Data Science Internship with the Care and Health Informatics (CHI) theme

Background: Wellbeing is more than feeling good and functioning well. It also includes positive relationships, emotions, and purpose, which makes it a greater indicator for lives being lived well and vice versa, if measured. Measuring wellbeing can be used to evidence the impact of an intervention and can identify opportunities for improvement.

Research aims and objectives: To improve the mental wellbeing of residents in Blackburn-with-Darwen, by understanding who has the lowest levels of wellbeing and therefore better able to target resources.

Methods: To compare national data from “What Works Wellbeing” with local data in the form of the Beyond Imagination Life Survey dataset to find out if the data presented nationally was true for residents from Blackburn-with-Darwen. The determinants that are consistently associated with people experiencing the poorest wellbeing identified by “What Works Wellbeing” are: bad or very bad health; long-term illness or disability; renting; single or widowed; divorced or separated; middle-aged; having basic or no education; and being male. These were compared with data from the Beyond Imagination Life Survey which used questions from the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing scale.

Findings: The characteristics of age range, renting, health and long-term illness for people in Blackburn-with Darwen were in line with national data but gender and education level were not. In Blackburn-with Darwen, more females have ‘below average’ wellbeing scores than males and a higher proportion of people who are economically inactive due to health or disability reasons have ‘below average’ wellbeing. Information about single or widowed, divorced, or separated was not collected in the Beyond Imagination Life Survey so could not be compared.

Potential impact: To raise the profile of, and improve, mental wellbeing through engagement with all commissioned partners by asking them to measure and track wellbeing as one of their project outputs.

Links:
• ARC NWC Internship Showcase Poster

For more information, contact frances.riley@blackburn.gov.uk