Developing an approach to uncover hidden experiences, barriers and strategies to improve health research participation among women from deprived areas, using the longitudinal cohort study Born and Bred in Wakefield (BaBi)
The HEATHER project will help us to understand why some women, especially those from more disadvantaged areas, are less likely to take part in health research.
The project focuses on the Born and Bred in Wakefield (BaBi Wakefield) study, which invites women receiving maternity care at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust (MYTT) to join Babi Wakefiled - a long-term research project by giving permission to use and link their routinely collected data. While many women have joined since the study opened in 2022, early results show a clear and statistically significant pattern: women from the most deprived neighbourhoods are less likely to take part. This mirrors a wider challenge seen across longitudinal health research both in the UK and internationally, where underrepresentation of people from deprived backgrounds compromises the quality and fairness of research findings.
Through workshops, community conversations, and drawing on medical humanities approaches, HEATHER will work with local women and community organisations to understand the best ways to explore the reasons behind this. Following the Co production phase which forms part of a Wellcome Trust funded Fellowship with the Institute For Medical Humanities at Durham University, the study will progress to a mixed-methods research study, across several work packages, including a narrative literature review, in-depth interviews, an online survey, and co-production workshops, the project will explore what makes research feel relevant, safe, or worthwhile to women in these communities, what gets in the way, and how future research can be shaped to include everyone.
The project is currently in its active development phase. The long-term goal is to produce practical, evidence-based co-produced strategies to enhance participation in BaBi Wakefield and similar longitudinal cohort studies, helping to reduce health inequalities and improve services for everyone, starting in Wakefield and with potential to reach much further.
Judith Holliday
Deputy Director of Research, Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust
Principal Investigator, BaBi Wakefield
Wellcome-funded Medical Humanities In Practice Research Fellow, Durham University Institute for Medical Humanities
Part-time PhD Student, University of Salford
Contact via Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust Research Department: judith.holliday@nhs.net
BaBi Wakefield study page:
https://www.babinetwork.co.uk/babi-sites/babi-wakefield
Durham University Institute for Medical Humanities:
Wakefield Research Hub:
https://www.midyorks.nhs.uk/wakefieldresearchhub
