The NatCen Blog

Here we’ll be talking about our research in the context of the latest news, opinion and
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Posted on 28 February 2017 by Franziska Marcheselli, Senior Researcher

Mental Health – how are children and young people affected?

Franziska Marcheselli explores what existing research can tell us about young people's mental health, and looks ahead to the first comprehensive survey of children and young people's mental health since 2004.
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Tags: children and young people, health and wellbeing, mental health
Posted on 21 November 2016 by Clare Littleford, Research Director

We’re living longer – but will we all have the same chance to enjoy it?

People in the UK are living longer than ever before. Clare Littleford blogs on how the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) can help us understand how much of that time will be spent in favourable health.
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Tags: ageing, ELSA, health and wellbeing
Posted on 02 February 2015

Meeting the social care needs of BME groups

In December, we published the findings of a two year study looking at why Bangladeshi and Pakistani care users report lower levels of satisfaction with the care they receive than white British care users. This blog discusses the main findings of this study.
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Tags: carers, diversity, health and wellbeing, social care
Posted on 12 October 2011 by Soazig Clifton, Research Director

Cigarette smoking and mental health in England

World Mental Health Day was this week. The theme this year was ‘Investing in mental health’, so it was heartening to see the Department of Health and Comic Relief committed to giving £20 million to the next phase of Time to Change, England’s programme to tackle mental health related stigma and discrimination. Soazig draws on findings from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) 2007 that reveal the relationship between smoking and mental health in England.
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Tags: APMS, Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, health and lifestyle, health and wellbeing, mental health, smoking
Posted on 22 July 2011 by Caireen Roberts, Research Director

Over 65's putting healthy eating messages in to action

Our senior nutritionist, Caireen Roberts discusses new evidence from the second year of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) with emphasis placed on findings from people aged 65 and over.
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Tags: lifestyle, NDNS, National Diet and Nutrition Survey, older people, SACN, Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, health and wellbeing
Posted on 19 July 2011 by Sally McManus, NatCen Associate

After Warm Front, the cold front moves in?

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released statistics last week showing that 700,000 more families in the UK became fuel poor in 2009. This meant 5.5 million or one in five of all households needed to spend more than 10% of income maintaining an adequate level of warmth. Here Sally McManus introduces our study Health, Mental Health and Housing Conditions - crucial to evidencing the mental health impacts of fuel poverty.
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Tags: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007, fuel poverty, health and wellbeing, health, Winter Fuel Payment
Posted on 20 April 2011

What's the point of the well-being agenda?

The launch of Action for Happiness is a good moment to reflect on the health of the ‘well-being’ initiative; especially since we’ve just submitted our response to the ONS consultation (Measuring Well-being). It’s an area that has proved fertile ground for sceptics. Here Chief Executive, Penny Young suggests four thoughts to take notice of.
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Tags: Action for Happiness, employment, health and wellbeing, education, skills
Posted on 28 February 2011

Understanding Society - a great ambition

I heard a wonderful scientist on the Today programme last week: Professor Paul Younger is drilling 2000 metres below the city of Newcastle in the hope of finding hot water which can then be pumped up as clean heating energy for the people of Newcastle. We love to admire scientists and engineers: they are fantastic at inventing and discovering things that make life better. It's a shame that our social scientists don't always get the same reaction...
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Tags: Understanding Society, health and wellbeing, social and political attitudes
Posted on 16 December 2010

The Health Survey for England

The annual Health Survey for England (HSE), published today finds that profound health inequalities continue to exist between the rich and poor. Chronic long term illness is more likely to be found among the least well off, and so too are the behaviours that lead to ill health. Our Chief Executive, Penny Young comments on the scale of the challenge of public health inequalities for government.
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Tags: HSE, Health Survey for England, health and wellbeing