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Contact Details

Email
sarah.donald@otago.ac.nz
Position
Lecturer
Department
Department of Preventive and Social Medicine (Dunedin)
Qualifications
MSc MBChB MPH FNZCPHM
Research summary
Medicine utilisation and safety during pregnancy

Research

Sarah completed her medical degree at the University of Otago, Dunedin. After several years of clinical work she undertook the Public Health Medicine training programme, gaining her Fellowship in 2016. Her current research focus is prescription medicine use during pregnancy, including describing patterns of use and investigating safety issues.

Sarah is a member of the Pharmacoepidemiology Research Network Core Academic Group. Her other research interests include promoting healthy weight gain during pregnancy.

Publications

Blank, M.-L., Donald, S., & Parkin, L. (2025). Small for gestational age coded diagnoses in Aotearoa New Zealand's administrative health datasets: A validation study. Health Science Reports, 8, e70610. doi: 10.1002/hsr2.70610 Journal - Research Article

Tran, D. T., Cohen, J. M., Donald, S., Cesta, C. E., Furu, K., Parkin, L., … Havard, A. (2025). Risk of major congenital malformations following prenatal exposure to smoking cessation medicines. JAMA Internal Medicine. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.0290 Journal - Research Article

Brett, J., Cesta, C. E., Gillies, M. B., Bateman, B. T., Chan, A. Y. L., Cheng, M. C.-Y., … Donald, S., … Parkin, L., … Zoega, H. (2025). Global trends in analgesic opioid use in pregnancy: A retrospective cohort study. Anesthesiology, 142(6), 1100-1113. doi: 10.1097/aln.0000000000005418 Journal - Research Article

Tran, D., Cohen, J. M., Donald, S., Robijn, A. L., Cesta, C. E., Furu, K., Parkin, L., … Havard, A. (2024). Maternal use of smoking cessation pharmacotherapies and the risk of congenital malformations in infants: A multi-national study. Proceedings of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT-O) Oceania Chapter Conference. 1B-3. Retrieved from https://srnt.org/srnt-o Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Robijn, A., Tran, D. T., Cohen, J. M., Donald, S., Cesta, C. E., Furu, K., Parkin, L., … Havard, A. (2024). Uptake of smoking cessation pharmacotherapies during pregnancy across four countries: A drug utilisation study from Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden. Proceedings of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT-O) Oceania Chapter Conference. 1B-2. Retrieved from https://srnt.org/srnt-o Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

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