A major study aiming to address dietary inequalities and improve the life chances of people living in social housing in Liverpool has been funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Led by the University of Liverpool in collaboration with University of Cambridge and with several non-academic partners named below, the Supporting Communities in social Housing and Optimising Urban food System interventions for Equity (SCHOUSE) study seeks to better understand the reasons behind difficulties social housing tenants face in consuming a healthy diet and accessing affordable healthy foods.
Study lead Professor Charlotte Hardman from the Department of Psychology said:
“People who live in social housing face difficulties in accessing healthy diets and often struggle to afford to eat and need to access food banks.
“This is partly because of material disadvantages faced, such as lower incomes or lack of good quality employment opportunities. But it may also be because the places they live offer fewer opportunities to buy affordable and healthy foods. Poor diet and ill-health are strongly linked, and people in social housing are more likely to have diet-related health conditions.”
The SCHOUSE study seeks to better understand the reasons behind these issues, why they exist and what can be done about them to improve the life chances of people living in social housing.
Its activities predominantly focus on Liverpool, which has some of the most deprived areas and highest rates of obesity in the UK.
The researchers will investigate the factors leading to people in social housing having poorer diets, looking at how a range of issues affect people and the places they live in, mapping the features of places relating to food access and diet in Liverpool into an interactive tool to better target future interventions.
In partnership with three major social housing associations in Liverpool, local social enterprise Alchemic Kitchen, and Alexandra Rose Charity, the project will also deliver, test and evaluate two interventions aimed at helping residents of social housing to access affordable healthy foods – use of a mobile greengrocer van and provision of vouchers for purchasing fruit and vegetables at the mobile greengrocer. Local residents will be involved in co-designing the intervention.
The research team will then forecast the short- and long-term health impacts of these interventions, using a computer model to predict the number of cases of diseases and deaths that could be averted by expanding the interventions to the whole of Liverpool and England.
Study co-lead Dr Rachel Loopstra from the Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems said:
“Our academic team brings together many different areas of expertise, spanning psychology, public health, nutrition, epidemiology, health geography, health economics, modelling, systems science and statistics. We will work closely with our project partners to co-produce and deliver this important research, and widely share findings at local, regional and national scale across different sectors.
“We expect that our project will produce new evidence on how we can support healthier diets among people living in social housing in a scalable way that can be deployed in other areas”.
Reacting to the funding and research partnership announcement, Jonathan Pauling, Chief Executive of Alexandra Rose Charity said:
“We are delighted to be part of this important study, which will provide vital insights into the barriers people in social housing face in accessing a healthy diet. Through our existing partnership in Liverpool with the Queen of Greens, we’ve already seen the life-changing impact that Rose Vouchers can have, helping families on low incomes to access and afford fresh fruit and vegetables and supporting them to make healthier food choices. This research will allow us to explore how we can extend this impact even further, reaching more people in need and ensuring that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, has access to nutritious food.”
The project has been awarded £1.78M from the UKRI Health Inequalities in the Food System funding call, with funding administered on behalf of UKRI by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
The project partners are: Alchemic Kitchen/Feedback Global, Alexandra Rose Charity, Feeding Liverpool, Health Equalities Group, Liverpool City Council, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, Onward Homes, Riverside Group and Torus Foundation.