Heath Inequalities Atlas
The portal below presents a range of data for Aberdeen City and the North East of Scotland which is relevant for exploring the wider determinants of health and is the beginning of work to build a comprehensive Health Inequalities Atlas. Data is presented at the smallest available geographies, it is fully interactive and can be exported to different file formats. More data and analysis will be added over time. For enquires please contact: HDRC@aberdeencity.gov.uk
Asylum Seekers’ Needs
Informed by discussions with ACC Officers from Education, Housing and Children's Social Work, our Research Fellow, Dr. Leo Ho, and others have completed an overview review on asylum seekers’ care needs and experiences in high-income countries to help us inform future policymaking. We identified issues commonly reported by asylum seekers, including communication barriers, attitudes of healthcare workers, mental health issues, access to healthcare, and housing difficulties. The findings have been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for academic dissemination and shared to our colleagues from NHS Grampian to lay the foundation for their asylum seekers’ need assessment. In addition, a dedicated workshop session will be hosted at our Conference in November 2024 to share our findings to the attendees.
Early Learning & Childcare
In August 2021, the Scottish Government implemented an expansion of publicly funded Early Learning & Childcare (ELC), increasing the provision to 1,140 funded hours for eligible two-year-olds, as well as for all three-, four-, and five-year-olds who had not yet commenced primary school. The HDRC research team has helped design a new round of public consultation in 2025 to seek relevant feedback from parents and carers. In addition, we are in the process of developing a longitudinal research study to follow up a cohort of participants over three years, aiming to measure the ongoing impacts of ELC on family and mental well-being, as well as parents’ and carers’ working, training, and studying opportunities.
Food insecurity
The HDRC Aberdeen research team have participated in research into the causes of infant food insecurity. A review of research findings has been completed in order to gather a fuller understanding of the issues and to help to identify potential ways of tackling infant food insecurity in the local context of Aberdeen. The team is in the process of creating an interactive map of foodbank locations to make it easier for anyone in need to locate the nearest suitable food bank. Additionally, they are finishing an analysis of the Scottish Government’s policy landscape on food insecurity and poverty, which will identify opportunities for improvement. This work was presented in a poster at the Annual Scientific Meeting for the Society for Social Medicine and Population Health in September 2024. HDRC Aberdeen has been working with Food Poverty Action Aberdeen and with Community Planning Aberdeen’s Anti-Poverty Outcome Improvement Group on this work. The research team will host a workshop at the HDRC conference in November 2024, the exact content of this workshop is still to be decided.
Financial Exclusion
We anticipate that the Child Poverty Accelerator Fund project will begin to provide new intelligence during Summer 2024. This has followed the significant development of agreement with the Department of Work and Pensions for reuse of data and the procurement of an analytics tool. Once this new intelligence is available this can underpin numerous single and multi-agency interventions e.g. debt alleviation, warm homes, food insecurity, employability support, etc.
Population
A paper has been submitted to Community Planning Aberdeen and Aberdeen City Council's governance groups on the City’s population data, showing low birth rate, low net migration, growing numbers of people unfit to work and discussing the potential impacts of this. Further work is ongoing as the 2022 Census results are released to update this and a Population workshop event was held at the end of August (including population heath issues).
Read the report:
Adult Literacy
While at an early stage, HDRC Aberdeen has begun work with Council colleagues to support an evidence-based review of adult literacy in the context of the city’s libraries provision.
Child Mental Health and “At Risk”
HDRC Aberdeen supported the creation of a new data set matching Aberdeen City Council child protection and NHS Grampian CAMHS records. We also contributed to and reviewed the analysis which this allowed. The resultant paper has been accepted for academic publication. The research team will host 2 workshops at the HDRC conference in November 2024 - one about the mental health needs of at risk young people and another about data matching.
Family Support Model
HDRC Aberdeen are involved in discussions with colleagues on the development of more integrated family support. Scottish Government funding has been secured by the Council to test a new model and this potentially includes investment in temporary posts either within, or adjacent to, HDRC Aberdeen. The scope of this is currently being prepared.
Place
HDRC Aberdeen are central to bringing together a multi-agency research group, which is currently mapping existing council strategic interventions which relate to climate change and health. This work is tying into the ongoing focus of the North East Place and Wellbeing Network, which is being led by an HDRC Aberdeen co-applicant. Other members of the HDRC Aberdeen team are attending and providing support, including most recently, our Social Prescribing PhD student and academic supervisor. As well as working with the Council’s Strategic Place Planning cluster on the public consultation for the Local Transport Strategy, the HDRC Aberdeen has also delivered a cluster training session on the social determinants of health. The research team will host a workshop at the HDRC Aberdeen conference in November 2024, which will delve into the critical role of "place" in shaping health and wellbeing, introducing participants to the concept of place and exploring its definition and its link to health outcomes.
Relational Place Lived Experience
We’re working with the Council and Community Planning Aberdeen on two projects to understand people's lived experiences; Community Justice and Relational Placemaking. The Relation Placemaking project will test a community-based approach in one area of Aberdeen City. It will explore what it’s like to live in that community, including any challenges residents face. This project will use different methods to understand how place affects health and wellbeing, with potential insights for public engagement, environmental sustainability, and urban planning. Because the HDRC Aberdeen is all about culture and capacity building, both projects will involve training staff and community members, creating processes for managing and sharing stories, and recognising public participation in research.
Ethnically Inclusive Research Practices
The PhD project, ‘The Missing Voices in Health Research: An ethnographic exploration of inclusive public involvement in research, with and for, global ethnic majority women’, funded by Robert Gordon University, supports the HDRC Aberdeen by addressing the underrepresentation of Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) women in health research through an ethnographic exploration of inclusive public involvement. It focuses on identifying both the challenges faced by stakeholders in implementing inclusive practices and the successful cultural frameworks that facilitate engagement with marginalised groups. A Public Advisory Group, representing all major ethnic communities in Aberdeen, alongside a Reference Group of local policymakers and third-sector professionals, has been established and will guide the research to ensure both community and professional involvement at every stage from initial scoping review through to dissemination of findings. The expected impact includes enhanced representation of GEM women in research, informed policy recommendations, and strengthened public involvement practices, contributing to systemic change in health determinants research inclusion.
Food Sustainability
A review is underway as part of an MSc with the University of Aberdeen to identify, describe, and compare interventions of UK ‘Sustainable Food Places’ to promote food choices that increase the uptake of sustainable diets in response to the climate emergency, using a behavioural framework and compare to interventions proposed or conducted by Aberdeen City Council.
Warm Home Prescribing
We worked with Energy Systems Catapult, an independent research and technology organisation that supports Net Zero energy innovation, to implement 'warm home prescriptions' in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. The Grampian/Aberdeen University Data Safe Haven selected eligible residents for the prescriptions, which were delivered by SCARF, a third sector energy partner. Working alongside researchers from the University of Aberdeen, we recently published a paper that explores how effective different types of financial support are for households in fuel poverty. We are now working with Council staff on the use of Council funding to prevent and fight against poverty, and are exploring specific options and further funding opportunities.
NDL Housing & Health
The HDRC Aberdeen team have worked closely with NHS colleagues funded through the Network Data Lab (NDL). The 3rd phase of the NDL has been agreed as “Housing and Health”. HDRC Aberdeen are currently in discussions around the scoping and planning of this work.
Community Justice
We’re working with the Council and Community Planning Aberdeen on two projects to understand people's lived experiences; Community Justice and Relational Placemaking. The Community Justice lived experience project will work within justice social work to explore service users' experiences with various council services. Existing justice social work staff, who already have relationships with the service users, will conduct one-on-one interviews after receiving training from qualitative research experts. Because the HDRC Aberdeen is all about culture and capacity building, both projects will involve training staff and community members, creating processes for managing and sharing stories, and recognising public participation in research.
Social Prescribing
Our University of Aberdeen HDRC focussed PhD student working on social prescribing has started; her work will look to build the evidence base around longer term impacts of social prescribing on those using the Link Workers service in Aberdeen city; combining both qualitative and quantitative methods, this PhD is being supervised by a mixed team of academics and practitioners, with representation from Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership and SAMH, supported by the HDRC Aberdeen. Our student is carrying out a review of existing studies to establish the background and context for her study now and we will support her to share her preliminary findings as widely as possible towards the end of the year. This project will also involve data matching across partner datasets and the HDRC are providing support with successfully navigating multi-agency data governance processes.
Obesity
Through the Population Needs Assessment and Children’s Services Plan, amongst other strategic documents, the issue of obesity (including childhood obesity) has been identified as a priority issue. Scoping work is underway on how the HDRC Aberdeen can support research / evidence in this area. Obesity was a main theme of the Population workshop held in August 2024.
Hip Fractures
We have recently appointed a Robert Gordon University PhD student who will be researching cause, prevention and mitigation of hip fractures. This project will be co-supervised by academics from Robert Gordon University and Officers from Aberdeen City Council/ Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership to ensure a sustained focus throughout two way knowledge sharing and organisational priorities.
Severe and Multiple Disadvantage
HDRC Aberdeen is an investigator in a randomised control trial led by the University of Edinburgh, testing approaches to outreach for people who are experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage. Testing is due to start early 2025. HDRC Aberdeen are linking this with local work to develop a Family Support Model.
Network Data Labs Intermediate Care
The HDRC Aberdeen team are liaising with NHS colleagues funded through the Network Data Lab (NDL). The 2nd Phase of the NDL is bringing together data on intermediate care. HDRCA’s current input is around data linkage.
