- Interested in the association between natural environments and mental and physical health?
- Have a strong interest in developing economic evaluation methods for evaluating natural environment interventions?
- Want to undertake a Doctoral training programme in a rich interdisciplinary environment at one the UK’s leading centres for applied health research?
We are looking for exceptional students to apply for a funded PhD opportunity as part of a joint collaboration between the Economic Methods of Evaluation in Health and Social Care Interventions (EEPRU) and the Yorkshire-Humber ARC. It will offer the chance to undertake a PhD project to develop and apply economic evaluation methods for nature-based interventions to measure their impact on both mental and physical health.
The interdependence between nature and human health is now acknowledged and there is compelling evidence that exposure to nature-based interventions can lead to gains in mental and physical health. Furthermore, health care delivery can harm the environment, with the NHS being responsible for 25% of all UK public sector emissions. There are also significant inequalities in access to nature, including green spaces. This may have implications for health. However, despite the increased interest in the application of nature-based interventions methods to assess the economic as well as health benefits are less well developed, and there is an urgent need to develop robust and comprehensive evaluation methods to support public health and environmental policy.
An explicit policy objective of improving population health and reducing health inequalities whilst reflecting environmental impacts has significant implications for economic evaluation methods. E.g. studies need to be able to compare value across different areas of health care and be able to reflect social value judgements regarding how much gain in population health should be forgone to achieve environmental benefits.
Current economic evaluation methods applied to medical technologies are generally narrow in scope, focussing only on health outcomes and costs falling on health care budgets. Evaluating interventions that have intended positive or unintended negative environmental impacts requires a broader scope to reflect the presence of a mix of health and non-health outcomes, and costs and consequences falling over
different sectors.
Full details are on the CHE website.
Supervised by Professor Laura Bojke (Centre for Health Economics), Dr Peter Coventry (Department of Health Sciences), and Professor Piran White (Environment and Geography), and registered with the Department of Health Sciences.
This studentship will be embedded within Yorkshire and Humberside Applied Research Collaboration (YH-ARC). You will be part of an exciting £18M programme of research based in the health-knowledge economy of Yorkshire and Humber region (population 6.2M) which runs between 2019-24. The studentship will sit within the mental and physical multimorbidity theme that aims to address complexities that arise from coexisting mental and physical health problems. It links to projects with a focus on the evaluation of asset-based greenspace interventions for groups at heightened risk of mental and physical health problems. It also has formal links with the cross cutting Health Economics, Evaluation and Equality ARC theme. Interwoven with the first year of the Doctoral programme will be the opportunity to enhance your knowledge and skills by via the advanced postgraduate training programme of Department of Health Sciences, as well as specific subject-based training from the Department of Environment and Geography. The programme will be personalised to ensure the optimum mix of quantitative and qualitative skills, and will be formulated to match your needs at the start.
Essential/desirable requirements
At least upper second class honours (2:1) degree or equivalent in relevant subject with demonstrable quantitative training. Desirable to have a Masters degree with a significant quantitative focus in an applied discipline or equivalent experience. Some health economics training is desirable. For students whose first language is not English, a minimum requirement of an IELTS score of at least 6.5 in each component of the test and an overall score of at least 7.
Application
Apply on-line via link. State you are applying for the studentship and include ref: CHE2020 under ‘How studies will be funded’ section, in order to be considered for the scholarship.
Start date: January or March 2021. Interviews: 17th December, conducted via Zoom.
Informal enquiries
Contact Professor Laura Bojke ([Email Address Removed]) or Dr Peter Coventry ([Email Address Removed]).
Continue with Facebook
