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PhD Studentship – Ageing with multiple long-term conditions: A study of disadvantaged women in rural, coastal and urban North East (England).

This PhD is jointly-funded by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) and the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Start date is September 2021 for three years.

More information about the PhD

As we live longer, more and more people are spending their later years with a number of health conditions. Health and care systems have evolved to support older people with complex problems, but they were not designed for people with multiple long-term conditions.

Older people find themselves having to navigate multiple appointments with different services, placing a burden on families and adversely affecting quality of life.

Decision-makers have recognised the need to move away from a single disease-based model of care, to optimise support for people with multiple conditions, and manage the demands on existing services. However, research evidence to inform service or system re-design is limited.

This doctorate seeks to address a key gap in our knowledge, with a focus on a population where multiple long-term conditions are most common – older women in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage. Women in the poorest areas of England can expect to live almost 19 fewer years in good health, compared to women living in the most affluent areas, and this inequality continues to grow.

Using mixed-methods or qualitative approaches, the student will seek to understand the experiences and perceptions of disadvantaged older women with multiple long-term conditions in three contrasting areas of the North East of England (rural, coastal and urban).

A series of in-depth, multi-method case studies will generate a comprehensive picture of the experiences of older female service recipients. Combined with insights from unpaid carers and service providers, this study will provide a unique window on the challenges of delivering co-ordinated, person centred care across health (primary, secondary, tertiary) and social care settings.

The data generated will make a novel and critical contribution to our understanding of how to optimise care for this important section of the population, and highlight the importance of geographical and socioeconomic context.

Find out more and apply

Closing date 20 May 2021