Why and how has the United Kingdom become a high producer of health inequalities research over the past 50 years? A realist explanatory case study

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• dc.contributor.author Cash-Gibson, Lucinda, 1984-
• dc.contributor.author Martínez-Herrera, Eliana
• dc.contributor.author Benach, Joan
• dc.date.accessioned 2023-05-10T06:26:31Z
• dc.date.available 2023-05-10T06:26:31Z
• dc.date.issued 2023
• dc.description.abstract Background: Evidence on health inequalities has been growing over the past few decades, yet the capacity to produce research on health inequalities varies between countries worldwide and needs to be strengthened. More indepth understanding of the sociohistorical, political and institutional processes that enable this type of research and related research capacity to be generated in diferent contexts is needed. A recent bibliometric analysis of the health inequalities research feld found inequalities in the global production of this type of research. It also found the United Kingdom to be the second-highest global contributor to this research feld after the United States. This study aims to understand why and how the United Kingdom, as an example of a “high producer” of health inequalities research, has been able to generate so much health inequalities research over the past fve decades, and which main mechanisms might have been involved in generating this specifc research capacity over time. Methods: We conducted a realist explanatory case study, which included 12 semi-structured interviews, to test six theoretical mechanisms that we proposed might have been involved in this process. Data from the interviews and grey and scientifc literature were triangulated to inform our fndings. Results: We found evidence to suggest that at least four of our proposed mechanisms have been activated by certain conditions and have contributed to the health inequalities research production process in the United Kingdom over the past 50 years. Limited evidence suggests that two new mechanisms might have potentially also been at play. Conclusions: Valuable learning can be established from this case study, which explores the United Kingdom’s experi‑ ence in developing a strong national health inequalities research tradition, and the potential mechanisms involved in this process. More research is needed to explore additional facilitating and inhibiting mechanisms and other factors involved in this process in this context, as well as in other settings where less health inequalities research has been produced. This type of in-depth knowledge could be used to guide the development of new health inequalities research capacity-strengthening strategies and support the development of novel approaches and solutions aiming to tackle health inequalities.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Cash‑Gibson L, Martinez‑Herrera E, Benach J. Why and how has the United Kingdom become a high producer of health inequalities research over the past 50 years? A realist explanatory case study. Health Res Policy Syst. 2023;21:23. DOI: 10.1186/s12961-023-00968-w
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12961-023-00968-w
• dc.identifier.issn 1478-4505
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/56764
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher World Health Organization
• dc.relation.ispartof Health Research Policy and Systems. 2023;21:23.
• dc.rights © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Health inequalities
• dc.subject.keyword Research capacities
• dc.subject.keyword United Kingdom
• dc.subject.keyword Critical realism
• dc.subject.keyword Mechanisms
• dc.subject.keyword Politics
• dc.subject.keyword History
• dc.title Why and how has the United Kingdom become a high producer of health inequalities research over the past 50 years? A realist explanatory case study
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion