Why the Health Action Research Group is needed 

We all know the problems many people in the UK are experiencing getting medical diagnosis and treatment. That’s why so many politicians, pundits and people are focused on what to do about the NHS. However, at the Health Action Research Group we've concluded that:

  • There’s a need to dig deeper, including asking why demand for medical treatment is rising faster than doctors and nurses can be recruited and retained, new hospital beds can be provided, and social care can be arranged to avoid ‘bed blocking’ in hospitals. 
  • This escalating level of medical need is at the root of many of the NHS’s current problems. That’s why we are focused on what can be done to prevent health problems arising in the first place – why we believe prevention is truly better than cure. 
  • We need to look beyond purely medical factors, for example to explore why Britain has moved from being one of the most equal nations in Europe in the 1970’s to being one of the most unequal in the 2020’s - and the knock-on effects of this on the nation’s health. 
  • Health inequalities have fuelled an escalation in health needs, together with a reluctance to tackle the businesses which mass produce products that increase health risks – including ‘junk food,’ alcohol, gambling and social media. 

The Impact of Health Inequalities 

1. More than twice as many working age adults died from Covid-19 in the poorest areas of England compared with people living in the richest areas - and even before Covid, the North/South divide in the nation's health was wider than it had been for forty years.

2. More than twice as many women take antidepressants in the poorest areas in England compared with women in the richest areas. 

3. Women in affluent Richmond upon Thames enjoy 18 years more good health on average than women in Tower Hamlets.

4. We have the highest obesity rate of any major European country - and obesity rates are twice as high in deprived areas.

5. With basics like energy costs and housing higher in the UK than in most other European countries, this left people on low incomes struggling even before the current cost of living crisis.

6. Professor Sir Michael Marmot concluded that social inequality (status) may be even more damaging to our health than poverty. The experience of low status and inequality – being low status, feeling low status and being made to feel low status – has a significant and detrimental effect on people’s lives and their physical and mental health.

7. More years spent in poor health due to health inequalities means lower productivity and lower tax revenue – and higher NHS, welfare and social care expenditure. 

Fresh, evidence-based research 

At the Health Action Research Group we research major health issues, from childhood obesity to healthy ageing, from the reported mental health crisis among children and young people to health at work. We then explore each issue from as many perspectives as possible to see where the evidence leads us. We also research ‘what works’ in tackling these health issues, including in other countries, to identify approaches which could potentially be adopted or adapted here in the UK. This often enables us to provide fresh perspectives to policy-makers. Here are some examples: 

 

Our research identified what food companies could and couldn't realistically do to mass produce healthier food and recommended government action to incentivize this. We are pleased to see this is now being widely recognised, for instance by the Recipe for Change coalition, which in 2025 urged HM Treasury, Department for Health and Social Care and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to issue a joint call for evidence on measures to incentivise healthier food and drink production beyond the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, including further financial levers.

 

 

 Early in the COVID pandemic, we observed that the most vulnerable groups were members of ethnic minorities, people in care homes, and people who were obese – and that one thing this disparate group of people had in common was an increased risk of Vitamin D deficiency. In May 2020 we therefore recommended making Vitamin D available to at-risk groups. Our initial assessment was confirmed by later studies. For example, in January 2021 a review of published studies concluded that prescribing vitamin D to patients with COVID-19 infection seemed to decrease the severity of the disease and the mortality rate, while in May 2021 a UK Biobank study concluded, 'the habitual use of vitamin D supplements was significantly associated with a 34% lower risk of COVID-19 infection.' 

  

 

 Our research into ‘what works’ in reducing childhood obesity led us to successful initiatives in other countries, including EPODE (Ensemble Prévenons l'Obésité Des Enfants) in French towns, JOGG (Jongeren op Gezond Gewicht) in Dutch cities and TCOCT (The Children’s Obesity Clinic Treatment) in a Danish hospital. We identified what these initiatives had in common, including the very helpful capacity for scaling up, and shared this information with the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, which cited our evidence in its 2018 Childhood Obesity report.

We have continued to provide information on 'what works' to parliamentary committees. For instance, the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee cited some of our evidence in its 2024 report, including that large food businesses already routinely reformulate products in response to consumer tastes and regulatory pressure in different markets. More recently we were invited to provide evidence to a meeting of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee in November 2025.

 

 

Our research confirms the significant influence of socio-economic factors on people’s health – as illustrated by the extent of health inequalities in the UK. However, our research also suggests that ‘determinants’ can suggest too fatalistic an assessment. People have agency. There are sometimes choices they themselves can make to reduce the risk of illness. That’s why we have also researched health behaviour change. This included a research project where we interviewed over a thousand adults. The interviews identified ‘trigger points’ when people are more open to listening to and acting on health advice - in particular when they are pregnant, when they have children, when they or someone close to them has been diagnosed with an illness, or as they get older.

We also researched student health behaviour change in partnership with King’s College London and Goldsmith’s, University of London. This encouragingly identified that students at the time (Generation Z) were tending to adopt physically healthier lifestyles than their predecessors – the first published research in the UK to identify this trend. Shortly after our research was published, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that 16 – 24 year olds were the age group pursuing the healthiest lifestyles, in line with our research findings.

 

    You can find our recent research review findings and reports in the next column.

         You can also see some of our earlier research in the section below.

 

Student Mental Health: In Student Mental Health - fresh perspectives we reported on research we had undertaken in partnership with King's College London, Greenwich University and Ulster University. This identified the influence of pre-university experience on mental health while at university.

Health at Work: Our Employers’ Guide to Health at Work drew on research we conducted across the public, private and not for profit sectors, both before and during COVID-19 - and shared the findings employers were likely to find most useful.

Mental Health: Our article 'Student Mental health - a public health challenge?' was published in Perspectives in Public Health. It suggested that, to better protect student mental health, universities needed to look upstream and work with schools, parents and ofsted to reduce the risk of young people arriving at university already predisposed to mental health problems.

Children and Young People's Mental Health: In our evidence to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, we identified the importance of clarifying what terms like mental health problem mean in practice, the importance of the early years for mental health, potential unintended mental health consequences of safegarding, and the value of opportunities to develop resilience.  

Encouraging physical activity - what works: Our research  into successful initiatives to encourage physical activity was published in Perspectives in Public Health. We identified the value of what we described as ExercisePLUS i.e. adding an extra ingredient over and above exercising for its intrinsic health benefits. 

Improving mental health - the importance of the early years: The early years of life can lay the foundations for long term mental health. Hence the importance of timely intervention with new parents, starting by identifying who is most at risk. That was one of the conclusions from our research published in Perspectives in Public Health.  

Student Health Behaviour Change: Our research, undertaken with King’s College London, was published in Perspectives in Public Health. It was the first published research in the UK to identify a generational shift in the physical health behaviour of university students.

Tackling Childhood Obesity: Here's our 2019 written evidence to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee - and the written evidence we provided to the Committee in 2018, some of which was included in the Committee's published report.

Health Behaviour Change: Find out more about our research into Health Behaviour Change, undertaken in partnership with Kingston University. After interviewing a sample of over a thousand adults, we concluded that most adults know what is good for their health and what isn't (even if they don't always act on that knowledge), that many adults seek to adopt healthier lifestyles (with varying degrees of success) and that there are identifiable trigger points (including becoming pregnant or aiming to have children) when people are more open to acting on health information.

 

                To find out more contact us at info@healthactionresearch.org.uk

  

 Health Action Research Group is a not for profit limited company - number 10753014, recognised as a charity by HMRC 

Health Action Research Group, Dalton House, 60 Windsor Avenue, London, SW19 2RR

www.healthactionresearch.org.uk                    info@healthactionresearch.org.uk