Healthy Families

The Healthy Families theme of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber works with the public, service providers and researchers to improve health, wellbeing and promote fairer futures for families living in deprived areas across the Yorkshire and Humber region. The theme is co-led by Professor Rosie McEachan and Dr Sunil Bhopal and builds upon the foundations established by the previous Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs).

Research is undertaken across five broad topic areas (Best Start; Oral Health; Healthy Bodies and Minds; Healthy Learning; Healthy Places) and complemented by a cross-cutting Systems Change topic. Healthy Families research projects which were established in 2020 to understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic can be found on the COVID-19 page. We have over 50 research projects in our theme and are always interested in hearing new ideas – please do get in touch. Explore the topic areas below to find out more about our current projects.

Healthy Families Projects

Healthy Families

Continuation: Youth Resilience Project

BiB researchers worked closely with 27 small community groups, sports groups, local activists, faith settings and schools, and young people from Barkerend neighbourhood in Bradford to coproduce a neighbourhood action...

Healthy Families

PROMOTE PRomoting hOMe toOThbrushing in young children through Education settings.

This project aims to explore how to promote home toothbrushing in children participating in Supervised Toothbrushing Programmes and improve the links between brushing in nursery/school and at home. The findings...

Healthy Families

Improving access to green spaces for adolescent girls in Bradford

Adolescent girls are less likely to be physically active than boys. South Asian children are also less likely to be physically active than children from other cultural backgrounds. This means...

Making a Difference: Our Latest Healthy Families case studies

Healthy Families

A breakthrough for BRUSH

Tackling tooth decay in children by making toothbrushing in nurseries and schools easier- the BRUSH project This project is working with a range of stakeholders to learn how best to implement supervised toothbrushing programmes, to increase their uptake and success in tackling tooth decay.

Healthy Families

A breakthrough for BRUSH

Healthy Families

Evaluating the ‘Me and My Baby’ (MaM-B) parent-infant bonding tool for use in UK universal healthcare settings

Healthy Families

Evaluating the ‘Me and My Baby’ (MaM-B) parent-infant bonding tool for use in UK universal healthcare settings

Healthy Families

Join Us: Move Play (JU:MP)

Aim: Increase physical activity in children and young people aged 5 to 14 who are living in some of the most deprived areas of the UK

Healthy Families

Join Us: Move Play (JU:MP)

Aim: Increase physical activity in children and young people aged 5 to 14 who are living in some of the most deprived areas of the UK

Sunil Bhopal

Theme Co-Lead

Healthy Families

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Kate Morton

Research Fellow

Healthy Families

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Sarah Blower

Principal Research Fellow

Healthy Families

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Our latest Healthy Families publications

Healthy Families

Ambient air pollution and childhood obesity from infancy to late childhood: An individual participant data meta-analysis of 10 European birth cohorts

Healthy Families

Children’s happiness and the school route: Linking perceptions of the built environment to wellbeing

Healthy Families

Yearlong study of indoor VOC variability: insights into spatial, temporal, and contextual dynamics of indoor VOC exposure

Healthy Places

The Healthy Places topic seeks to understand how our environments can impact on our health. We use a range of methods from engagement and citizen science projects with our children, families, and communities, to collecting and analysing environmental and health data and evaluating interventions.

Healthy Schools

The Healthy Schools topic seeks to develop interventions and methods to improve mental and physical health in schools through across sector collaborations with health and educational professionals.

Oral Health

The Oral Health topic aims to improve children's oral health by researching and implementing evidence-based oral health promotion across early years services.

Systems Change

The cross cutting Systems Change topic helps to establish and harness linked routine data to plan and evaluate services, facilitate collaboration, and integrate services across health, social care, education and community settings.

Healthy Bodies and Minds

The Healthy Bodies and Minds topic aims to co-produce scalable community and system interventions to tackle the child and family obesity crisis. It seeks to support the optimum physical health of children and families including prevention of obesity.

Best Start

The Best Start topic aims to improve the mental and physical health of parents and infants from conception onwards. This includes developing and evaluating interventions, co-producing and testing measures, and promoting equitable access to support for families.

Theme lead(s): Sarah Blower

Healthy Families