Prevention including multiple long-term conditions
Helping people to stay healthier for longer, including those with complex needs and who face barriers to care.
About this research theme
The UK has a high and largely preventable burden of chronic disease, with a growing number of people living with multiple long‑term conditions (MLTCs). This is linked not only to an ageing population but also to economic and social disadvantage that can influence health behaviours such as smoking, heavy alcohol use, and physical inactivity.
These challenges are even greater in the North East and North Cumbria, which has some of the highest rates of preventable illness and twice the national rate of MLTCs.
We will work with people with lived experience, practitioners, commissioners, policymakers and academics to design, implement and evaluate interventions that work in real-world settings to prevent illness, help people live healthier lives, and improve care.
Our research priorities
- Reshape prevention and health promotion to better support underserved groups with MLTCs and complex needs, who face barriers to care
We will work to develop community-relevant and appropriate models of preventative care for underserved groups, such as interventions for oral health, substance use, smoking and diet for people with severe disadvantage.
This will include supporting the delivery of preventative care in new ways, including in community settings.
- Promote healthier, longer working lives
Helping people remain healthy and in work is a national priority. Sickness and disability are now the leading causes of economic inactivity in people aged 50–64, and over a quarter of working‑age adults in NENC are out of work due to illness.
We develop work that supports people to stay healthy and in employment for longer. This will include working with partners to evaluate and support the scale-up of employer health promotion interventions, physical activity interventions for older people, and workplace health initiatives.
- Improving care for older adults including those living with MLTCs
Older adults often need coordinated support across health and social care. We will build on existing research to improve community, hospital and end‑of‑life care for people with MLTCs. We will use digital care records, including the NENC Secure Data Environment, to support evaluation, implementation, and scaling-up of interventions.
- Speeding up the use of evidence-based preventive interventions to address key risk factors
We will work to support the adoption of effective prevention approaches, widely and quickly. This will include evaluating new and emerging approaches that aim to reduce preventable health harms from key risk factors including obesity, substance use and smoking.
