Dr Anju Devianee Keetharuth

BA, MA, MBA, PhD (Sheffield)

School of Medicine and Population Health

Senior Research Fellow

Health Economist

d.keetharuth@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 0884

Full contact details

Dr Anju Devianee Keetharuth
School of Medicine and Population Health
Regent Court (ScHARR)
30 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 4DA
Profile

I joined HEDS as a Health Economist in November 2010. I am also an adviser working for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Support Service Hub delivered by University of York and Partners.  I work part-time (3 days a week). 

I completed a Phd in Development Economics at the University of Sheffield and worked as a trade policy adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade in Fiji (Overseas Development Institute Fellow). I then worked as an Economic Affairs Officer researching Foreign Direct Investment at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Afterwards I taught economics at the University of Sheffield.  I retrained as a health economist and worked at as an Economic Adviser at the Department of Health in Leeds.

Research interests

As a health economist, I design, supervise and conduct cost-effectiveness analyses alongside clinical trials mainly funded by the NIHR. I am particularly interested in economic evaluation of mental health interventions and have worked in several conditions (diabetes, lifestyle interventions, surgery) and populations. 

My research interests also include development of outcome measures (including preference-based measures) and their assessment (psychometrics).  I led the development of the commonly used outcome measures in mental health called the Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL). I have an interest in modifying patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) for different populations.  I have been involved in the development of several outcomes sets by the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM).

I have an interest in incorporating lived experience in my work including methodological research. 

In my spare time, I am a yoga teacher and interested in researching how yoga can improve the health of the population.

Current Phd students 
Nick Burke – Department of Sociology, University of Sheffield (Developing a measure for adoptees) 
Yingpen Qiu – Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield (Topic Selection Process for Health Technology Assessment in China)

I am interested in supervising students working on economic evaluation, development and assessment of outcome measures.

Past Phd students 
Hannah Hussain -  Quality of life for Dementia economic evaluation: 
integrating self and proxy report 
Ahmed Aber - Developing outcome measures for patients with vascular conditions

Publications

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

  • Bjorner JB, Croudace T, Keetharuth A, Brazier JE & Browne J (2016) Factor analyses identified one dominant global factor in a new scale for recovering quality of life (ReQoL) for mental health patients. QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH, Vol. 25 (pp 95-95) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rowen D, Brazier JE, Keetharuth A, Tsuchiya A, Robinson A & Mukuria C (2014) Comparison of an online survey and face-to-face interviews for eliciting societal preferences. QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH, Vol. 23 (pp 49-49) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Keetharuth A, Brazier J, Gibbons E, Ricketts T, Khan M, Connell J & Barkham M (2014) PROMs in Secondary Mental Health Services in the UK: a Feasibility Study and Lessons Learnt. JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH POLICY AND ECONOMICS, Vol. 17 (pp S10-S10) RIS download Bibtex download
Grants

2025. Funder: NIHR HTA.  Metformin to prevent anti-psychotic induced weight gain. £3m. Chief Investigator: Professor Paul French, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust.
2024. Funder: NIHR Research Capability Funds via the Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust. Modifying the ReQoL measure for use with people with learning disabilities. £17k Chief Investigator: Dr Anju Keetharuth, University of Sheffield  
2024. Funder: NIHR HTA.  Treatment of Toddlers Fractures: Observation or Immobilisation (TOTs). £1m. Chief Investigator: Nicolas Nicolaou, Sheffield Children’s Hospital 
2023. Funder: Department of Health and Social Care/ NIHR Policy Research Programme. EEPRU3. £5.4m. Chief investigators: Professor Allan Wailoo (University of Sheffield), Professor Mark Sculpher (University of York)

2023. Funder: NIHR HTA.  Pain Relief After Instrumented Spinal surgEry trial (PRAISE Trial). £1.4m. Chief Investigator: Professor Matthew Wilson, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; University of Sheffield
2022. Funder: NIHR HTA.  A Patient-reported outcome measure for PRolApse, Incontinence and meSh complication surgEry: The APPRAISE study. £1.5m. Chief Investigator: Professor Georgina Jones, Leeds Beckett University

2021. Department of Health and Social Care. Clinical Negligence Cost Reduction Policy Research. £87k. Chief Investigator: Dr Anju Keetharuth, University of Sheffield  

Teaching activities

I currently teach on the Economic Evaluation module (HAR 6260), MSc Health Economics and Decision Modelling.

Professional activities and memberships

Faculty of Health representative to the University Research Ethics Committee to the Senate (Committee of Senate), University of Sheffield.
I work closely with the Clinical Trials Research Unit at the University of Sheffield.
I have been a member of EEPRU, the NIHR Policy Research Unit in the Economic Methods of Evaluation of Health and Care Interventions since 2010.
Associate Editor Associate editor for Frontiers in Global Women’s Health – quality of life speciality.