Our completed projects

While the UK is in the vanguard of global tobacco control, having implemented a raft of policies this century aimed at discouraging young people from starting to smoke and encouraging smokers to quit, more needs to be done to meet the 2030 smoke free target. The project aim is to explore how young people (11-17 years) and adult smokers respond to cigarette sticks/papers which display warnings and/or that are an unappealing colour, and inserts with messaging aimed at promoting quitting. Read more

The ‘Standardised Packaging and Tobacco Products Regulations’ and ‘Tobacco Products and Related Regulations’ have transformed the appearance of cigarette packaging in the UK. The aim of this project is to provide an update and synthesise of findings from research exploring consumer, tobacco industry or retailer response to standardised packaging of tobacco products that has been conducted since February 2019. Read more

The COVID lockdown periods provided the opportunity to study very rapid and profound behaviour change at both individual and population levels and to determine the impact on personal exposure to air pollutants. One of the aims of this project will be to evaluate changes in exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air and to estimate the health impacts of these changes on population health. This will provide the PH-PRU and policymakers with information on how lifestyle and behaviour changes related to lockdowns impact on cardio-respiratory health. Read more

This project is undertaken as a PH-PRU ‘Responsive’ project to evaluate the initial phase of the PHIRST scheme and to make recommendations for its development. Our aim is to conduct a light-touch assessment of the scheme, similar to a formative evaluation, and to capture learning around what processes appear to work. Read more

Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and migrant workers often experience worse health than the general population, with existing inequalities exacerbated further by the Covid-19 pandemic. Understanding health experiences within these communities and co-designing solutions is vital to improve health equity and health services. Read more

This project aims to provide evidence on people’s perceptions of the health risks of climate change and their priorities for action and, thereby, to help to inform national policies and local action plans to reduce climate-change related risks to health. Read more

This new project aims to assess the use of WSBs in the economic evaluation of public health interventions. It will also assess how prioritisation of policies based on health and WSBs combined impacts on population health and health inequality compared with prioritisation based on health gains alone. Read more

This project aims to evaluate the longer-term impact of standardised packaging and how it impacts on health inequalities in smoking. As well as looking at the impact on warning salience, pack and brand appeal, harm perceptions, cognitive and emotional response to smoking, it will also examine cessation-related behaviours, and variations by socio-economic status. Read more

Interventions to support healthy lifestyles in disadvantaged groups are essential if improvements in their health are to match and outstrip those in the wider population. This project will determine which interventions are likely to be effective (and ineffective) with which groups and identify barriers and facilitators to adopting healthy lifestyles. Read more