Summary of the impact

Research at Northumbria has identified factors associated with trust in and intention to use Internet based health advice. A model of trust in online advice was published in 2007 that showed the importance of personalised peer-to-peer health messages — this was taken up by the press and broadcast media and led to changes in industry and public health practice around (i) the use of web material as a marketing and consumer tool for big pharma; (ii) the design of contemporary e-health sites; (iii) Government policy on the use of personal patient experience to influence patient choice.

Summary of the impact

Research at Coventry University has produced innovative approaches to addressing sexual health and wellbeing issues, sexual health promotion and sex education. The research has resulted in:-

• Impact on health and wellbeing (UK), an increase in self-reported use of sexual health services (supported by an increase in STI screening rates in some services) and increases in chlamydia screening and detection rates (with the programme now being rolled out nationally). Beneficiaries include young people, parents, GPs, Warwickshire County Council and Coventry City Council.
• Impact on society, culture and creativity through public understanding and public debate (International), with more than 150,000 visitors from over 20 countries accessing the sexual health resources, 30% of visitors returning to the website and an average of 6000 visits per month to the site, one year after launch. These resources benefit young people (primarily 13-25 age group).
• Impact on practitioners and services (International), with training courses and tools facilitating the adoption of best practice, with resources benefitting health practitioners and teachers and being used as evidence of harmful cultural practices in the Asylum Appeal Court.

Summary of the impact

The focus of the case is Social Network Analysis (SNA) which allows patterns of relations between actors (human and other entities) to be modelled and combined with actors' attributes. Edinburgh Napier University has applied these methods across a wide range of fields, achieving impacts both in the UK and internationally to make improvements in areas of health, commerce and policy. Methods have been applied to improve: the well-being of women and substance abusers in Bangladesh; the performance of supply chains; to demonstrate the effectiveness of prisoner management in reducing recidivism; and, to assess the effectiveness of health promotion initiatives.

Summary of the impact

The governance of information and its sharing significantly influences legal decision-making in institutional contexts. This research contrasts this with the social benefits and political desirability of making stakeholders who are the subjects of that information (or intended beneficiaries) participants in decision-making by making them partners in information governance and usage (Grace and Taylor, 2013, and Information Governance Review, 2013).

Through ethical and legal analysis this research seeks to understand the critical factors in practitioner decision-making and in structures of governance (including regulation). The specific impacts of this research have been in the fields of healthcare, and the management and governance of patient information in the NHS in research and commissioning contexts - specifically, the individual rights to reasonable objections, where this is practicable, for patients who feel that NHS healthcare research projects infringe their sense of privacy and confidentiality.

Summary of the impact

Scotland's Health On the Web (SHOW) was the first Healthcare Information Network of its kind and was developed in an EU project between 1996 and 1999. The original aim was to develop ways of exploiting the Web to provide trustworthy and authoritative health information in a way that was easy to find. The resulting system was adopted as the major vehicle of NHS Scotland for providing healthcare information to public and professionals. Serviced by a specially appointed team, it currently supports around 400 sites, and in recent years usage has been high, averaging around 50 million website hits per month.

Summary of the impact

Research by the School of Pharmacy has been used by the UK Government in their drive to improve the nation's public health. Our evidence base was used to inform the 2008 White Paper "Pharmacy in England: Building on Strengths — Delivering the Future". Healthy Living Pharmacies, recommended by the White Paper, have been piloted leading to improved engagement with local commissioners, further training for pharmacy staff, more cost-effective delivery of public health services, and an increase in public awareness and access to these services. In addition, the Government backed Pharmacy and Public Health Forum is utilising our research in its remit to develop, implement and evaluate public health practice in pharmacy.

Summary of the impact

Research undertaken at the Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities(CIDD), has significantly impacted upon:

1. The identification of health inequalities through improved health surveillance.
2. The development of a network of Health Facilitators linked to GP Practices to promote health screening/annual checks.
3. The development of accessible information to assist people with ID in making positive lifestyle choices and access healthcare services.
4. The development of health promotion interventions targeting secondary health conditions for people with ID.
5. The translation of this research into pre/post multi-disciplinary education.
6. The preparation of regional, national and international policy guidelines.

Summary of the impact

Evidence about the need for and provision of health visiting services generated through research undertaken at King's College London (KCL) has underpinned major changes in national policies for health visiting. Our findings about health visitors' practice, availability and distribution of services and effectiveness in terms of parenting/child outcomes, revealed both shortfalls in provision and opportunities for improvement and led to the development of a new caseload weighting tool and funding model for service planning. The accumulated evidence from this research helped convince the UK Government in 2010 to commit to 4,200 more health visitors by 2015 — a workforce expansion of nearly 50% — in a time of austerity and restraint elsewhere in the public sector.

Summary of the impact

The `People in Public Health' (PIPH) study and related research on health trainers, health champions and volunteers has brought together evidence on rationales for lay engagement, effectiveness and models of support. Dissemination activities, supported by a Department of Health grant, have achieved reach into various policy arenas and national networks. At the same time there is evidence of research utilisation in public health practice. One of the impacts has been the establishment of `Active Citizens for Health', a national network of partner organisations to bring together evidence and learning that has been hosted by Leeds Metropolitan University.

Summary of the impact

This case study describes two types of impact. First, awareness of a health benefit has been raised in the treatment of people with diabetes, second, people with diabetes' attitudes to the treatment of diabetes has changed. These impacts were achieved in collaboration with health professionals working for two NHS trusts (Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and Sussex Community NHS Trust) through the development of new educational materials to increase people with diabetes' awareness of diabetes and diabetes self-care behaviour.