In September, WHO/Europe and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study published volume 6 in its report series, A Focus on Adolescent Social Media Use and Gaming in Europe, Central Asia and Canada. The report, co-ordinated by Dr Jo Inchley, Dr Judith Brown, and the SPHSU team, provides insights into the digital behaviours of adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 across 44 countries and regions. Key findings include:

• A sharp rise in problematic social media use among young people in Scotland, particularly among 13-year-old girls, rising from 11% in 2018 to 22% in 2022.  

• Higher prevalence of continuous online contact: Scottish 15-year-old girls reported higher rates of continuous online contact (50%) than the HBSC average (37%). 

• Gender disparities in problematic social media use: The gap between boys and girls in problematic social media use is particularly pronounced in Scotland. For example, among 15-year-olds, 19% of girls reported problematic use compared to 9% of boys. 

The latest WHO/Europe report, volume 7, was released this November and focuses on social contexts impacting young people, such as family support, parental communication, peer support, school pressure, school satisfaction, classmate support, and teacher support.  

Meeting even the least ambitious child poverty reduction target could make a marked difference in children’s health in the UK, according to the latest health data modelling research, led by SPHSU researchers.  Implications of child poverty reduction targets for public health and health inequalities in England: a modelling study between 2024 and 2033, published in Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health , is the first study to explore the health impacts of meeting future child poverty targets, and shows that reducing child poverty would substantially improve child health and reduce health inequalities overall. Professor Vittal Katikireddi, senior author of the paper, said:

“These findings show that addressing child poverty can have large and immediate health benefits, helping reduce the health inequalities between regions of England. The costs of policies to reduce child poverty, such as abolishing the two-child benefit cap, should be considered alongside the potential savings that can be realised by the NHS and local authorities.” 

Introducing a weekly payment between £10 and £100 to Universal Credit for households in England and Wales with one or more children present would cause a significant reduction in poor mental health, a new study from the Systems science In Public Health and Health Economics Research consortium (SIPHER) and Mental Health Foundation has found. Scotland has already implemented a similar policy, the "Child Payment," which provided a model for this study. Using a dynamic microsimulation model, the study evaluated how additional household income per child could improve adult mental health outcomes, considering factors such as housing quality, nutrition, and social isolation. The results demonstrated that larger payments lead to substantial mental health improvements, particularly for women and single-parent households.

The full report can be found here: Modelling the Adult Mental Health Impacts  of Child Payment Policy.

SIPHER has recently launched an interactive layered systems map, showing how people’s housing is connected to their health outcomes. This map is constructed from a combination of published evidence on the pathways from housing to health outcomes, and participatory systems mapping carried out with SIPHER’s Community Panels. The aim is to demonstrate how systems thinking can bring together both grounded lived experience stories and open access research evidence, into one online tool.

Dr Mirjam Allik led a workshop at the 17th European Public Health Conference, titled Health inequalities over the life course between people with and without childhood social care experience. The workshop explored how research, practice and policy can improve the health and well-being of individuals who have experienced childhood social care. The event started with a video message from young people with care experience. In it, young people share their stories and thoughts on what research, policy and practice should do better to improve the health and wellbeing of young people in care.

Dr Jon Olsen has received British Council funding for a two year project with partners at the Leonidas and Maria Deane Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Quantifying the environmental impact of climate change in the legal Amazon and its effects on population health: from the local to national level. A research workshop will be held in Manaus City and the outputs disseminated at COP31 in November 2025.

Dr Corinna Elsenbroich was awarded UKRI ESRC funding for a 12-month project, Social Ties, Relationships, Interactions, Knowledge Exchange (STRIKE), with partners at NatCen, LSHTM and University of Surrey.

Dr Jo Inchley and the SHINE team have received funding from three Scottish local authorities to conduct the SHINE pupil mental health survey, an online questionnaire to help schools better understand pupil mental health and wellbeing and support health improvement planning. 

These lunchtime webinars will feature informative talks on key aspects of SIPHER's work, focusing on their journey, systems science methods, policy landscapes, and the evidence policymakers need. Each session will include a Q&A and the recording will be made available on the SIPHER website. The first session, Public Involvement in Policy Modelling Research: Learning from SIPHER’s Experience, will be held on 21st November. Visit the SIPHER events page for more. 

The Maternal and Child Health Network (MatCHNet) webinar series on policy evaluation in the early years continues with Series 5. Upcoming webinar topics include the BEBOLD intergenerational data platform (26th November) and the impacts of the UK Soft Drinks industry levy on child health (16th December). Registration is now open and past recordings are available on the MatCHNet events page.

Dr Nadia Ncube will be leading a two-day National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) course on qualitative participatory action research (PAR) methodologies including photo elicitation, journaling, systems workshops and (online) walking interviews. This introductory course requires no prior knowledge and will take place in-person at the Clarice Pears building on 28th-29th November from 9am-5pm. For full details and registration, please visit NCRM PAR training.

Every second Monday, 10am-12pm, the Byres Community Hub in the Clarice Pears building (90 Byres Road) invites groups to come in and explore different topics in engagement and research. There is tea and coffee, an opportunity to network and dedicated time to see and learn more about the Byres Community Hub public space. 

Hospitalisations for chronic conditions among care-experienced and general population children and young people: evidence from the Children’s Health in Care in Scotland (CHiCS) cohort study, 1990-2016 published in BMJ Paediatrics Open

An exploration of community food pantries in Scotland: strategic and operational perspectives on addressing food insecurity and health inequalities published in BMC Public Health 

Prevention of, and response to, sexual harassment at secondary school: a system map published in Social Science and Medicine

How can agent-based modelling provide new insights into the impact of minimum unit pricing in Scotland? published in Drug and Alcohol Review

Trends in inequalities in childhood overweight and obesity prevalence: a repeat cross-sectional analysis of the Health Survey for England published in Archives of Disease in Childhood

All published papers are available on our website>

Measuring socioeconomic position in clinical trials
Deadline: 12th January 2025 

Assessing the impact of income policies on healthy diet: epidemiological analyses and microsimulation 
Deadline: 12th January 2025 

Making trials more equity focused for minority ethnic people: Assessing differential treatment effectiveness and under-inclusion
Deadline: 13th January 2025