Malena Chiaborelli

Health researchers rely on methods guidance to make decisions about study design, data collection, analysis, reporting, and interpretation. Yet important questions remain about how to develop guidance that reflects methodological evidence and meets researchers’ needs.

STREAM develops practical recommendations for creating trustworthy and useful methods guidance. It addresses how developers can involve relevant people, select and use methodological evidence, formulate recommendations, and present guidance that researchers can understand and apply.

The project combines reviews of existing recommendations and current guidance development practices with interviews with guidance users. An international panel will use these findings to draft STREAM. Guidance developers will then test the recommendations in ongoing projects and provide feedback to refine them.

Stefan Schandelmaier leads STREAM at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, working with Malena Chiaborelli, Matthias Briel, and international collaborators.

The Swiss National Science Foundation supports the project through an Ambizione grant.

Project website: stream.methods-research.org

In settings such as Lesotho, where young women face enormous HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges, novel and accessible spaces to complement traditional health facilities are urgently needed. HIV- and pregnancy-related complications are still the leading cause of death among young women in high HIV prevalence settings in Southern Africa. 

Hair salons may offer a safe, accessible, trusted community space to engage young women and address barriers related to HIV/SRH.

In a first step, we concluded an innovative cross-sectional survey – co-designed and conducted in collaboration with citizen scientists – and gathered data among 100 hair stylists and 300 clients across Lesotho. The findings were complemented by qualitative research, narrative storytelling and a video documentary.

In a next step, we are designing and implementing a pilot to evaluate a first HIV/SRH service intervention at a few hair salons in Lesotho.