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Last updated 23rd March 2026
Biography
Dr Susie Kola-Palmer (PhD, CPsychol, AFBPsS, FHEA) is a Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology and the Deputy Director for Graduate Education in Psychology, School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield.
Susie is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway, where she completed her PhD. Appointed to the University of Huddersfield in 2010, Susie’s research interests are in preventative health behaviour, including health psychology, clincial health psychology and applied health research. Susie is particularly interested in cervical screening behaviours and vaccine hesitancy. Susie’s research interests also include psychosocial moderators of pain and anxiety, with particular interest in cognitive and emotional factors. Susie is happy to supervise projects focused on preventive health behaviours using experimental or quantitative methods, including cervical screening; vaccine hesitancy; individual differences, behaviour, and health; impact of personality traits on health processes; suicide, primary prevention and response; health risk behaviour; social and mental health.
Research Expertise and Interests
- Preventive health behaviours, including
- Cervical screening
- Vaccinations and vaccine hesitancy
- Additional interests, including
- Health (conducting multi-disciplinary research to improve patient health outcomes)
- Well-being in students and elite athletes
- Appropriateness and effectiveness of several interventions to reduce anxiety, distress and pain associated with an invasive diagnostic procedure
- Youth health risk behaviours
- Mechanisms of efficacy of distraction in pain perception
Research Expertise and Interests
- Mental Illness
- Logistic Regression
- Vaccinations and Vaccine Hesitancy
- Health Psychology
- Obstetrics
- Cervical Cancer Screening
- Psychometrics
- Applied Psychology
- Pain Perception
- Young Adults
- Advanced Statistics
- Colposcopy
- Influenza Vaccines
- Preventive health behaviours
- Wellbeing in Students
- Wellbeing in Athletes
- Youth Health Risk Behaviours
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
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SDG 4 Quality Education
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SDG 5 Gender Equality
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SDG 13 Climate Action
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SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 2 Finished
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A market test of a translated cervical screening leaflet
Kola-Palmer, S. (PI), Rogers, M. (CoPI) & Lamptey, P. (CoPI)
1/10/25 → 31/12/25
Project: Research
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Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborative Knowledge-Building Workshop
Kola-Palmer, S. (PI), Rogers, M. (CoI), Lamptey, P. (CoI) & Allen, G. (CoI)
15/05/24 → 15/07/24
Project: Research
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A qualitative analysis of factors in cervical screening attendance decision-making
Kola-Palmer, S., Rickford, R., Rogers, M., Wearmouth, L. & Gunn, R., 26 Aug 2025, p. 215. 1 p.Research output: Contribution to conference types › Abstract › peer-review
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A socially prescribed creative play intervention for new parents: investigating post traumatic stress around birth and changes in postnatal depression and reflective function
Davies, P. & Kola-Palmer, S., 1 Dec 2025, In: BMC psychology. 13, 1, 14 p., 291.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Facilitating engagement: Individual meaning-making and relationship-based trust in women’s experiences of cervical screening
Rickford, R., Rogers, M., Gunn, R., Wearmouth, L., Halliday, A. & Kola-Palmer, S., 26 Dec 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Health Psychology. 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
The complex landscape of vaccine hesitancy and hesitant adopters: Quantitative predictors and thematic insights into COVID-19 vaccine attitudes
Annandale, G., Kola-Palmer, S. & Duke, E., 1 Jul 2025, In: Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics. 21, 1, 13 p., 2511350.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access4 Link opens in a new tab Citations (Scopus) -
What Evidence Exists on the Effectiveness of Psychotherapy for Trauma-Related Distress? A Scoping Review
Shiel, E., Connor, Z., Downes, M., Bailey-Shaw, A., Hemingway, S., Walters, C. & Kola-Palmer, S., 4 Dec 2025, In: Healthcare (Switzerland). 13, 23, 13 p., 3180.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Open Access
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How do adolescent males in Yorkshire make meaning of their lived experiences and attitudes toward receiving the Human Papillomavirus vaccine
Hanson, V. (Invited speaker), Rogers, M. (Contributor to Paper or Presentation) & Kola-Palmer, S. (Contributor to Paper or Presentation)
1 Apr 2026Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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A qualitative analysis of factors in cervical screening attendance decision-making.
Kola-Palmer, S. (Speaker), Lamptey, P. (Contributor to Paper or Presentation) & Rogers, M. (Contributor to Paper or Presentation)
27 Aug 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Evaluating the use of mobile unit to increase cervical screening uptake
Lancaster, E. (Speaker), Rogers, M. (Speaker), Kola-Palmer, S. (Speaker) & Lamptey, P. (Speaker)
2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Poster presentation
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Women’s Attitudes to Reducing Cervical Screening Frequency
Kola-Palmer, S. (Speaker), Rogers, M. (Speaker), Halliday, A. (Speaker) & Rickford, R. (Speaker)
1 Jul 2023Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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The Effectiveness of Parents as Distraction Coaches During Venipuncture: A Randomised Controlled Trial
Kola-Palmer, S. (Speaker)
26 Aug 2014Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
Press/Media
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Don’t trust Trump’: how UK health experts are fighting back against a war on medicine
27/09/25
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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'The virus is painfully real': Vaccine hesitant people are dying - and their loved ones want the world to listen
14/09/21
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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‘The virus is painfully real’: vaccine hesitant people are dying – and their loved ones want the world to listen
14/09/21
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
-
‘The virus is painfully real’: vaccine hesitant people are dying – and their loved ones want the world to listen
14/09/21
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
-
‘The virus is painfully real’: vaccine hesitant people are dying – and their loved ones want the world to listen
14/09/21
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment