Health

At the heart of the home: transitions in kitchen living

The kitchen is a centre for all kinds of activities – such as domestic chores, social gatherings, creative cooking, recycling waste and feeding pets. The Transitions in Kitchen Living project is building up a picture of the experiences of older kitchen users, which will be used to improve guidance on kitchen design.

Helping the NHS keep cool

As the climate warms up, OU research looks at how to make buildings resilient to heat waves.

Developing early warning of epidemics

Despite the advances of modern medicine, populations are still at risk from epidemic diseases – as recent outbreaks of swine flu and SARS have shown. Concern about mass infections has been heightened in the wake of 9/11 by fears of germ-warfare-style ‘bioterrorism’ attacks.

Link between autism and IT-rich regions

Research has for the first time shown that autism diagnoses are more common in an IT-rich region.

'Invented here' versus 'not invented here'

Does being developed by NHS staff, in an NHS context, make it more or less likely that a
healthcare technology will be adopted successfully?

How do young people make sense of death?

Childhood and death are topics that are rarely brought together, yet mortality and bereavement are common in young lives.

Modelling and overcoming the biological interfaces that prevent nerve regeneration

Spinal cord injuries directly affect around two million people worldwide. They are severely debilitating, sometimes resulting in permanent paralysis. A high proportion of spinal injuries occur in young people and may lead to many years of dependency, meaning that their economic impact is also considerable.

Fertility, birth and work

Becoming a mother brings sudden and profound changes to many areas of women’s lives.

Finding the balance between leadership and governance in health services

The UK’s Health and Social Care Bill 2011 places clinical leadership at the heart of National Health Service (NHS) reforms. New research reveals how this can be brought about in practice.