Daisy Fancourt

Last updated
Daisy Fancourt
BornJune 1990 (age 34)
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields Mental health
Well-being
Institutions
Thesis The psychoneuroimmunology of music: modulation of psychological state, stress levels and immune response through participatory interventions  (2016)
Doctoral advisor Andrew Steptoe
Livia Carvalho [1]
Website www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology-health-care/people/fancourt

Daisy Fancourt (born June 1990 [2] ) is a British researcher who is a professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London. [3] [4] [5] [6] Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation, community assets, arts and cultural engagement, and social prescribing. [7] During the COVID-19 pandemic Fancourt led a team running the UK's largest study into the psychological and social impact of COVID-19 and established the international network COVID Minds, aiming to better understand the impact of coronavirus disease on mental health and well-being. [7] In She is listed by Clarivate as one of the most highly cited and influential scientists in the world. [8]

Contents

Early life and education

Fancourt earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Oxford [9] and her master's at King's College London in 2012. [10] Fancourt joined the National Health Service, where she worked at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on arts and clinical innovations. [10] She eventually returned to academia, and earned her doctoral degree in 2016 at University College London (UCL) where she worked in psychoneuroimmunology. [1] [11]

Research and career

After her PhD, Fancourt moved to Imperial College London as a postdoctoral researcher, where she was based in the Centre for Performance Science from 2013 to 2017. [12] The Centre for Performance Science is a partnership between Imperial College School of Medicine and the Royal College of Music. [13] Fancourt studied the biological impact of the arts, with a particular focus on the use of music in clinical settings. [14] Her work led to the publication of a new theoretical model for how music affects immune response. [15] She also developed and researched a number of new arts programmes to support clinical outcomes, including a community drumming intervention for people with mental illness, [16] a singing programme for mothers with postnatal depression, [17] and a choir programme for people affected by cancer. [18] Some of these programmes have since received clinical commissioning within the National Health Service. [17] At the annual Imperial College London festival, Fancourt analysed the capacity of men and women to play board games whilst listening to music, and showed that men perform worse when there is rock music in the background. [19] The study was awarded a prize by the Medical Journal of Australia. [20] During her time at Imperial, Fancourt also acted as Director of Research for Breathe Health Research, an organisation that looked to support children with hemiplegia through magic training. [9] For her contributions to science and the arts, Fancourt was made the British Science Association Jacob Bronowski Award Lecturer in 2016. [21]

In 2017 joined University College London as a Wellcome Trust research fellow in epidemiology. [10] [22] During her Fellowship, Fancourt carried out the first epidemiological analyses of arts engagement and health, showing longitudinal associations with incidence and management of a range of mental health conditions and aspects of age-related decline. [23] She also published studies showing how loneliness and social isolation affect neuro-immune markers, cardiovascular events, and hospital admissions for respiratory disease. [24] [25] [26] The same year, Fancourt was selected as one of the BBC Radio 3 Next Generation Thinkers. [27] As part of the award, Fancourt had the opportunity to create content for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. In 2018, Fancourt began working with the World Health Organization to develop an agenda that connected the arts, health and well-being. [28] [29] In a landmark report with WHO, Fancourt concluded that arts interventions, including singing in a choir to improve the outcomes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, present low-cost treatment options for healthcare workers. [30] The report was named the Global Aesthetic Achievement of 2019. [31] To further global research and policy work on arts and health, in 2021, Fancourt was appointed Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Arts & Health. [32]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fancourt established the network COVID Minds that looked to better understand the impact of coronavirus disease on mental health. The network collated longitudinal international mental health studies during the pandemic, offering opportunities for researchers to join projects and sharing regular updates with members of the public. [33] Fancourt also led the COVID-19 Social Study, an investigation looking at the social experiences of adults in the United Kingdom during the outbreak. [34] The study collected information on the psychological and social challenges that people in the UK faced during the pandemic. In particular, the COVID-19 Social Study looked to better understand how the virus and enforced social isolation impacted mental health and loneliness. [35] The outcomes of the survey were regularly reported, allowing policymakers and the media to better understand and report on the impact of lockdown. [36] At the end of April 2020 the social study had over 75,000 participants and by April 2022 had collected over 1.2 million responses. [34] As part of the social study Fancourt also conducted in-depth surveys of over 350 adults, exploring the impact of social isolation. [37] Her results showed that prior to the lockdown officially beginning there was a decline in happiness. [38] However, over the course of April Fancourt showed that levels of well-being had increased and levels of anxiety had decreased. [38] Fancourt was appointed to the Lancet Covid-19 Commission and the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Mental Health in COVID. [39] [40]

Awards and honours

Selected publications

Journal articles

Books

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 Fancourt, Daisy E. (2016). The psychoneuroimmunology of music : modulation of psychological state, stress levels and immune response through participatory interventions. ucl.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University College London. OCLC   1064610848. EThOS   uk.bl.ethos.746144. Lock-green.svg
  2. ↑ "DR DAISY FANCOURT director information. Free director information. Director id 921914961".
  3. ↑ profiles.ucl.ac.uk https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/44526-daisy-fancourt . Retrieved 2024-03-11.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ Daisy Fancourt publications from Europe PubMed Central
  5. ↑ Daisy Fancourt publications indexed by Google Scholar OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  6. ↑ Daisy Fancourt publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  7. 1 2 "Iris View Profile". iris.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  8. ↑ UCL (2023-11-16). "UCL academics recognised in annual global list of influential researchers". UCL News. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  9. 1 2 "Interview: Dr Daisy Fancourt on the intersection of arts and health | Website archive | King's College London". www.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  10. 1 2 3 UCL (2019-01-23). "fancourt". Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  11. ↑ UCL (2018-03-19). "Spotlight: Daisy Fancourt". Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  12. ↑ "HEartS – Centre for Performance Science" . Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  13. ↑ "Daisy Fancourt selected as New Generation Thinker". www.rcm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  14. ↑ "Iris View Profile". iris.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  15. ↑ Fancourt, Daisy; Ockelford, Adam; Belai, Abi (2014-02-01). "The psychoneuroimmunological effects of music: A systematic review and a new model". Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 36: 15–26. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2013.10.014. ISSN   0889-1591. PMID   24157429. S2CID   24422549.
  16. ↑ "Archive | Making Music – Centre for Performance Science" . Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  17. 1 2 "Archive | Music and Motherhood – Centre for Performance Science" . Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  18. ↑ "Archive | Sing with Us – Centre for Performance Science" . Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  19. ↑ "Men should avoid rock music when playing board games, say scientists | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  20. ↑ "Competitions | The Medical Journal of Australia". www.mja.com.au. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  21. 1 2 "2016 Award Lecture winners revealed". British Science Association. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  22. ↑ RSPH. "Join our Arts, Health and Wellbeing Special Interest Group". www.rsph.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  23. ↑ Arts and Public Health — Daisy Fancourt / Serious Science , retrieved 2021-11-20
  24. ↑ Walker, Emma; Ploubidis, George; Fancourt, Daisy (November 2019). "Social engagement and loneliness are differentially associated with neuro-immune markers in older age: Time-varying associations from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing". Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 82: 224–229. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2019.08.189. ISSN   1090-2139. PMC   6997881 . PMID   31491488.
  25. ↑ Bu, Feifei; Zaninotto, Paola; Fancourt, Daisy (2020-09-01). "Longitudinal associations between loneliness, social isolation and cardiovascular events". Heart. 106 (18): 1394–1399. doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2020-316614. ISSN   1355-6037. PMC   7497558 . PMID   32461329.
  26. ↑ Bu, Feifei; Philip, Keir; Fancourt, Daisy (2020-07-01). "Social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for hospital admissions for respiratory disease among older adults". Thorax. 75 (7): 597–599. doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2019-214445. ISSN   0040-6376. PMC   7361022 . PMID   32317268.
  27. 1 2 "Interview: Daisy Fancourt – Arts and Humanities Research Council". ahrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  28. ↑ "An introduction to the new WHO evidence report on arts and health – by Daisy Fancourt | CHWA". www.culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  29. ↑ "The role of the arts within health". The BMJ. 2019-11-11. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  30. ↑ "Fact sheet – What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being in the WHO European Region?". www.euro.who.int. 2019-09-11. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  31. ↑ "WHO project wins the Global Aesthetic Achievement of the Year award". www.euro.who.int. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  32. ↑ UCL (2021-10-07). "UCL and World Health Organisation to collaborate on arts and health". UCL News. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  33. ↑ "Longitudinal studies". COVID-MIND. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  34. 1 2 "COVID-19 Research". MARCH. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  35. ↑ "Researching the impacts of coronavirus – UK Research and Innovation". www.ukri.org. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  36. ↑ UCL (2020-03-24). "New study into psychological and social effects of Covid-19". UCL News. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  37. ↑ "COVID-19 social study". Nuffield Foundation. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  38. 1 2 Jarral, Farrah (2020-04-29). "The lockdown paradox: why some people's anxiety is improving during the crisis | Farrah Jarral". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  39. ↑ "Members of the TAG on the mental health impacts of COVID-19 in the WHO European Region". www.euro.who.int. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  40. ↑ "Mental Health & Wellbeing". Lancet Commission on COVID-19. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  41. ↑ "BA Rising Star Engagement Awards – Past Awards: 2017". The British Academy. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  42. ↑ "London Hub". Global Shapers. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  43. ↑ "Philip Leverhulme Prizes 2018 | the Leverhulme Trust".
  44. ↑ "ESRC announces winners of its 2022 Celebrating Impact Prize". www.ukri.org. 2022-11-03. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
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