Research

Recent research projects

Understanding Long Covid in Northern England: A Growing Challenge

The Understanding  Long Covid in Northern England: A Growing Challenge report, a collaboration between Health Equity North, Newcastle University, University of Manchester, Insights North East, Public Health South Tees and Healthworks, explores the impact of Long Covid on the health, wellbeing and employment prospects of adults living in Northern England.

The report reveals that Long Covid is affecting up to a fifth of patients in certain areas of the North of England.

It highlights the alarming inequalities in Long Covid rates, showing a clear divide between the North and South of the country.

Key Findings:

• The North West of England has the highest percentage of people reporting Long Covid symptoms, with 5.5% of the population affected. The North East and Yorkshire follow closely with 5.1%.
• In certain GP practices in the North, up to 20% of patients have reported symptoms of Long Covid, underscoring the severity of the condition in these regions.

The impact of Long Covid:

Long Covid affects both the physical and mental health of individuals, with common symptoms including:

• Brain fog
• Fatigue
• Breathlessness
• Low mood
• Depression

These symptoms have far-reaching consequences, not only on personal health but also on professional lives. The report found that many people suffering from Long Covid have faced significant challenges at work, including demotion, job loss, or the need to switch to part-time employment.

At Healthworks, we are committed to supporting those affected by Long Covid and advocating for the resources and research needed to address this growing health challenge.

Community Voices on Local Health Issues

Read our findings on what good research practice looks like from a community perspective across the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System Region.

This report adds to evidence on what good research practice looks like from a community perspective. It also highlights the pervasive health issues which need to be considered by researchers and services.

Our report highlights the following:

• Local health issues that affected people included:
• Access issues and barriers to services for different groups of people
• A general lack of awareness of available local resources
• Wider social and economic issues prevent people from living a healthy life

Recommendations for partnership working with research included:

• More partnership work with Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise organisations
• Better access to research resources for VCSE organisations
• More accountability and evaluation of research from a community viewpoint

Other Research Projects

AAA is a research project in collaboration with Northumbria University and NHS Newcastle trust, it’s a 12-week virtual exercise and behaviour intervention for patients with low grade Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. The study is designed to assess the feasibility of a home-based multimodal telehealth invention and improve the health and well-being of patients with AAA

TEXT-PAD which is a research project in collaboration with Northumbria University and NHS Newcastle trust, it’s a 12-week virtual exercise and behaviour intervention for patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAT). The study is designed to assess the feasibility of a home-based multimodal telehealth invention and improve the health and well-being of patients with PAD.

We have also delivered Pre-operative uncontrolled diabetes reversal before elective and major surgery, Pre-Op DREAMS, with fantastic outcomes. This work has recently won an Innovation Award supported by the Academic Science Network.

Healthworks has recently supported a long Covid research project ACCEPT- Accessible Community COVID-19 Education and Physical Therapy with Ioannis Vogiatzis Ph.D. FERS, Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences at Northumbria University.

Addressing the crisis in child mental health: primary prevention through social prescribing as the missing link

Mental health disorders in children are increasing and most at-risk are those living in social deprivation. This Newcastle University study with Zoneworks explores the feasibility of Social Prescribing for children, utilising cross-sector collaboration within an at-risk community.

EXpanding into communities to imProve lifestyle sUpport foR womEn after breast cancer (PURE-EX)

Funded by Breast Cancer Now, Healthworks, Newcastle University and the NHS will be working together over the next 3 years to co-develop and test of the feasibility of a programme to improve diet and physical activity support in breast cancer care.

Evaluation of key Healthworks programmes

A Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics at Northumbria University evaluated the return on investment (ROI) for some of the key programmes run by Healthworks.

The University was able to show that as well as realising improvements associated with specific conditions, these programmes showed cost savings and benefits in both a healthcare and societal perspective. Our programmes have delayed the onset of diabetes cases, led to fewer inpatient admissions thus freeing up hospital beds, reduced the burden on GPs, A&E departments and ambulance services, reduced falls, weight loss and reduced anxiety and loneliness and improved mental wellbeing. These programmes have played a real role in helping to relieve pressure on NHS services by improving people’s health.

Emily James, Northumbria University, completed a review of the Staying Steady falls prevention programme which was published in the BMC Public Health Journal.  A summary of her findings is included below.

You can find out more about Staying Steady here.

Healthworks is a core partner of Newcastle Health Innovation Partners. 

NHIP is one of eight Academic Health Science Centres in the UK and brings together world-class research, education and clinical practice for the benefits of the region. NHIP aims to become the most integrated and innovative Academic Health Science Partnership in the world, working with innovators to discover, develop and deliver new solutions in healthcare, improving population health in North East and North Cumbria. You can find out more about NHIP here.

We have secured funding from NIHR Applied Research Collaboration and we’re delivering the interventions involved in ‘Multimodal tele-health behavioural intervention in patients with peripheral arterial disease from low socio-economic areas: a feasibility and pilot randomized controlled trial with embedded process evaluation.

Proud to support the Health and Life Sciences Pledge

Healthworks are signed up to the Health and Life Sciences Pledge, which is led by the The Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria, brings together the regional health and life sciences ecosystem to: collectively address challenges within the sector; gain recognition for our exemplary infrastructure and assets nationally and internationally; identify opportunities and attract investment to the region; and celebrate our collective success in the health and social care innovation arena.

Research+ Me

Research underpins a lot of medicines and health advice that we all use day to day. However, the results of research and clinical trials often don’t represent our local populations.

We are working with our partners across the NHS and Universities work to better understand how we can better engage and involve different communities.

We’d like to encourage you to consider signing up to Research+ Me to learn more about what local clinical trials are going on in Newcastle.

You can find out more and sign up by following this link https://redcap.link/rpm-healthworks

Anyone aged 18 or over can register to be involved. Some trials are for healthy volunteers and others are for people with specific medical conditions. Currently they are now looking for volunteers:

• Type 2 diabetes
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Heart disease
• Asthma
• Obesity
• Depression and bipolar disorder
• Healthy volunteers

Remember your support could potential save lives and health outcomes for thousands of people!

Zone Boro

The Zone Boro project was a 2-year pilot replicating the successful Zone West children’s social prescribing model into Middlesbrough for children aged 7 to 11 years, with the aim of demonstrating proof of concept and gain financial commitment to become sustainable at place.

This project was part of the Network’s Children’s Integration Centre bid for NHS England Children and Young People’s Transformation Programme funding.

The Zone Boro Learning and Evaluation Report shares the learning from the implementation of Zone Boro, for both those interested in social prescribing models for children and those interested in the wider learning from replicating a service into a new area at pace. The learning from Zone Boro is also in a summary report – Zone Boro Key Learning Summary.

Read Zone Boro Learning and Evaluation Report here:

If you are interested in discussing how we can support your research please contact us on: [email protected]