Are you using weight loss medication? We’d like to hear about your experiences! We are currently conducting a research project exploring physical activity among UK adults who use GLP-1 weight loss medications, such as Wegovy, Ozempic, or Mounjaro app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/newcastle/...

Thoroughly interesting listen!

Local Health and Global Profits (LHGP)@lhgp.bsky.social · last mo.

Is “Big Wellness” the next Big Tobacco? This is the subject of a recent Public Health on Call podcast episode, featuring Dr Nancy Karreman and Dr Nason Maani (@spidermaani.bsky.social), members of @lhgp.bsky.social. @publichealthpod.bsky.social podcast.publichealth.jhu.edu/the-rise-of-...

Public health is cool www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

HPV vaccine means young women now have 'close to zero' risk of cervical cancer death

A new study finds that hundreds of lives have been saved since school-age girls were offered the HPV jab in 2008.

bbc.co.uk

Are you using weight loss medication? We’d like to hear about your experiences! We are currently conducting a research project exploring physical activity among UK adults who use GLP-1 weight loss medications, such as Wegovy, Ozempic, or Mounjaro app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/newcastle/...

Come and join the NIHR Policy Research Unit Behavioural and Social Sciences! We're a recruiting a Research Assistant/Research Fellow to be based @ucl-cbc.bsky.social. For more details - and to apply by Tuesday 3rd March - visit the link below: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Interesting analyses from @healthfoundation.bsky.social this morning on who is accessing private prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs for obesity. Data like this has been hard to come by, yet private access is such an important component for GLP-1 use.

The Health Foundation@healthfoundation.bsky.social · 6mo ago

England's obesity levels are highest in deprived areas, yet affluent areas have far higher private prescribing rates of GLP-1s. Private‑sector uptake patterns reveal the scale of inequalities in who is currently benefiting from these medications. Read our new analysis ⬇️

With abstract submissions now ✨OPEN✨ for the joint SSMPH EuroEpi 2026 conference, we are delighted to introduce the other co-chair of this year's Local Organising Committee: Prof Oyinlola Oyebode from @qmul-wiph.bsky.social Link to blog: bit.ly/4bmvXhr Conference website: bit.ly/4oyrifb

We spent this week connecting with the @nihr.bsky.social Policy Research Units in Dementia and Neurodegeneration @denpru-qm.bsky.social and Policy Innovation and Evaluation @piru-lshtm.bsky.social. Read more about what we got up to on our LinkedIn page below: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

#denpruqm | NIHR Policy Research Unit Behavioural and Social Sciences

We've had a great two days connecting with two other NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Policy Research Units. On Tuesday 27th January, we visited the Policy Research Unit in Dem...

linkedin.com

First paper of 2026! In our study, we examined whether public health messages can encourage people to adopt protective behaviours, such as wearing masks, washing hands, and keeping distance, to reduce the spread of respiratory infections like COVID-19 and influenza. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Great stuff here from @soozaphone.bsky.social about the flimsiness of arguments being trotted out today against lowering the drink drive limit in England & Wales open.substack.com/pub/suzigage... I might be one of the cynics complaining about enforcement though...

OF COURSE drink driving laws need to be updated in England and Wales

We are using antiquated regulations, and are out of step with much of the rest of the world

open.substack.com

Delighted to share this paper I co-authored that reviewed approaches for health inequality-related research priority setting that involve the affected communities. academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/a...

Approaches for community intervention and research priority setting to reduce health inequalities: a scoping review

AbstractBackground. There is growing attention on research and intervention prioritization regarding the social determinants of health to address health in

academic.oup.com

Thrilled to share my latest paper entitled, "Estimating Discrimination in Sentencing: Distinguishing between Good and Bad Controls" Led by @jpinasanchez.bsky.social, the paper introduces a framework for examining discrimination in criminal justice processes. 🧵 1/10 publicera.kb.se/ejels/articl...

Our researchers Dr Fiona Graham and Dr @laurajmcgowan.bsky.social were at Evidence Week 2025 in Parliament last week, organised by @senseaboutsci.bsky.social. They discussed our work on virtual words in the NHS with MPs - read more about it here: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

The National Institute for Health and Care Research Policy Research Unit in Behavioural and Social Sciences among world-class researchers, briefing MPs and parliamentary staff on the latest evidence… ...

The National Institute for Health and Care Research Policy Research Unit in Behavioural and Social Sciences among world-class researchers, briefing MPs and parliamentary staff on the latest evidence n...

linkedin.com

We wrote an article explaining why you shouldn't put several variables into a regression model and report which are statistically significant - even as exploratory research. bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/.... How did we do?

Lauren Bandy and I got a short piece in BMJ arguing that the proposed changes to UK sugar drink tax target the wrong end of the market. Changing the threshold where tax is applied from 5g sugar/100mL to 4g only hurts those that have ALREADY reformulated and changes nothing for high sugar drinks.

Changes to UK soft drinks tax are a missed opportunity for public health

The government’s decision not to introduce a higher rate tax for the most sugary drinks is good news for industry but not for public health, argue Lauren Bandy and Peter Scarborough In the 2024 autu...

bmj.com

Earlier this month, all our researchers & co-investigators got together at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton. We discussed topics such as engaging youth in research, public involvement, and ensuring meaningful impact. Read more here: www.linkedin.com/posts/nihr-p...

At the beginning of October, all our researchers and co-investigators from across the NIHR Policy Research Unit Behavioural and Social Sciences got together at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton…...

At the beginning of October, all our researchers and co-investigators from across the NIHR Policy Research Unit Behavioural and Social Sciences got together at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton ...

linkedin.com

To have this as the policy for a mental health service is *wild*. If someone does not attend a mental health assessment appointment, they're probably worse not better...

We're are now accepting applications for an exciting DPhil at the @oxprimarycare.bsky.social, *FUNDED* by the THRIVING Food Futures research hub! The project is about divisive policies, supervised by me, Dr Rachel Pechey @petescarbs.bsky.social @ashakaur.bsky.social lnkd.in/eezGaZZ3 Pls share! ✨

Just back from attending another excellent @socsocmed.bsky.social conference #SSM2025 It was great catching up with old and new friends that I've made over my time in academia to date. I was happy to share our @nihr-pru-bass.bsky.social research on populism and public health interventions.

Less inequality = fewer problems @profkepickett.bsky.social lays our her vision for a good society at #SSM2025 @socsocmed.bsky.social

It was great to present our review of interview studies looking at populism and how people receive public health interventions @socsocmed.bsky.social #SSM2025 yesterday! Looking forward to two more days of exciting talks 🤓

#SSM2025 Early Career Researcher day! Follow this thread to see updates (I'm doing the updates, so look forward to inevitable typos)

Society for Social Medicine & Population Health@socsocmed.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Let us know if you're coming to the #SSM2025 Early Career Researcher day! We get started at 09:30 with a packed schedule of sessions from considering how to best include the public in research, the role of qualitative methods in health research, to presenting research in the media. See you soon!

Super interesting thread from @amckinlay.bsky.social on how trust relates to public health, and how this links to our recent work looking at how populism affects the acceptability of public health interventions ⬇️

Dr Alison R. McKinlay@amckinlay.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Trust (or lack of it) shapes how people respond to public health. In our latest review in Social Science & Medicine, we found that distrust of “elites”(aka politicians, scientists, health professionals) doesn’t just affect individual choices.

Thank you @jackmbirch.bsky.social for summarising your experiences at our recent #DigitalHealthDivide2025 workshop at @univie.ac.at!

NIHR PRU Behavioural and Social Sciences@nihr-pru-bass.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Our researcher @jackmbirch.bsky.social recently attended a workshop on the digital health divide at the University of Vienna @univie.ac.at. Read about how they considered how research practice can be improved when considering the digital health divide ⬇️ behscipru.nihr.ac.uk/3207-2/

After all the bollocks of claiming (wrongly) that the UK has two tier justice system, Farage is planning exactly that.

A really nice example on how to visually communicate the text contents of a paper on mobile phones

Megan Ranney MD MPH@meganranney.bsky.social · 12mo ago

A must-read, must-share piece - clearly deconstructing the shoddy science of the Geiers (who are inexplicably in charge of studies at HHS). Consider this an early warning for what lies ahead. 🛟🩺🧪 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Our researcher @jackmbirch.bsky.social recently attended a workshop on the digital health divide at the University of Vienna @univie.ac.at. Read about how they considered how research practice can be improved when considering the digital health divide ⬇️ behscipru.nihr.ac.uk/3207-2/

Considering the digital health divide - NIHR PRU Behavioural and Social Sciences

One of our Newcastle-based researchers, Dr Jack Birch, recently attended a workshop on the ‘digital health divide’ at the University of Vienna. “The digital health divide is how digital interventions ...

behscipru.nihr.ac.uk

Very happy to see a big paper from my PhD *OUT TODAY* We explored if there were inequalities in the attendance & effectiveness of behavioural weight management interventions in an individual participant data meta-analysis. See the thread for findings 👇 bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/3/2/...

Are there inequalities in the attendance at and effectiveness of behavioural weight management interventions for adults in the UK? An individual participant data meta-analysis

Objectives Interventions for obesity that require individual behaviour change, such as behavioural weight management interventions, may contribute to health inequalities. We explored if there was evid...

bmjpublichealth.bmj.com

Want to help improve mental health in academia? We are looking for bloggers for our November and December slots. You can submit a pitch here and learn more about the process: voicesofacademia.com/contact-2/

AI replicates, magnifies and perpetuates the biases already active in our health system and society www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

AI tools used by English councils downplay women’s health issues, study finds

Exclusive: LSE research finds risk of gender bias in care decisions made based on AI summaries of case notes

theguardian.com