Active Public Health & Healthcare Diabetes, Hormones & Metabolism

A living lab approach to understanding healthy weight needs of Black communities in areas of deprivation

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation Oxford Brookes University
Funding £170K
Period Oct 2025 — May 2027

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Over 70% of Black adults in England are overweight—the highest rate of any ethnic group—yet almost no weight management programmes are designed with or for them. This project tests whether a “living lab” approach, where Black communities in deprived areas co-create solutions alongside researchers, can uncover what healthy weight support actually looks like for these groups. Current interventions fail because they ignore cultural context, lived experience, and systemic barriers such as poverty and food access. By centring community voices and using participatory methods, the research aims to fill a glaring evidence gap: why existing programmes don’t work for Black communities and what might. If successful, this work won’t produce a new drug or device. Instead, it could reshape how public health services design weight management support—shifting from one-size-fits-all programmes to locally relevant, community-trusted approaches. The immediate output is a tested methodology and research capacity, laying groundwork for larger studies on healthy weight inequalities. This is applied, community-centred research with no fundamental science component; its value lies in generating actionable knowledge that could eventually reduce the earlier onset of multiple long-term conditions seen in deprived Black communities.

View original technical description
Tackling the widening gap in health inequalities is of critical concern, with people in the most deprived neighbourhoods in England and certain ethnic groups getting multiple long-term health conditions many years earlier than the least deprived communities.The impact of inequalities on health outcomes can be seen in conditions associated with living with obesity. Black ethnic groups are a high-risk group with over 70% of Black adults in England as overweight, the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups.Existing gaps of evidence and data on ethnic groups and weight management and an ongoing lack of interventions that resonate with UK Black ethnic groups, means that very little is still understood. Recent studies and engagement with Black communities call for participatory, community-centred approaches to healthy weight management. The living labs approach is a methodology known for user innovation and co-creation of solutions. This project aims to explore the utility of the living lab approach to understand the healthy weight needs of Black communities living in areas of high deprivation. Co-design living lab methods will be used to center the voice and lived experience of Black communities. Research capacity and knowledge will be developed, leading to larger, collaborative studies on healthy weight inequalities.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Chiko Ncube (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

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Original classification

Wellcome Accelerator Awards

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.