The Fulbright Alumni Association Norway (FAAN) has by scholarly committee awarded Gudrun the Fulbright Article Prize for 2022.
The Fulbright Alumni Association Norway (FAAN) has by scholarly committee awarded Gudrun the Fulbright Article Prize for 2022, recognizing the past year's best scientific article by a Norwegian Fulbright scholar. She receives the award for her article 'Public health and armed conflict: Immunization in times of systemic disruptions', co-authored with Henrik Urdal, Olga Shemyakina, Andreas Forø Tollefsen & Marijke Verpoorten and published in Population and Development Review in 2021.
The article studies how armed conflict impacts immunization rates among children. Combining cnflict data and demographic and health surves for 15 conflict-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the authors seek to isolate the causal connection between different levels of conflict intensity and vaccination coverage. The results show that conflict has a nonmonotonic effect on vaccination rates with minor (major) conflicts being associated with higher (lower) full immunization rates. This is a highly topical issue in the wake of the Covid-10 pandemic and in a time of increasing conflict in the world. It is critical to achieve a better understanding of how vital health services can be maintained in conflict-affected areas. A popular science summary of the article's main findings was published in the Washington Post's blog, the Monkey Cage in February 2022.
The study is part of a project financed by the Research Council of Norway.
Gudrun Østby is a Research Professor and Research Director at PRIO. She held a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Maryland in 2019-2020.
Full article information:
Østby, Gudrun, Henrik Urdal, Olga Shemyakina, Andreas Forø Tollefsen & Marijke Verpoorten (2021). Public health and armed conflict: Immunization in times of systemic disruptions. Population and Development Review 47(4): 1143–1177: DOI: 10.1111/padr.12450
About the Fulbright Article Prize
- The prize is awarded annually to the best scientific article published by a Norwegian Fulbright scholar
- The 20022 prize was awarded at a ceremony at the Norwegian Nobel Institute Thursday 9 June
- Previous winners of the prize are Alexander W. Cappelen (2021), Lise M Helsingen (2020), Leiv Oltedal (2019), Inger Skjelsbæk (2018), Alexander H. Sandtorv (2017), John-Arne Røttingen (2016), Øyvind Holme and Magnus Løberg (2015) and Thomas Hegghammer (2014)
Contact information
Head of the committee Maren Falch Lindberg (m.f.lindberg@medisin.uio.no)
Prize winner Gudrun Østby (gudrun@prio.org)
