Nikkil Sudharsanan

Short CV

Nikkil Sudharsanan is a population health and behavioral scientist focused on preventing cardiovascular diseases in low- and middle-income countries. His research uses behavioral insights from economics and psychology to understand how clinicians and patients make chronic health care decisions. Based on this research, he develops and tests interventions to encourage clinicians to provide better quality cardiovascular care and individuals to seek preventive care and adhere to health recommendations. Nikkil received an MA in Statistics and PhD in Population Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to TUM, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health and a David E. Bell Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

Selected Awards

• 2020 - Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship Award

Research Interests

Global Health, Behavioral Science and Economics, Population Science, Non-communicable Diseases

Selected Publications

• Sudharsanan, N., Favaretti, C., Hachaturyan, V., Bärnighausen, T. and Vandormael, A., 2021. The effect of framing and communicating COVID-19 vaccine side-effect risks on vaccine intentions for adults in the UK and the USA: A structured summary of a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 22(1), pp.1-5.
• Kroeger, C., Kumar, S., Mohanraj, R., Kundem, S., Bärnighausen, K. and Sudharsanan, N., 2021. Understanding low mobilization for non-communicable diseases among people living with NCDs: A qualitative study on hypertension in urban South India. Social Science & Medicine, p.114472.
• Sudharsanan, N., Theilmann, M., Kirschbaum, T.K., Manne-Goehler, J., Azadnajafabad, S., Bovet, P., Chen, S., Damasceno, A., De Neve, J.W., Dorobantu, M. and Ebert, C., 2021. Variation in the Proportion of Adults in Need of Blood Pressure–Lowering Medications by Hypertension Care Guideline in Low-and Middle-Income Countries: A Cross-Sectional Study of 1 037 215 Individuals From 50 Nationally Representative Surveys. Circulation, 143(10), pp.991-1001.
• Diallo, A.O., Ali, M.K., Geldsetzer, P., Gower, E.W., Mukama, T., Wagner, R.G., Davies, J., Bijlsma, M.J. and Sudharsanan, N., 2021. Systolic blood pressure and 6-year mortality in South Africa: a country-wide, population-based cohort study. The Lancet Healthy Longevity, 2(2), pp.e78-e86.
• Sudharsanan, N., Ali, M.K. and McConnell, M., 2021. Hypertension knowledge and treatment initiation, adherence, and discontinuation among adults in Chennai, India: a cross-sectional study. BMJ open, 11(1), p.e040252.
• Sudharsanan, N., Chen, S., Garber, M., Bärnighausen, T. and Geldsetzer, P., 2020. The Effect Of Home-Based Hypertension Screening On Blood Pressure Change Over Time In South Africa. Health Affairs, 39(1), pp.124-132.
• Chen, S., Sudharsanan, N., Huang, F., Liu, Y., Geldsetzer, P. and Bärnighausen, T., 2019. Impact of community based screening for hypertension on blood pressure after two years: regression discontinuity analysis in a national cohort of older adults in China. BMJ, 366.