Income, Employment, Welfare and Health

Income, employment and welfare are recognised as being some of the most important social determinants of health. Research to understand how they impact on health and health inequalities forms an important part of the Programme's work. 

We are currently conducting research on the health impacts of welfare to work interventions on Incapacity Benefit claimants and lone parents.

Past work includes systematic reviews of employment interventions, and new primary research on the impact of organisational restructuring. The systematic reviews have been funded through the ESRC Evidence Network and the Department of Health funded Public Health Research Consortium

 

Publications

Gibson M, Thomson H, Banas K, Bambra C, Fenton C, Bond L. Welfare to work interventions and their effects on health and well-being of lone parents and their children [Protocol]. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (in press).

Gibson M, Banas K, Thomson H, Bambra C, Bond L, McKee M, Lutje V, Fenton C. Welfare to work interventions and their effects on the health and well-being of lone parents and their children. Edinburgh: Chief Scientist's Office, 2011.

open access  

Skivington K, McCartney G, Thomson H, Bond L. Challenges in evaluating Welfare to Work policy interventions: would an RCT design have been the answer to all our problems? BMC Public Health 2010; 10:254.

pubmed  open access  

Bambra C, Gibson M, Sowden A, Wright K, Whitehead M, Petticrew M. Working for health? Evidence from systematic reviews on the effects on health and health inequalities of organisational changes to the work environment. Preventive Medicine 2009; 48:454-61.

pubmed

Egan M, Bambra C, Petticrew M, Whitehead M. Reviewing evidence on complex social interventions:  appraising implementation in systematic reviews of the health effects of organisational-level workplace interventions. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2009; 63:4-11.
pubmed      open access  

Bambra C, Whitehead M, Sowden A, Akers J, Petticrew M. "A hard day's night?" - the effects of Compressed Working Week interventions on the health and work-life balance of shift workers: a systematic review. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2008; 62:764-77.
pubmed open access

Bambra C, Petticrew M, Whitehead M, Sowden A, Akers J. Shifting schedules: The health effects of reorganizing shift work. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2008; 34:427-34.e30.

Bambra C, Egan M, Thomas S, Petticrew M, Whitehead M. The psychosocial and health effects of workplace reorganisation. 2. A systematic review of task restructuring interventions. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2007; 61:1028-37
pubmed 

Egan M, Bambra C, Thomas S, Petticrew M, Whitehead M, Thomson H. The psychosocial and health effects of workplace reorganisation. 1. A systematic review of organisational-level interventions that aim to increase employee control. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2007; 61:945-54.
pubmed

Egan M, Petticrew M, Ogilvie D, Hamilton V, Drever F. "Profits before people"? A systematic review of the health and safety impacts of privatising public utilities and industries in developed countries. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2007; 61:862-870.
pubmed