Research Interests

Jennie Popay has been Professor of Sociology and Public Health in the Division of Health Research since January 2002. She is currently director of the Centre for Health Inequalities and co-director of the Liverpool and Lancaster Universities Collaboration for Public Health Research (LiLaC - http://www.lilac-healthequity.org.uk) one of eight academic members of the NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR). She is also Director of Engagement and Public Health Lead for the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for the NW Coast – a collaboration between 36 partners including universities, local authorities and NHS organisations.

Jennie was born in Salford in the North West of England. She spent 5 years teaching in East Africa and studied social sciences in New Zealand before returning to the UK in 1974 to undertake postgraduate work. She began her research career at the Unit for the Study of Health Policy at Guy's Hospital in London and has worked as a sociologist in the public health field ever since. Her research interests include the social determinants of health and health equity; the evaluation of complex public health policies/interventions; community empowerment; and the sociology of knowledge. She has a particular interest in qualitative evidence review and synthesis and established the Qualitative Research Methods Group within the Cochrane Collaboration. With funding from the ESRC she worked with colleagues on the production of guidance on the conduct of Narrative Synthesis - a method used to review and synthesise findings from multiple mixed methods studies. The Narrative Synthesis Guidance is available to download and has been tested by reviewers working on systematic reviews in the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.

Her current research includes the Communities in Control Study – an evaluation of a Lottery funded community empowerment initiative (on which she is PI) and leadership of a programme of work developing and evaluating local authority place based community approaches to addressing health inequalities. The latter work has involved the production of an online resource to help researchers to design studies that are more equity sensitive (http://www.hiat.org.uk). She has completed studies of the health equity and social impact of the New Deal for Communities regeneration initiative and an MRC study focusing on methods to assess the impact of public involvement in research, which resulted in an online resource for researchers (http://piiaf.org.uk). She has undertaken a number of innovative systematic reviews of qualitative research evidence and of findings from studies involving a range of methods. Leading a group of senior academics from City University London and the Universities of York and Glasgow she has developed guidance on the conduct of Narrative Synthesis - a method used to review and synthesise findings from multiple mixed methods studies. This guidance is available to download and it is tested by reviewers working on systematic reviews in the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.

Previously she was co-ordinator of the Global Social Exclusion Knowledge Network supporting the WHO Sponsored Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (the Marmot Commission) which had hubs in Brazil, Colombia, Mozambique, South Africa, Bangladesh and Australia and Chair of the Disadvantage, Social Exclusion and Vulnerability Task Group, supporting the work of the WHO EURO review of social determinants of health (2010-12). She has held a number of public appointments including Vice Chair of the Commission on Patient and Public Involvement in Health, member, the Bevan Commission in Wales and Commissioner with the Commission on Health Improvement. She was the inaugural chair of the national charity The People’s health Trust (https://www.peopleshealthtrust.org.uk).