Margaret Whitehead | |
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Born | Margaret McRae Whitehead 28 September 1948 Liverpool, England |
Occupation | Professor in Public Health |
Dame Margaret McRae Whitehead DBE (born 28 September 1948) holds the W.H. Duncan chair in Public Health at the University of Liverpool. [1] She heads the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Policy Research on the Social Determinants of Health. [2]
Whitehead has published extensively on the effects of social equality on health and also the social consequences of chronic ill health. [3] She has advised on government policy [4] and has written reports for the WHO on tackling inequalities in health. [5]
She is also an associate editor for the Cochrane Public Health Review Group since 2008 and has a visiting Professorship at the Karolinska Institute. [6]
Whitehead was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to public health. [7]
Longstanding research interests have been the assessment of policies and strategies to tackle inequalities in health and in health care. The current research programme that Margaret Whitehead leads focuses on the social dimensions of ill-health. In particular it traces social pathways to and from health inequalities and what this means for developing more effective health and social policy. The programme explores not only the social causes of ill health, but also the adverse consequences of having a chronic illness, such as reduced income and employment chances, social isolation and stigma in relation to specific tracer conditions. With international collaborators, her studies are looking at the ways in which health and social welfare systems themselves reduce or exacerbate the adverse consequences of ill-health and what can be done to improve the situation. She is keenly involved in knowledge transfer: finding ways for research evidence to get to where it can be most useful in informing policy-making and public health practice. [8]
Sir Michael Gideon Marmot, FBA, FMedSci, FRCP is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. He is currently the Director of The UCL Institute of Health Equity. Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for over thirty years, working for various international and governmental bodies.
The social determinants of health (SDOH) are the economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status. They are the health promoting factors found in one's living and working conditions, rather than individual risk factors that influence the risk for a disease, or vulnerability to disease or injury. The distributions of social determinants are often shaped by public policies that reflect prevailing political ideologies of the area.
Dame Bridget Margaret Ogilvie, is an Australian and British scientist.
Dame Carol Mary Black, is a British physician, academic, specialising in rheumatology. She was President of the Royal College of Physicians from 2002 to 2006, advised the British Government on the relationship between work and health from 2006 to 2016, and was Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge from 2012 to 2019. She is an expert on the disease scleroderma.
The Acheson Report, fully titled the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health Report, was a report published in 1998 by a United Kingdom inquiry headed by Donald Acheson.
While epidemiology is "the study of the distribution and determinants of states of health in populations", social epidemiology is "that branch of epidemiology concerned with the way that social structures, institutions, and relationships influence health." This research includes "both specific features of, and pathways by which, societal conditions affect health".
The Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) is an interdisciplinary social science research centre with its administrative base at Cardiff University, Wales. Its aim is to draw together and build upon the existing expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods and methodologies.
The Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) is a research centre located in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Dame Margaret Elizabeth Turner-Warwick was a British medical doctor and thoracic specialist. She was the first woman president of the Royal College of Physicians (1989–1992) and, later, chairman of the Royal Devon and Exeter Health Care NHS Trust (1992–1995).
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "improve the health and wealth of the nation through research". The NIHR was established in 2006 under the government's Best Research for Best Health strategy, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. As a research funder and research partner of the NHS, public health and social care, the NIHR complements the work of the Medical Research Council. NIHR focuses on translational research, clinical research and applied health and social care research.
Dame Sally Claire Davies is a British physician and academic administrator who was the Chief Medical Officer from 2010 to 2019 and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health from 2004 to 2016 and worked as a clinician specialising in the treatment of diseases of the blood and bone marrow. She was appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 8 February 2019, effective from 8 October 2019. She is one of the founders of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Dame Susan Lesley Hill has been the Chief Scientific Officer for England since October 2002.
Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock, is a British government official working in social welfare.
The Glasgow effect refers to the lower life expectancy of residents of Glasgow compared to the rest of the United Kingdom and Europe. The phenomenon is defined as an "[e]xcess mortality in the West of Scotland (Glasgow) after controlling for deprivation." Although lower income levels are generally associated with poor health and a shorter lifespan, epidemiologists have argued that poverty alone does not appear to account for the disparity found in Glasgow. Equally deprived areas of the UK such as Liverpool and Manchester have higher life expectancies, and the wealthiest ten percent of the Glasgow population have a lower life expectancy than the same group in other cities. One in four men in Glasgow will die before his sixty-fifth birthday.
Lenore Hilda Manderson is an Australian medical anthropologist. She is Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, at Monash University, Australia.
Dame Carol Propper is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School and Professor of Economics of Public Policy at Bristol University. She is also a senior research associate with the Nuffield Trust, and has served on the Economic and Social Research Council Research Grants Board.
Dame Anne Mandall Johnson DBE FMedSci is a British epidemiologist, known for her work in public health, especially the areas of HIV, sexually transmitted infections and infectious diseases.
EuroHealthNet is a non-profit partnership of organisations, agencies and statutory bodies working to contribute to a healthier Europe by promoting health and health equity between and within European countries. EuroHealthNet achieves this through its partnership framework by supporting members’ work in EU and associated states through policy and project development, networking and communications. The network’s office has been located in Brussels since 1996 and staff members are experienced in engaging with the EU institutions, decision makers and a large number of stakeholders from public authorities, civil society, the corporate sector and academia. EuroHealthNet has connections with national and regional governments, as well as with the European institutions, and therefore a good understanding of how evidence and information on health equity can be introduced in current policy making agendas.
Dame Helen Jayne Stokes-Lampard is a British medical academic and a general practitioner. She is Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) a GP Principal and Chair of the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP). She was Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) from November 2016 to November 2019. She is also a Professor of GP Education at Birmingham University and a visiting Chair at St George's Medical School in London. She has a particular interest in women's health.
There are various factors affecting the health of ethnic minorities in the UK due to health inequalities. The term "BAME" is often used however, the use of this term can be problematic for various reasons, such as an indicating power relations and also having a focus on skin colour. Therefore, this article will use the term ethnic minorities.