Summary of the impact

Research on the livelihoods of post-trafficked women in Nepal, co-produced with the women themselves, has produced three significant impacts by:

1. Informing and influencing policy debate and formation within Nepali government organisations and NGOs, and with international donors and agencies working in the region, on post-trafficking development challenges.
2. Building capacity amongst post-trafficked women to enhance their self-advocacy and influence as they secure their livelihoods and claim citizenship rights in Nepal.
3. Raising public awareness and changing conventional wisdom about post-trafficking livelihoods, locally and internationally, enabling women and their advocates to challenge their exclusion.

Summary of the impact

Research carried out by LSHTM into mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries has promoted new approaches to mental health care and influenced donors, practitioners and policy-makers, contributing to changing global priorities in this area. WHO launched a flagship action plan based on the research, governments and NGOs made substantial financial allocations for implementing the research innovations, and the findings have been translated into treatment guidelines used to train health workers in managing mental illness in many countries.

Summary of the impact

This case study is based on two areas of research, both focused on young women's sexual health, conducted by Hoggart and Newton between 2009 and 2013. The first concerns abortion, and the second concerns long-acting reversible contraception (hereafter LARC). The research has had the following impacts: sexual health policy has been influenced; the delivery of sexual health service has changed; guidelines have been informed; practitioners have used the research findings; new clinical processes have been adopted; professional training has been influenced by the research; and industry has invested in research.

Summary of the impact

Findings from research at Newcastle on health inequalities and the basis on which economic decisions are made have informed the recommendations made to and adopted by the Secretary of State of Health. These recommendations influenced two specific areas of the National Health Service (NHS) budget allocation. Formulae developed by Wildman and his colleagues are of key importance in determining the allocation of the NHS's £8 billion prescribing budget and the £10.4 billion mental health services budget.

Summary of the impact

The Million Women Study of 1.3 million UK women over the age of 50, coordinated by the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at Oxford, has established the relationship between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancer, and has had a dramatic effect on HRT prescription patterns and prescription guidelines worldwide. This has had a major impact on women's health. Prior to the study, one third of UK women aged 50-64 were using HRT. The marked decline in HRT use following publication of the study's findings has led to a reduction in the incidence of breast cancer among menopausal women.

Summary of the impact

Adults with learning disabilities (LD) often cannot adequately report illness and there is evidence that treatable illnesses go undetected. As a direct result of Cardiff University research on health checking adults in primary care, the Welsh Government and the Department of Health now provide funding for all adults with LDs across England and Wales to receive an annual health check that employs Cardiff University methods. Current data on take-up (N=78,000 per year) and evaluation of results show that nearly 250,000 adults with LDs have had new health needs identified and treatments initiated during the REF assessment period (2008-2013). Nearly 40,000 adults per year will have new health needs identified and treatments initiated as a result of the health checks, with approximately 3,500 of these being potentially serious conditions.

Summary of the impact

Research by the University of Southampton into maternal and child health in the developing world has contributed significantly to the design of better health policies by governments, international agencies, and non-governmental organisations. The research broke new ground in identifying the urban poor in developing countries as among the groups most at risk of poor maternal and child health. Its findings have informed policy and funding priorities at national and international organisations including the Department for International Development (DFID) and the United Nations; influenced health practitioners in Africa and Asia; and led to better health care outcomes in countries which were the focus of the research.

Summary of the impact

Approximately 25,000 people in the UK die each year from venous thromboembolism (VTE); furthermore, VTE affects 1 in 100,000 women of childbearing age and causes one-third of all maternal deaths. Thrombophilia, pregnancy and the use of oral oestrogens can all place women at increased risk of VTE when compared with other individuals. University of Glasgow researchers quantified the probability of VTE among at-risk women and analysed the benefits and cost-effectiveness of thrombophilia screening. Their research is cited in the recommendations and evidence bases of leading national and international clinical guidelines. This work also galvanised an overhaul of VTE prevention policy within NHS Scotland by emphasising the need for regional health boards to implement and audit standardised in-house protocols and provide accessible patient information on VTE.

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

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.