton is a senior research fellow based in the Macmillan Survivorship Research Group in Health Sciences at the University of Southampton. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating complex behaviour change interventions to support health promotion and self-management of long-term conditions. She has experience in conducting qualitative literature reviews, and qualitative and mixed-methods process evaluations.
Kate has completed a PhD in Health Psychology Research and Professional Practice at the University of Southampton, and holds an MSc in Health Psychology (University of Southampton) and BSc in Psychology (University of York)
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- My research interests include:
- Developing and evaluating behaviour change interventions using the person-based approachExploring how to optimise self-management of long-term health conditionsUnderstanding how to communicate risk information to support decision-making around genetic screeningWorking closely with patient and public contributors throughout the research process PhD title: "Exploring and evaluating the use of digital health interventions for the management of high blood pressure"
- Supervised by Dr Katherine Bradbury, Dr Laura Dennison & Professor Lucy Yardley
- Research projects Germ Defence: Rapid co-design, implementation and evaluation of a digital behaviour change intervention to improve hand hygiene and limit spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, funded by UKRI
- Cangene-Canvar work package 4: Patient-facing research and resources for communications of genetic data, risk, uncertainty and options for management, funded by Cancer Research UK
Current research
Dr Kate Morton currently works in two senior research fellow posts.
At the University of Southampton, she is funded by Cancer Research UK to develop a digital intervention to support decision-making about genetic testing for cancer. This involves conducting a systematic review of the literature, and leading qualitative research using the person-based approach to inform the development of an intervention, working closely with a patient reference panel throughout.
At the University of Bristol, she is funded by NIHR to conduct a mixed-methods feasibility study to inform the optimisation of an intervention for healthcare professionals to facilitate asthma management.
Both roles involve writing academic papers and presenting at conferences to disseminate research findings, and working closely with a wider research team.