Abdulai Jawo Bah

I am a global mental health researcher with a focus on parenting, early childhood development, and psychosocial wellbeing in fragile and post-conflict settings. I recently served as a Research Associate at Boston College’s Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA) through an NIH Diversity Supplement, which ended due to recent funding cuts. I hold a PhD in Global Mental Health from Queen Margaret University in Scotland, with research focused on perinatal mental health. My training also includes a fellowship in research methods and health systems strengthening at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. I am a registered pharmacist with a BPharm (Hons) from the University of Sierra Leone and a member of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacy. I co-founded Sustainable Health Systems (SHS), a Sierra Leone-based consortium focused on health systems strengthening.

• Bah, A.J., Wurie, H.R., Samai, M., Horn, R. and Ager, A., 2025. Feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of a culturally adapted non-specialist delivery Problem-Solving Therapy: Friendship Bench Intervention for perinatal psychological distress in Sierra Leone. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, 12, p.e16.
• Bah, A.J., Wurie, H.R., Samai, M., Horn, R. and Ager, A., 2025. The cultural adaptation of the Friendship Bench Intervention to address perinatal psychological distress in Sierra Leone: an application of the ADAPT-ITT framework and the Ecological Validity Model. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, p.1441936.
• Bah, A.J., James, P.B., Bah, N., Sesay, A.B., Sevalie, S. and Kanu, J.S., 2020. Prevalence of anxiety, depression and PTSD among adolescents in northern Sierra Leone: a cross-sectional study. BMC public health, 20, pp.1-13.
• Bah, A. J., Wurie, H. R., Samai, M., Horn, R & Ager, A., 2024. Developing and validating the Sierra Leone Perinatal Psychosocial Distress Scale through an emic approach: Journal of Affective Disorders.
• Baldeh, M., Williams, S.A. and Bah, A.J., 2024. Drug use among young people in Sierra Leone. Lancet (London, England), 404(10449), p.238.
• Ager, A., Horn, R., Bah, A.J., Wurie, H. and Samai. M., 2025. Policy and practice implications of contextual understanding of and tools to address-mental health and psychosocial support needs in Sierra Leone. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16 p.1441948.
• James, P.B., Osborne, A., Babawo, L.S., Bah, A.J. and Marago, E.K., 2022. The use of condoms and other birth control methods among sexually active school-going adolescents in nine sub-Saharan African countries. BMC Public Health, 22(1), p.2358.
• Hopwood, H., Sesay, S., Herman, M.O., Harris, D., Collet, K., Bah, A.J. and Beynon, F., 2021. The burden of mental disorder in Sierra Leone: a retrospective observational evaluation of programmatic data from the roll out of decentralized nurse-led mental health units. International journal of mental health systems, 15(1), p.31.
• Osborne, A., Kamara, H., Bangura, C. and Bah, A.J., 2025. Socio-economic and geographical inequalities in infant mortality rates in Sierra Leone, 2008–2019. BMC Public Health, 25(1), p.1697.
• Jalloh, M.B., Bah, A.J., James, P.B., Sevalie, S., Hann, K. and Shmueli, A., 2019. Impact of the free healthcare initiative on wealth-related inequity in the utilization of maternal and child health services in Sierra Leone. BMC health services research, 19(1), p.352.
• Williams, S.A., Baldeh, M., Bah, A.J., Dennis, F., Robinson, D.R. and Adeniyi, Y.C., 2025. Pathways to mental health services across local health systems in sub-Saharan Africa: Findings from a systematic review. PloS one, 20(6), p.e0324064.
• James, P.B., Bah, A.J., Kabba, J.A., Kassim, S.A. and Dialloing, P.A., 2022. Prevalence and correlates of current tobacco use and non-user susceptibility to using tobacco products among school-going adolescents in 22 African countries: a secondary analysis of the 2013-2018 global youth tobacco surveys. Archives of Public Health, 80(1), p.121.
• James, P.B., Osborne, A., Bah, A.J., Marago, E.K. and Conteh-Barat, M., 2022. Sexual risk behaviour among school-going adolescents in Sierra Leone and Liberia. A secondary analysis of the 2017 Global school health survey.
• James, P.B., Osborne, A., Bah, F.S., Bah, A.J., Kangaib, J.B. and Yendewa, G.A., 2025. Psychological distress and coping mechanisms due to the COVID-19 pandemic among the adult population in Bo Sierra Leone. A cross-sectional study. PLOS Mental Health, 2(2), p.e0000177.