Exploring the gender gap in young adult mental health during COVID-19: Evidence from the UK.

Aims: To explore the prevalence of a mental health gender gap within a young adult sample during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify the impact of loneliness and domestic time use on young people's, and particularly young women's mental health.

Method: Using data from the UK Longitudinal Household Survey (UKHLS), this research examines mental health prior to the pandemic (2019) and during the pandemic (April 2020 until September 2021). A random-effects regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of loneliness, and domestic factors across age and gender to ascertain their contribution to the mental health gender gap in a young adult population.

Causes, Solutions and Health Inequalities: Comparing Perspectives of Professional Stakeholders and Community Participants Experiencing Low Income and Poor Health in London.

Background: Engaging with the public can influence policy decisions, particularly towards more radical policy change. While established research exists exploring public perceptions on causes of health inequalities, much less exists on how to tackle health inequalities in the UK. Despite an emphasis on 'lived experience', currently no study has focused on how individuals with very poor health conceive of both causes of, and solutions to, health inequalities.

Living on low-incomes with multiple long-term health conditions: A new method to explore the complex interaction between finance and health.

People on low-incomes in the UK develop multiple long-term health conditions over 10 years earlier than affluent individuals. Financial diaries -new to public health- are used to explore the lived experiences of financially-vulnerable individuals, diagnosed with at least one long-term condition, living in two inner-city London Boroughs. Findings show that the health status of these individuals is a key barrier to work opportunities, undermining their income.

From polarity to plurality: Perceptions of COVID-19 and policy measures in England and Scotland.

Aim: The aim of this study was to uncover perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic and the responses implemented by the UK and Scottish Governments to help control the spread of infection. Such understanding could help to inform future responses to pandemics at individual, community and national levels.

Method: Q methodology was used to elicit perspectives from people in England and Scotland with different experiences of the pandemic including public health officials, key workers, those on furlough, those who were unvaccinated or vaccinated to different levels, those who were 'shielding' because they were at higher risk and people with different scientific expertise.

The health impacts of place-based creative programmes on older adults' health: A critical realist review.

Place-based creative programmes can help alleviate the structural and place-related problems that affect older adults' health. However, it is unclear why these programmes achieve positive outcomes, and how these may vary across contexts. This critical realist review aimed to address these gaps.

Microcredit as a public health initiative? Exploring mechanisms and pathways to health and wellbeing.

The widening health gap between the best and worst-off in the UK requires innovative solutions that act upon the social, economic and environmental causes of ill-health. Initiatives such as microcredit have been conceptualised as having the potential to act on the social determinants of health. However, pathways that lead to this impact have yet to be empirically explored.

Who knows best? A Q methodology study to explore perspectives of professional stakeholders and community participants on health in low-income communities.

Background: Health inequalities in the UK have proved to be stubborn, and health gaps between best and worst-off are widening. While there is growing understanding of how the main causes of poor health are perceived among different stakeholders, similar insight is lacking regarding what solutions should be prioritised. Furthermore, we do not know the relationship between perceived causes and solutions to health inequalities, whether there is agreement between professional stakeholders and people living in low-income communities or agreement within these groups.

Exploring the relationship between time preference, body fatness, and educational attainment.

Obesity is a global health concern. This is the first study to explore if the relationship between body fatness and time preference is consistent across different ways of objectively measuring body fatness. Our second aim is to explore if there are differential associations between educational attainment and being a saver to determine if education can be used to change saving behaviour and subsequently body fatness.

Boosting health insurance coverage in developing countries: do conditional cash transfer programmes matter in Mexico?

Background: Achieving universal health insurance coverage is a goal for many developing countries. Even when universal health insurance programmes are in place, there are significant barriers to reaching the lowest socio-economic groups such as a lack of awareness of the programmes or knowledge of the benefits to participating in the insurance market. Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes can encourage participation through mandatory health education classes, increased contact with the health care system and cash payments to reduce costs of participating in the insurance market.