Project date: Sep 18 – Sep 21. PI: Holman, D. Co-Is: Bell, A., Salway, S. For more project details, see: Gateway to Research project profile
This project applied intersectionality theory to understand diverse inequalities in later life health and illness, especially chronic diseases, and factors across the life course that shape these inequalities. It was based at the University of Sheffield and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Now that the project has formally ended, it is a good time to recap on the progress made and ways forward for intersectional health research and intersectionality more widely.
During the year the project launched in 2018, one hundred papers were published mentioning both intersectionality and health in the title, abstract or keywords (according to SCOPUS). In 2021, that figure had ballooned to 450. These papers are increasingly diverse, applied to many different aspects of health. As work on intersectionality advances, we expect to see progress in how it is applied and ultimately how it can influence policy. Many of our project activities have tried to push in that direction.
Early on in the project in May 2019, we held a workshop in Sheffield which brought together around 25 health inequalities researchers and policy practitioners. The aim was to discuss the potential of and challenges with intersectionality as applied to health research. Presentations from both academics and wider stakeholders showcased some of the existing and emerging work in this area, providing much food for thought. During discussions, there were many great suggestions for how to advance policy action through intersectional approaches which can be read in the workshop summary here.
We also ran an academic conference panel in November 2020 in conjunction with the Understanding Inequalities project. This was an open online event and proved very popular, with the 250 available tickets being quickly allocated. Perhaps part of the appeal was its wide-ranging scope, covering smoking amongst African-Caribbean women, statistical approaches to intersectionality, biomarkers of healthy ageing and Roma health. The recording for this event is available online as are the presentations here.
Our final event focussed specifically on healthy ageing, and was aimed at both academic and policy/practice audiences. The intention was to have a strong policy focus to question and explore how intersectionality can actually be applied and explore the potential for the approach, similar to the initial workshop but this time opened up to a much wider audience. We were honoured to have Jabeer Butt (Race Equality Foundation), Nuzhat Ali (Public Health England) and Permjeet Dhoot (NHS England and NHS improvement) join for a panel discussion element. What was particularly insightful here was the diverse understandings of intersectionality that panel members had depending on the contexts in which they worked, ranging from applied healthcare, community involvement, or the wider national policy context. Further, the view was expressed that different organisations bring their own implicit understandings and ways of working to the table, complicating how intersectionality might be implemented by different actors. The presentations from this event are available here.
Alongside events, we used a variety of means to communicate the research. We produced an explainer animation (available here), now at over 20,000 views. A number of blogs have provided summaries of the project and its outputs. These outputs have so far covered advanced statistical approaches (paper here) empirical analysis of biomarkers (paper here), theoretical work (paper here and blog here) and co-produced policy work (paper here and blog here). Finally, the project website and newsletter have attracted a global audience.
So, the project has covered a lot of ground, but there is still lots to do, and many questions to answer! In relation to the substantive focus on chronic diseases, we have only begun to scratch the surface. There is now a need to more thoroughly integrate a life course perspective to understand how intersectional health inequalities emerge in different life stages and in different historical contexts. There is also great potential for mixed methods intersectional health research, which remains largely unexplored. Many potentially valuable suggestions on how intersectionality can influence policy and practice have arisen that could be taken up and explored (for example, see initial workshop report and the policy paper, linked above).
In reflecting on the project and its legacy, one of the challenges is that we are unaware of how those who have engaged with the project have used the resources generated. For example, we discovered by chance that the explainer animation is being used by two global companies in their Equality and Diversity training. We do not know the other ways which the project and its outputs and activities might have influenced the plans or action of other individuals or organisations, including those in academia, the community, the third sector, and policy and practice professionals.
Intersectional Health 