Improving Health & Wellbeing: home
Improving health and wellbeing within HealthQWest focuses on psychosocial aspects of behaviour and related practice, aiming to harness and promote actions demonstrably associated with better health outcomes. Underpinning our work is the recognition that how we live our lives affects opportunity to optimise health in later life. We are committed to user involvement and partnership approaches with potential to address health inequalities and influence practice both nationally and internationally. Our development agenda combines the quest for primary evidence and robust knowledge translation with strategies to influence and encourage users (individual, family community and care provider) to embrace evidence based practice and to enable health promoting actions.
Specifically our primary evidence work has concentrated on life style behaviours that are strongly associated with health inequalities, such as substance use (Tobacco, Alcohol); sexual health; physical inactivity and conditions known to be associated with poor health behaviours (cardiac disease, falls).
Guidelines to practice, including goal setting and advice on involvement of users have been outputs in a number of areas of this research.
Further information can be found on specific streams of work below:
Physical Activity (to improve health and to reduce symptoms of ill-health)
Falls (including avoidance of activity)
Substance Use (Alcohol and Tobacco)
Continence and Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms
Hearing Older Peoples Views on Health Promotion and Involving Older People