The HealthMod Cluster: Enhancing Policy Modelling Capabilities to Tackle the Economic Determinants of Health and Health Inequality

HealthMod is a large research programme that brings together scientists, policymakers, and charities interested in using economic policies to improve people's health. We particularly want to improve the health of people who experience disadvantage or discrimination in their lives, as they tend to spend much more of their lives in poor health and also die younger, and the situation has got worse over the past decade.

Local and national governments make decisions on various economic policies, such as changes to taxes, welfare, job creation, and social housing. These policies have long-term effects on people's health, as they influence important aspects of healthy living, like having enough money, good work, decent housing, safe neighbourhoods, and supportive communities.

In HealthMod, we want to help policymakers, charity organisations and communities themselves understand how these policies affect people differently, based on characteristics like gender, income, and where they live. Our research would show whether planned new policies are likely to support long and healthy lives for everyone, or whether they would make inequalities worse.

Our programme has three work areas:

Computer modelling for Health: We will develop computer models to show how different kinds of policies might affect the economic situation and long-term health of each person in Britain. These models help policymakers understand the impact of policies on people in their area, especially whether they narrow or widen unfair health inequalities, so they can make informed decisions. All models we develop will be freely available for researchers and policymakers to use.

Policy and Advocacy Engagement: Government organisations and charities seeking to promote healthier policy decisions are partners in our programme. Together we will decide on the most urgent questions that our modelling can help answer. This will ensure that the models we build can inform real decisions. We will create websites, videos, and training courses to explain how our models work and how to use them effectively.

Citizen's Engagement and Democratisation of Modelling: We believe it is vital to involve people who may be affected by economic policies. We will host workshops where individuals experiencing issues such as poverty or poor health can share their thoughts and experiences. These insights will shape our models, making them more relevant and inclusive. We will also work with a broader group of citizens to understand which policy outcomes are most important for society.

Our goal is to create high-quality, trustworthy computer models that incorporate policymaker and community perspectives. This research will guide the best way to design, explain and use computer modelling for policy decisions that seek to improve health and reduce health inequalities.

CLUSTER SUMMARY An interdisciplinary team of researchers collaborating with highly engaged government, third sector and community partners to co-produce versatile public health modelling infrastructure as a national asset, and perform model-based appraisal of policy interventions targeting the economic determinants of health.
CHALLENGE The unequal distribution of economic resources contributes to widening health inequalities. There are large evidence gaps on how different economic determinants (e.g. wealth, welfare, work) jointly produce health outcomes and which policies (e.g. tax, benefits, labour market) and policy combinations can maximise health / inequality benefits.
VISION HealthMOD will be a cluster of excellence for innovative public health computational modelling that provides timely and effective support to real-life policy processes. By testing which existing or novel policy options are effective in disrupting health-harming dynamics, it will catalyse a policy shift toward actions that are geared to achieving tangible health improvements.
RESEARCH We will use qualitative, quantitative and computational methods to (a) represent the complex causal chains linking economic factors to health outcomes, (b) analyse subgroup and spatial heterogeneity in model inputs and outputs, (c) test which combinations of established and novel policies maximise benefits, and (d) incorporate general public and marginalized community perspectives for democratised, socially-robust modelling.
THEORY OF CHANGE Using innovative co-production approaches, our computational models will be informed by policy need and reflect the lived experience of communities. Capacity-building promotes informed engagement with and responsible use of models and outputs across policy, advocacy, media and lay audiences.
BENEFITS HealthMod will deliver scalable methods and tools to identify, advocate for, design and implement policies and multi-component strategies for population health improvement