PhD Study: Evaluating the impacts of Greater Manchester devolution on population health
What were we trying to do?
This PhD evaluated the effects of Greater Manchester devolution on population health and explored the underlying mechanism, to assess whether Greater Manchester devolution led to more efficient and equitable health and care organisations from a quantitative aspect.
Why was it important?
The decentralisation of health and social care from national to local levels is a consistent focus of policymakers as a way to meet the rising and diverging needs of local people, since it empowers local authorities to design locality-based policies better matched to their own circumstances rather than one size fits all nationwide policies.
Greater Manchester’s devolution deal and accompanying localised policies offered a great opportunity to study the effects of localised approaches to population heath.
Greater Manchester has a strong commitment to reduce health and care inequalities; with Greater Manchester becoming a Marmot City Region that is committed to breaking down service silos and investing in prevention, including health behaviours, and commissioned an independent report on inequalities which highlighted the presence of intersecting inequalities and the need to better understand their roles in shaping policy outcomes.
The PhD generated crucial evidence on the most successful policies and their mechanisms, overall showing whether Greater Manchester devolution led to more efficient and equitable organisation of health and care, showing whether and how it ultimately influenced population health. It generated valuable knowledge to inform future decision-making in England and elsewhere, in order to achieve more efficient health and social care systems.
How did we do it?
This PhD study aimed to answer 3 research questions:
- What are the impacts of devolution on self-reported health outcomes, as measured by individuals’ experienced health and wellbeing?
- What are the heterogeneous impacts of devolution on crucial health determinants, as measured by individuals’ health behaviours and lifestyles?
- To fully understand how devolution might influence health outcomes through its impact on health behaviours, what are the short-term effects of health behaviours on individuals’ experienced health and wellbeing?
Who did we work with?
Downlaodable resources:
More information:
Yao Wei (PhD Student)
yao.wei@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk