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RESEARCH


STUDYING HEALTH


Improving men’s health and tackling childhood obesity are high on the agenda at Leeds Metropolitan University’s newly-launched Health and Wellbeing Institute. Julie Cramer speaks to Institute director Richard Hogston


Why did Leeds Metropolitan University decide to launch the Health and Wellbeing Institute? One of our key strengths is that our research is rooted in finding solutions that will have a real impact on com- munities and businesses. Creating the Health and Wellbeing Institute has brought together a range of related disciplines and made it easier for us all to work together and to generate and apply our research to even higher levels of excellence. We formally launched the Institute


in November 2011, with the back- ing of Professor Mike Kelly, director at the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and Dame Carol Black, the first national direc- tor for Health and Work. Both of those endorsements were very positive in what we’re trying to achieve.


What are your target research areas? The Institute has six distinct yet related research themes: healthy com- munities; health promotion; men’s health; men, gender and wellbeing; nutrition and childhood obesity; and pain science and management. Each theme is led by a professor.


What is the Institute’s focus? Leeds Metropolitan University’s research foundations and strengths are rooted in the practical implications of research – ie ‘the doing’ – and the impact that research has on communi- ties, which will be nurtured through our work here at the Institute. We’ve always ensured our research focus is outward-facing into the com- munity, as opposed to us being a group of unknown academics who are never seen outside the university.


What kind of projects do you undertake?


One local project involved a health campaign with Leeds Rhinos rugby club and the Department of Health at Headingley Stadium. Health MOTs and obesity checks were offered to thou- sands of fans on match days during the rugby season. This is a key way our research into health – and particularly men’s health in this instance – can make a difference in the community. We’ve also been involved with a similar project for several years pro- moting men’s health at Premier League football clubs (see p56), and have pub- lished some findings related to that.


Other projects we’re involved in include research in collaboration with Natural England on the health ben- efits of befriending schemes for the elderly. We also have a long history of research in the areas of prison health, nutrition and childhood obesity. We are much more focused on com- munity-based work rather than on laboratory work and clinical trials.


How many projects is the Institute involved in at any one time? We would normally have around 20 research projects going on at a time, both at a local and a national level. We recently secured a big bid to look at the effects and cost effectiveness of peer-based interventions to fos- ter and improve offender health in UK prisons, for example. A major study, The State of Men’s Health in Europe, was completed last summer, bringing together the offi- cial epidemiological data from across Europe. It was led by Leeds Met’s Professor Alan White and funded by the European Union and it attracted a significant amount of coverage. But we don’t just look at national projects – closer to home we’re work-


The Institute reaches out to men through sports clubs 54 Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital


Professor Alan White ISSUE 2 2012 © cybertrek 2012


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