Early life and adolescence is a new research programme within Fuse which includes research on pregnancy, infancy, preschool and school years, adolescence and the transition to independence. We will explore how to provide a ‘healthy start’ through the critical period of pregnancy, onwards. Research will focus on families and parents, as well as children and young people. For example we are conducting research on helping parents to recognise when their child is overweight, providing fun exercise in schools through dance, and exploring the effects of changes in the guidelines for school dinners. This research programme goes through to teenage years and focuses on trying to reduce the risks of alcohol and drug misuse, and poor sexual health.
The programme objectives are to conduct, develop, evaluate and translate research to:
To achieve this we seek to build effective and lasting partnerships with policy and practice partners for collaborative co-production of public health research in this critical life stage. The programme will link with work within the Behaviour Change and Health Inequalities research programmes.