Complexity in Health

We know that population health and health inequalities are a product of the complex interplay of many different factors, including social, behavioural, economic, political and environmental determinants of health. These factors come together in complex adaptive systems that are often resistant to change. This makes it very difficult to find out how we can improve health, or to understand or predict the impact on health of different policies or interventions. We aim to provide leadership in the development of new research methods to evaluate programmes that aim to improve health and reduce inequalities in health. This work is important since decision makers need to understand where to target effort and investment. It is imperative that we can identify what works, for whom, under what circumstances and why. We will further develop and apply methods to help researchers, decision makers and the public share their knowledge to gain richer understandings of how multiple factors come together to influence heath and inequalities. We will use simulation and evaluation methods to identify solutions that contribute to improve health and reduce inequalities. Our work will focus on mental health, healthy ageing, adolescent health, social care and healthy schools.