MEDICAL / Public Health

Based on the ‘rainbow model’ of the social determinants of health, this book examines the key factors which can lead to poor quality of life, homelessness and reduced mortality.

Informed by historical research and sociological analysis, this book helps readers re-evaluate their understandings of British drinking culture. It is essential readying for students and academics.

This book provides an accessible guide to the key elements of risk in policy making and shows how its use and misuse has shaped policy makers’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in a range of countries.

This book is the first to investigate what role religion plays in health care in East Africa. Taking in to account the geopolitical and economic environments of the region, the authors examine the roles played by individual and group beliefs, government policies, and pressure from the Millennium Development Goals in affecting health outcomes.

Drawing on the perspectives of women and children displaced from Ukraine, as well as local authority policy makers and service providers, this book provides a unique view of the direct and indirect consequences of war in Europe and identifies the best responses to these ‘wicked issues’.

Combining robust evidence with real-life stories, this book reveals the shocking impact of austerity policies on life expectancy and offers an optimistic vision of what can be done to restore life expectancy and reduce health inequality.

How to Create Societies for Human Wellbeing presents a compelling new perspective on psychological wellbeing informed by evidence on human stress responses. It shows how our mental health is shaped by the social and cultural conditions in which we all live and offers new ways to respond through political and social change.

Critical realism helps researchers to extend and clarify their analyses. This original text draws on international examples of health and illness research across the life course, from small studies to large trials, to show how versatile critical realism can be in validating research and connecting it to policy and practice.

People-centred public health provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of policy, practice and research in how members of the public can be involved in delivering health improvement as volunteers or lay health workers, drawing on a major study of lay engagement in public health, and using case studies and real life examples.

This crucial contemporary study reviews the evolving role of local authorities in health, social care and wellbeing. Health and policy experts survey disparities across Britain, share case studies of strategies and consider authorities’ interaction with local and central government.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book is a vital review of the impact of austerity on the wellbeing of the UK. Case studies from Stockton-on-Tees, home to some of the starkest health divides, are combined with a review of the repercussions of budget cuts and welfare reforms to show the vast inequalities in health in the UK today.

How welfare states influence population health has long been debated but less well tested by research. This book presents new evidence of the effects of Swedish welfare state on the lives of citizens. The analysis and theoretical approaches developed in the book have wide implications for health research and policy beyond Scandinavia.