Public Health
Our Population Health research has diverse and well-established collaborations with policy makers, commissioners, service providers and communities in the NHS, local government, third sector and organisations in Sheffield, the United Kingdom and globally.
Our researchers produce high-impact applied public health research and knowledge exchange and are successful in getting research evidence into practice. We support public health research capacity development and are host to the Sheffield component of the School for Public Health Research (SPHR), the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Training Centre for Public Health Economics and Decision Science, and the Applied Research Collaboration (ARC).
We also work in partnership with the University of Sheffield's flagship research institutes – the Healthy Lifespan Institute and the Institute for Sustainable Food – in developing collaborative research programmes, both locally and globally.
Alcohol and Tobacco Policy
Our research plays a central role in current policy and public debate around alcohol, tobacco and gambling. In particular, our Sheffield Tobacco and Alcohol Policy Model has provided a key evidence base for debates around minimum unit pricing, brief interventions and low-risk drinking guidelines in the UK and internationally. We also co-lead the Department of Health and Social Care’s Policy Research Unit on Addictions.
Sheffield Addictions Research Group
Epidemiology
The epidemiology research theme provides a platform across the School of Medicine and Population Health, and beyond, to bring together those interested in improving population-level health through the better characterisation of disease and the refining of preventive measures and treatments, whatever their discipline. In doing this we facilitate the development, uptake, and continued use of robust methods and best practice to bridge the gap between the research and operational environments and prevent and reverse negative health outcomes.
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Evaluation, real-world evidence and knowledge into action
The theme activities are underpinned by an applied and theoretical concern to increase understanding of the adoption and implementation of research evidence into clinical practice, local government commissioning and to influence public health policy. Our mission is to increase the coproduction of knowledge in order to accelerate the adoption of research findings across all stages of the research process (pre-, during and post-research). We contribute to national, regional and local research and evaluation programmes including SPHR, PHIRST Fusion and the City of Doncaster HDRC.
Evidence synthesis and retrieval
We have an international reputation in information sciences, evidence synthesis and modelling methodologies and we deliver a number of evidence synthesis programmes including SCHARR-TAG, our NIHR Evidence Synthesis Group (EnSygN), the NIHR Public Health Review Team and the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Evidence Synthesis Centre.
Food and nutrition
Our Food and Nutrition Group includes nutritionists, dietitians, public health specialists, sociologists, statisticians, global health policy experts, psychologists and geographers. They have expertise in different geographical settings and a wide range of methodologies. The group has been established to pursue research activities associated with the study of interactions between food, nutrition and society.
Global Health and Environment
The Global Health and the Environment research theme draws from the expertise available across the School of Medicine and Population Health to encompass a broad range of research activities. With a focus on low- and middle-income settings, and guided by the principles of environmental, public, population and international health in attaining equity in health, this research theme provides a platform for multidisciplinary approaches that bridge the gap between the research and operational environments and facilitates the development, uptake, and continued use of robust methods and best practice.
These principles are applied, for example, to our environmental research activities where we explore health system resilience for extreme weather emergencies, the effects of climate change on physical and mental health, health system sustainability initiatives, and the inequalities and marginalisation of communities adversely affected by extreme weather.
Health Equity and Inclusion
Our Health Equity and Inclusion Research Group works in partnership with local people and stakeholders to improve understanding of, and action on, health equity. We focus on the social and political determinants of health, we specialise in participatory and inclusive research methods, and we use theory-informed approaches to addressing health inequity.