Equitable and sustainable health outcomes

Our research into global health spans topics and regions. We deliver world-leading, impactful research on health and wellbeing across the lifecourse, grounded in active collaboration with our international partners.

• COVID-19 and the 'forced culture change' in higher education
  Our research captures the lives and views of those working in higher education during the recent mass online migration.
• Supporting Early Years transition to school
  Examining the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on early years transition to school, with a focus on children with SEND and children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Reimagining the Diary
  Helping to improve teacher wellbeing in the UK
• Research helps define and improve the management of ‘medical manslaughter’ cases
  Dr Oliver Quick is a recognised authority in Criminal Law and Medical Law, with a special interest in patient safety. His recent research has focused on how prosecutors and experts negotiate criminal law and process in these controversial cases.
• Improving the quality of life of older people
  Using objects and storytelling in care homes helps residents build social connections and improves their quality of life.
• Bridging Gaps in primary healthcare for women with complex needs
  A co-produced intervention that not only successfully increased the number of women with complex needs accessing mainstream healthcare, but also empowered the women concerned to act as champions and advocates in their community.
• Delivering equality of support for parents with learning difficulties
  Without early and on-going support these families often face extremely complex difficulties resulting in concerns about neglect by omission – not knowing how to look after their children, rather than deliberate abuse.
• Taking action on mortality reviews of people with learning disabilities
  Bristol is now a leading institution for the study of mortality of people with learning disabilities, not only nationally but also internationally.
• Helping to enable children’s rights to citizenship
  Numerous children are in precarious life situations despite being born or having lived in the UK for years and being eligible for the secure status of citizenship.
• Creating inclusive care home environments for older LGBT+ people
  Sexual orientation as a social and cultural dimension to older people's lives is often obscured within health and social care policy and practice settings. This situation is even more problematic for older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) individuals.
• Putting mental health research into practice
  Charities might not be the first thing people think about when they hear the word ‘industry’. However, third sector and charitable companies like Second Step contribute tens of billions of pounds to the UK economy each year - Dr Myles-Jay Linton
• Mental Health and Personal Finance
  Research suggests that one in four people with mental health problems are in debt, while one in two people in debt have a mental health problem.
• Inclusive walking for Bristol’s transport planning and public health
  Walking is a convenient and free form of exercise, and a carbon neutral mode of transport. In Bristol there are both reasons and opportunities for walking to both improve people’s health and to address local transport issues.
• Testing a new approach to dietary changes for type 2 diabetes
  There are only around 9,000 registered dietitians in the UK and not all have expertise in the prevention and management of diabetes. Dr Anne Haase and Dr Clare England developed a specific approach to help set relevant goals and to support diet behaviour change for type 2 diabetes patients.
• Research leads to practical support for young people with continence problems
  Bladder and bowel problems are very common and can be affected by psychological issues and stressful life events in a child’s life. There is also strong evidence that bladder and bowel problems affect the mental health of children, young people and their parents.
• Generation Snowstorm – a Social Change Summer School as a mental health intervention
  Off The Record (OTR) Bristol is an innovative young people's mental health charity with a focus on engaging young people in service design and delivery. Over 2017-18 Dr Nathan Eisenstadt collaborated with OTR on a Knowledge Exchange project funded by Bristol's ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.
• Improving responses to violence against refugee and asylum-seeking women
  Sexual violence against refugee and asylum-seeking (RAS) women is occurring across Europe and the Mediterranean countries. International agencies and institutions including the UN, UNHCR, Council of Europe, and European Parliament have highlighted the urgent need for action to be taken.
• Research leads to licensed training on assessing parents' capacity to change in child welfare cases
  C-Change was designed by researchers in Bristol's Children and Families Research Centre and successfully licensed to partner Interface Enterprises to deliver national training.
• Promoting culturally sensitive services to support Somali families affected by autism
  Dr Fiona Fox, Therapeutic Media, and Autism Independence together won ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) funding to produce a film that supports both the needs of the families and the practitioners trying to help them.
• Improving veterinary prospects with a global approach to professional development
  Hundreds of trainees and practicing vets are benefiting from initiatives undertaken by Bristol Vet School’s clinical skills team, including workshops delivered around the world, innovative approaches to developing animal models and open access knowledge systems.
• Reducing the Poverty Premium
  In 2016 the Personal Finance Research Centre measured for the first time how many current low-income households are actually affected by poverty premium, and by how much.
• Driving responsible use of antimicrobials
  Researchers, practitioners and industry bodies across the food chain successfully combined forces for policy and practitioner changes in antimicrobial use on farms and in veterinary practices.
• The future of synthetic vaccines: combining cutting edge science and global collaboration to protect lives
  The University of Bristol will contribute to a new research hub to increase global immunisation coverage and improve the response to viral outbreaks through the rapid and cost-effective deployment of vaccines.
• Controlled release antimicrobial to offer alternative to antibiotics
  Ten years of Bristol’s pioneering biomaterials research has led to the launch of a novel technology to prevent and treat bacterial infection. The award-winning technology has exciting potential across human and veterinary medicine and could help combat the rising threat of antimicrobial drug resistance.
• Worldwide access for children to sight-saving medication
  The eye disease uveitis affects thousands of children every year - but a landmark trial has enabled worldwide access to new, sight-saving medication.
• Preventing tick-borne disease through awareness
  The largest study of ticks on dogs ever undertaken in the UK provided the science behind a successful and high profile campaign, endorsed by TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham, to raise awareness of tick-borne diseases and how to protect against them.
• Seabed life promises new wave of antibiotics
  The search is on for new antibiotics, with antimicrobial resistance now one of the world’s most pressing public health issues.
• Meningitis vaccine could save thousands of young lives
  Research directly influencing the Department of Health’s decision to introduce a vaccine against meningitis B into the routine immunisation schedule for all babies in the UK could avert over 4,400 cases of meningococcal disease in England over the next 10 years.
• Revolutionising synthetic peptide production
  Biochemists at the University of Bristol have developed a revolutionary method for peptide design and production that will contribute to the availability of more effective pharmaceuticals.
• Protecting consumers from weight-loss claims
  Food giant Unilever abandoned plans to incorporate Fabuless into its slimming products following a study by experimental psychologists at the University of Bristol.
• Investigating the relationship between braces and gum disease
  Using molecular technologies to monitor plaque, researchers found no predisposition for children wearing braces to gum disease - as long as they follow brushing instructions carefully.
• Influencing cancer drug development programmes
  Collaboration between researchers and the pharmaceutical industry has led to major investment in cancer drug discovery programmes that target inhibitors in transporter proteins.
• Improving livestock health through targeted parasite management
  Research into roundworms that cause disease in livestock has improved the targeted control of these parasites, resulting in healthier animals and economic benefits for farmers.
• Altering cellular function of immune system could help target allergies
  Peanut allergy has long-term consequences and potentially life threatening effects, but there is no clinically available cure. A cellular and molecular could provide new clues.
• Street-play model copied nationwide
  Bristol has more street-play schemes than any other city in the UK, due in part to University research.
• Focusing healthcare competition on quality not price
  Bristol research leads to hospitals competing on quality - not price - for elective care, improving patient experience without increasing resource use.
• Improving prospects for people with kidney disease
  It’s rare in the UK, so you may not have heard of nephrotic syndrome, but in low-to-middle income countries it’s fatally under-recognised and under-resourced.
• Learning what longer life means for kids with HIV in Africa
  Antiretroviral therapy greatly improves survival rates for HIV-positive people - but with this success come pressing new challenges.
• Reducing suicide risk in Sri Lanka
  More people survive suicide in Sri Lanka than ever before – but there’s no let-up in the number of people attempting it.
• Adaptive immunity
  Discovery of a bacterial protein's unusual properties have given rise to a novel drug for the treatment of inflammatory diseases which affect hundreds of millions of people globally.
• Raising welfare standards improves meat quality in poultry
  Research into water bath and gas stunning techniques raises welfare standards and improves meat quality in commercial poultry slaughterhouses.
• Transforming cardiac surgery with pioneering techniques
  ‘Beating-heart’ surgery is used in over 20% of cardiac operations worldwide, improving survival and recovery rates for patients and reducing surgery costs by up to 25%.
• Phasing out all-metal hip replacements
  Research revealing the relatively high failure rates of metal-on-metal implants in hip replacement surgery has led to a dramatic decline in their use.
• Genetic mapping improves understanding of osteoarthritis
  Using multi-disciplinary techniques to map the development of osteoarthritis in zebrafish genes allows a greater understanding of joint deterioration in humans.
• Reducing the likelihood of developing a leading cause of blindness
  Researchers have developed a unique device that can be used to test people for one of the risk factors for age-related macular degeneration – the leading cause of blindness in the UK.
• Sugar sensing technology
  Synthetic carbohydrate- sensing molecules are at the core of an innovative new carbohydrate sensing technology being developed and commercialised by the start-up chemistry company, Ziylo.
• IRIS training helps victims of domestic abuse
  Training and support programme IRIS enables GPs to identify patients affected by domestic violence and abuse and refer them to specialist services, benefiting the patient and saving NHS resources.
• Shaping suicide prevention initiatives
  Research has helped shape local, national and global suicide prevention initiatives, leading to subsequent reductions in suicide rates.
• Changing policy on second eye cataract surgery
  Research into good practice have reduced waiting times for second eye cataract surgery, meaning UK patients get the benefits of surgery sooner.
• Mixed treatment comparisons inform clinical guidelines
  A new technique for comparing healthcare treatment options is helping policy makers in the UK, Canada, Germany, and South Korea.
• Harnessing fungi's medicinal and agicricultural potential
  The Basidio Molecular Toolkit enables the global agricultural and pharmaceutical industry to make dramatic breakthroughs in crop production and antibiotic research.
• Transforming public understanding of the brain
  Professor Hood’s BBC series ‘Meet your brain’ proved such a success that the British Council invited him to repeat his lectures in Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore.
• Increasing active travel to school
  Research proving that walking or cycling to school results in health benefits has informed national and international policy.
• Improving life expectancy for HIV positive people
  Research showed that antiretroviral treatment dramatically increases life expectancy and should be started as early as possible, leading to a major change of approach by policy makers, clinicians and insurers across the world.
• New diagnostic tests for rare kidney disease
  Red blood cell research identifies new tests for distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) - a potentially fatal kidney disease that can be treated with a spoonful of bicarbonate.
• Combatting antimicrobial resistance
  Microbiologists at the University of Bristol are investigating exactly why current drugs are not working in an attempt to reverse this trend before it’s too late.
• Improving accuracy of diagnosis for childhood leukaemia
  New cell analysis procedures have led to improved diagnostic techniques and national standards for cell processing.
• Helping prevent and treat bowel cancer
  Identifying apoptosis (cell suicide) as a plausible scientific mechanism for how a high fibre diet and aspirin may prevent and treat bowel cancer.
• Understanding the brain's role in obesity
  Using neuroimaging techniques to measure biological responses to food consumption helps researchers work towards finding an effective solution to obesity.
• Understanding the building blocks of cancer gives vital clues to treatment
  Research into the cellular and molecular basis of cancer has discovered how controlling the protein activity in cells could help treat colorectal cancer.
• Understanding chronic fatigue syndrome
  Using a state-of-the-art MRI scanner helps researchers understand the cognitive impairment which is often associated with chronic fatigue syndrome.
• Molecular research improves worldwide feline health
  Tests used to detect a range of infectious and genetic diseases in cats have informed diagnosis, treatment and breeding programmes.
• Improving dairy cow welfare and farm profitability
  Dairy cows and the dairy farming industry in the UK and overseas are benefiting from strategic animal-husbandry changes and lameness-control programmes.
• Search for new cancer biomarker propelled by detailed exploration of cell structures
  Advances in science, diagnosis and treatment mean that more people than ever before are surviving cancer. But with an increase in survival rates comes an increase in the possibility that for some people, cancer will recur later in life. This presents a continuing challenge for cancer research – biomedical scientists at Bristol University are finding new ways to find a solution.
• Landmark discoveries that could dramatically improve cardiac care
  Research into the regulation of calcium in cardiac muscle cells uses computer models to further understanding of molecular control and develop new ways to treat heart failure.
• Neurotransmitters may be behind debilitating headaches
  Motivation, addiction, sleep, high blood pressure – one family of neurones is implicated and if researchers at the University of Bristol hypothesise correctly, migraines could also be added to that list.
• Desensitising toothpastes
  Revealing the mechanism behind sensitive tooth pain has helped leading brands develop better desensitising toothpastes that provide relief for pain sufferers.
• Reducing heart attack tissue damage
  Pharmaceutical companies have shifted their focus for cardioprotective drug development based on research conducted at the University of Bristol.
• Schizophrenia linked to functional disconnections in the brain
  Attempts to understand schizophrenia and its diverse symptoms have taken researchers and psychiatrists on a journey throughout the brain.
• Dental braces and periodontal disease
  There's no predisposition for children wearing braces to periodontal disease - as long as they follow the orthodontists’ brushing instructions carefully.