Monowara Islam
Senior Researcher · Epidemiology, poverty-related disease and the mental health of young people
Monowara Islam
Senior Researcher
Qualifications
MPH (Epidemiology) — Independent University, Bangladesh, 2024
BSc in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology — East West University, 2020
Research areas
Epidemiology · Poverty and disease · Health inequality · Youth mental health · Screen time and behaviour
Methods & tools
R · Stata · SPSS · KoboToolbox · KoboCollect
Training
Bangladesh Health MIS and DHIS2 — IUB, 2024
Qualitative and quantitative research in application — IUB, 2023
Contact
Monowara’s research is about who becomes ill because of where they live and what they can afford — and what the data will and will not support about it.
She took her MPH in epidemiology at Independent University, Bangladesh, after a first degree in genetic engineering and biotechnology at East West University. The combination is an unusual one and a useful one: laboratory training in how disease works, and epidemiological training in how it moves through a population.
Since 2024 she has worked as a research assistant at IUB on an institutionally funded study of poverty-related disease in underprivileged communities. Her MPH thesis examined the effect of screen-time addiction on the mental health of young people — a question about which Bangladesh has a great deal of opinion and very little measurement.
She works in R, Stata and SPSS, and collects data with KoboToolbox and KoboCollect, which are the instruments we use in the field. She has completed training at IUB in Bangladesh’s health management information system and DHIS2, and in the application of qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Roles
2026 — present
Senior Researcher
The Ideology — Research & Evidence Institute, Dhaka.
2024 — present
Research Assistant
Independent University, Bangladesh. Understanding poverty-related disease in underprivileged communities — an IUB-funded study.
2023
MPH thesis
Independent University, Bangladesh. The effect of screen-time addiction on the mental health of young people.
2022 — 2023
Student on Duty
Department of Public Health, Independent University, Bangladesh. Admissions, student coordination and events.
Selected publications
Peer-reviewed publications will appear here with full citations and DOI links as they are published. We do not list work in preparation as though it were published.
Working on poverty and health?
If your research touches health inequality, disease in low-income communities, or the mental health of young people in South Asia, we would like to hear from you.
