Public Health

Social and environmental research

Work

The theme has an active and strong portfolio of research on work, worklessness and health led by Professor Ewan Macdonald. This research explores the causes and consequences of health-related absence from work and the labour market, and the effectiveness of interventions designed to help get people back into work.

The theme hosts the newly established Scottish Observatory for Work and Health, led by Professor Richard Mitchell and Professor Ewan Macdonald. The Observatory is funded through a consortium headed by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health. Established in July 2008, the Observatory is the first of its kind and is dedicated to studying trends in the receipt of Incapacity Benefit in Scotland and examining the health consequences of worklessness. It builds on pilot work published in 2007 as Turning the Tap Off.

This area of research also includes studies developing and testing tools and interventions to assist in the assessment, management and assistance of those whose health has affected their working life.