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Using routine data to inform Public Health Interventions

The latest PHIRST webinar was held on Monday 18 November 2024. You can now watch a recording of the session below.

Data is a cornerstone of Public Health research and our PHIRST evaluations. Without data it would be impossible to produce our evaluations of public health interventions. However, data can be a challenging topic. Deciding what data to collect, who should collect it, when and how to collect it are all important questions. Service users may be reluctant to give their data in the first place. It can be challenging to share data between organisations and for people like researchers to access this data.  

The webinar was chaired by Dr Emma Halliday, Co-Lead for the PHIRST LiLaC team. Three of the PHIRST teams presented uses of routine data in their evaluations:

Evaluation of Social Navigators Service in South Tyneside. Linking local and national available data to quantify health and wellbeing impact. Dr Peter van der Graaf, PHIRST Fusion (06:17-28:22)
Exploring impacts of a growth mindset intervention on children's education outcomes: the use of routine data. Dr Samantha Garay, PHIRST Insight (28:23-47:52)
Using routinely collected data to support public health evaluations: case studies from the city of Liverpool. Dr Emma Coombes, PHIRST LiLaC (47:53-1:08:46)

View / download the presentation slides (PDF)

Additional Resources

Routine data plays a role in many PHIRST evaluations which due to time constraints are not possible to fit into one seminar. Members of PHIRST Connect and PHIRST PHRESH have written a blog: 'Using routine data to evaluate local government public health interventions' (PDF: 2 pages). This reflects on their experiences with routine data in evaluations.

NIHR launched a commissioning brief in Autumn 2022: 22/136 Public acceptance of the use of administrative datasets for Public Health Research. The NIHR Public Health Research Programme is still interested in receiving applications in this research area, as it remains a priority in the portfolio. The research question posed was "What practical steps can be taken to increase public acceptance of the use of administrative datasets for research to address public health issues and health inequalities?" You can find more information on the awards funded to date on the NIHR awards website.