Strengthening the equity focus of applied public health research: introducing the FOR EQUITY platform.

OBJECTIVES: Much applied health research pays insufficient attention to potential unequal impacts across social groups or is typically focused on a single dimension (e.g. socio-economic status), rarely considering the intersecting social processes driving inequalities (e.g. racism, sexism, classism). All health research needs a strong intersectional equity focus in order to inform action to reduce health inequalities as well as improve population health. STUDY DESIGN: Focus On Research and Equity (FOR EQUITY) is a new Web-based platform aiming to strengthen the intersectional equity focus of applied health research. METHODS: The platform was developed in collaboration with members of the public, practitioners and researchers working internationally. The development involved a systematic review of academic and grey literature, a series of workshops and user testing. RESULTS: FOR EQUITY encompasses (1) a Health Inequalities Assessment Tool, with an intersectional perspective on inequalities; (2) a FOR EQUITY Guidance Inventory providing access to a range of international research toolkits and guidance; and (3) a FOR EQUITY Library including case studies illustrating how researchers have attempted to integrate an equity lens into the research process and more general resources on health inequalities. CONCLUSION: FOR EQUITY can support researchers to strengthen the equity lens in their studies to make research evidence more relevant for action to reduce social and health inequalities. However, a single focus on toolkits is unlikely to sufficiently address the barriers to embedding equity in research. A mainstreaming strategy to transform the very roots of the 'institution of research' is required.

System resilience and neighbourhood action on social determinants of health inequalities: an English Case Study.

AIMS: This article seeks to make the case for a new approach to understanding and nurturing resilience as a foundation for effective place-based co-produced local action on social and health inequalities. METHODS: A narrative review of literature on community resilience from a public health perspective was conducted and a new concept of neighbourhood system resilience was developed. This then shaped the development of a practical programme of action research implemented in nine socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in North West England between 2014 and 2019. This Neighbourhood Resilience Programme (NRP) was evaluated using a mixed-method design comprising: (1) a longitudinal household survey, conducted in each of the Neighbourhoods For Learning (NFLs) and in nine comparator areas in two waves (2015/2016 and 2018/2019) and completed in each phase by approximately 3000 households; (2) reflexive journals kept by the academic team; and (3) semi-structured interviews on perceptions about the impacts of the programme with 41 participants in 2019. RESULTS: A difference-in-difference analysis of household survey data showed a statistically significant increase of 7.5% (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.6 to 13.5) in the percentage of residents reporting that they felt able to influence local decision-making in the NFLs relative to the residents in comparator areas, but no effect attributable to the NRP in other evaluative measures. The analysis of participant interviews identified beneficial impacts of the NRP in five resilience domains: social connectivity, cultural coherence, local decision-making, economic activity, and the local environment. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the need for a shift away from interventions that seek solely to enhance the resilience of lay communities to interventions that recognise resilience as a whole systems phenomenon. Systemic approaches to resilience can provide the underpinning foundation for effective co-produced local action on social and health inequalities, but they require intensive relational work by all participating system players.