Theme 1: Behaviour Inequalities and Health

Economically deprived communities and unhealthy behaviours place a heavy burden on the health service, social care and the people within them.. Physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, tobacco smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption (‘big four’ behaviours). People living in more deprived communities are much more likely to engage in all four behaviours. They spend a longer proportion of their lives in poorer health and early mortality is higher. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities and ill-health behaviours have worsened.

The strength of our work is that partnership working is key to the work we do, to better understand our communities and work those who have the greatest needs. Our aims are to empower people and communities to improve health and well-being. We work with residents of underrepresented communities and key other stakeholders such as community, voluntary, health and social care organisations, and local government. Our NIHA Co-Production Panel is a key stakeholder and underpins the work that we do.

We will co-produce interventions which empower people and communities to make positive choices to benefit their health and well-being.

Our focus is health-promoting behaviours, especially the ‘big four’ behaviours and sleep. Due to the inequalities in health-protective behaviours, we are also working to improve behaviours such as uptake of cancer screening and vaccinations (Covid-19, flu), to reduce these inequalities.

Our work includes individual, group, community and systems-based interventions targeting multiple influences of behaviour (psychological, social, environmental and financial). All our work acknowledges local context and social practices. Examples of our work include our partnership work on food insecurity and food poverty with multiple local organisations and community groups, and cancer prevention work in our most under-researched communities, digital interventions and brief conversations about behaviour change.