Behavioural, social & environmental determinants of physical & mental health
Programme overview
The overarching aim of this programme is to understand relationships between health behaviours and both physical and mental health outcomes, in order to develop a better understanding of the mechanistic pathways that underline these relationships and identify targets for novel individual and population level interventions.
Aims and objectives
Our specific aims include:
- To identify novel genetic instruments relevant to health behaviours for use in Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses
- To understand the network of causal relationships between health behaviours and a range of physical and mental health outcomes
- To interrogate the mechanistic pathways that underlie causal relationships between behaviour and health and identify targets for intervention.
Research outcomes
This programme provides a flow of work that gives mechanistic insight into causal relationships between health behaviours and both physical and mental health outcomes, and support subsequent intervention development and testing, through existing relationships with other major research groupings and industry partners.
We work closely with Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (previously Public Health England), Bristol City Council, and local NHS trusts to ensure that our work is relevant to the needs of patients and healthcare professionals.
Research highlights
Smoking and vaping
We are interested in the health effects of both smoking and vaping, using methods such as multivariable Mendelian randomization to isolate the health effects of long-term nicotine exposure specifically. We are also interested in whether vaping in young people leads to them taking up smoking - the so-called “gateway effect” - and in particular whether this is due to common genetic influences on the likelihood of both smoking and vaping.
Educational attainment and likelihood of smoking
We know that higher levels of educational attainment is associated with better health and social outcomes. Some of this, particularly with respect to health outcomes, appears to be mediated by smoking. This has important policy implications, suggesting that the association between education and health is causal, and improving educational outcomes will therefore also improve health outcomes.
Loneliness and health
Loneliness is associated with a number of adverse health outcomes, but whether this association reflects a causal pathway, and if it does whether it is direct or mediated via e.g. health behaviours is unclear. In partnership with Nesta, we are examining the causal effects of loneliness on a range of health outcomes, and mediation via behaviours such as smoking and drinking, using multivariable Mendelian randomization.
Choice architecture
We have a long-standing interest in positive behaviour change to improve health outcomes. This includes choice architecture (or “nudge”) interventions that change the environment in ways that promote healthier choices. This work has included increasing the availability of alcohol-free beer in bars and pubs, and using labels to promote more sustainable dietary choices in coffee shops and restaurants.
