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Research project

Pathways To Health Through Cultures Of Neighbourhoods

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Joanna Sofaer

Professor of Archaeology

Research interests

  • The role of cultural and community assets in health and wellbeing
  • The relationship between heritage and wellbeing
  • The social value of archaeology 
Connect with Joanna

Email: J.R.Sofaer-Derevenski@soton.ac.uk

Other researchers

Professor Mary Barker PhD, C Psychol

Prof of Psychology & Behavioural Science

Research interests

  • Mary Barker is Professor of Psychology and Behavioural Science. She has a joint appointment in both the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton UK.  Mary runs a programme of work in both the UK and in low-income countries aiming to engage young people in improving their sense of agency, well-being and mental health, to benefit their health in general but their diets and physical activity habits more specifically. Her team’s approach is participatory and combines social activism focused on engaging young people in the climate change and health agenda and testing methods of one-to-one support and digital resources including smartphone games. Much of this work takes place as part of her NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research EACH-B (Engaging Adolescents in Changing Behaviour). She partners in this activity with the TALENT network of colleagues with interests in adolescent health and well-being based in institutions in low-and-middle-income countries. Her team also ran a five-country, longitudinal qualitative study with young people throughout the pandemic exploring their experience, mental health, well-being and resilience, data from which supported UK local and national government COVID messaging to young people. She is adjunct professor at the University of Agder, Norway, and has honorary appointments at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and University College London.
Connect with Mary

Email: meb@mrc.soton.ac.uk

Professor Kath Woods-Townsend

Professorial Fellow-Enterprise

Research interests

  • Adolescent Health
  • Scientific Literacy
  • Health Literacy
Connect with Kath

Email: K.Woods-Townsend@soton.ac.uk

Professor Pathik Pathak

Professorial Fellow-Enterprise

Research interests

  • Antiracism
  • community development
  • critical race theory 
Connect with Pathik

Email: P.Pathak@soton.ac.uk

Mrs Neelam Kalita

Senior Research Fellow

Research interests

  • Economic evaluations
  • Non Communicable Diseases
  • Adolescent health and wellbeing
Connect with Neelam

Email: N.Kalita@soton.ac.uk

Professor Joanne Lord

Director of SHTAC

Research interests

  • Joanne has research interests in health economic evaluation and decision modelling.
  • She has worked on a wide range of applied cost-effectiveness studies, including:
  • a review of newborn screening for inborn errors of metabolism;trials of diagnosis, patient education, structured decision-making and therapeutic interventions for arthritis and back pain;evaluations of diagnostic tests, preventive treatment and contact tracing for tuberculosis;a model of geographic allocation of resources for control of Chagas disease in Central America; andanalyses relating to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Her methodological contributions include an MRC funded project on whole pathway modelling for NICE clinical guidelines and an economic perspective on test evaluation. She has also contributed to health outcome and quality of life studies.
Connect with Joanne

Email: J.Lord@soton.ac.uk

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

Pathways to Health
Joanna Sofaer, Mary Barker & Kath Woods-Townsend, 2024
Type: report
Change the beginning and you change the whole story; why adolescence is a window of opportunity for prevention of non-communicable disease
Kathryn Woods-Townsend, Ravita Taheem & Joanna Sofaer, 2023
DOI: 10.5258/SOTON/PP0032a
Type: other