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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Naomi Griffin, Dr Steph Scott, Pip KyleORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Background Improving the public’s understanding of how regional and socioeconomic inequalities create and perpetuate inequalities in health, is argued to be necessary for building support for policies geared towards creating a more equal society. However, research exploring public perceptions of health inequalities, and how they are generated, is limited. This is particularly so for young people. Our study sought to explore young people’s lived experiences and understandings of health inequalities.Methods We carried out focus group discussions (n=18) with 42 young people, aged 13–21, recruited from six youth organisations in England in 2021. The organisations were located in areas of high deprivation in South Yorkshire, the North East and London. Young people from each organisation took part in three interlinked focus group discussions designed to explore their (i) perceptions of factors impacting their health in their local area, (ii) understandings of health inequalities and (iii) priorities for change. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most discussions took place online (n=15). However, with one group in the North East, we carried out discussions face-to-face (n=3). Data were analysed thematically and we used NVivo-12 software to facilitate data management.Results Young people from all groups demonstrated an awareness of a North-South divide in England, UK. They described how disparities in local economies and employment landscapes between the North and the South led to tangible differences in everyday living and working conditions. They clearly articulated how these differences ultimately led to inequalities in people’s health and wellbeing, such as linking poverty and employment precarity to chronic stress. Young people did not believe these inequalities were inevitable. They described the Conservative government as prioritising the South and thus perpetuating inequalities through uneven investment.Conclusion Our study affords important insights into young people’s perceptions of how wider determinants can help explain the North-South health divide in England. It demonstrates young people’s contextualised understandings of the interplay between spatial, social and health inequalities. Our findings support calls for proequity policies to address the structural causes of regional divides in health. Further research, engaging young people in deliberative policy analysis, could build on this work.
Author(s): Fairbrother H, Woodrow N, Crowder M, Holding E, Griffin N, Er V, Dodd-Reynolds C, Egan M, Lock K, Scott S, Summerbell C, McKeown R, Rigby E, Kyle P, Knights N, Quirk H, Goyder E
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: BMC Public Health
Year: 2024
Volume: 24
Online publication date: 29/07/2024
Acceptance date: 19/07/2024
Date deposited: 19/08/2024
ISSN (electronic): 1471-2458
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19537-z
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-19537-z
Data Access Statement: The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy reasons but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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