Global Population Health Fellowship

Introduction

Arts engagement has been shown to prevent illness, manage symptoms, and improve overall health and well-being (Fancourt & Finn, 2019). However, most evidence comes from Western or developed countries, with no international comparisons on its prevalence or impact across diverse cultures.

The Jameel Arts & Health Lab Global Health Fellowship is a three-year fellowship that is supported by the Lab in collaboration with University College London. The fellowship is awarded to one post-doctoral researcher to further research and expand population-level work on arts and health to include individuals from global ethnic majorities, Global South populations, and low and middle-income countries. 

Scope 

The fellowship will investigate global inequalities in arts engagement, identifying who has access, what factors enable or hinder participation across countries, and whether the health benefits are equally enjoyed worldwide. It will accomplish this through three key objectives: 

1. To understand global inequalities in access to the arts, the fellowship will explore individual (e.g., demographic and psychological factors), neighborhood (e.g., social relationships, urbanicity), and global factors (e.g., country wealth and inequalities). 
2. Second, the fellowship will investigate whether the health benefits of arts engagement are universal, examining outcomes such as depression, loneliness, life satisfaction, and self-reported health. 
3. Finally, the fellowship will assess whether these benefits are experienced equally across different population subgroups, including ethnicity, education, age, health, and income.

To achieve these aims, the fellowship will primarily focus on data analysis using national cohort studies and cross-national studies. The first year will investigate the data for older populations, children, and adolescents, then adult populations in the following year. Over 50 datasets spanning more than 50 countries have been identified thus far. The final months of the fellowship will focus on public engagement activities, collaborating with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and WHO, and translating research findings for diverse audiences.

Insights and Deliverables

This fellowship will: 

1. Create a novel database of harmonized cohort studies on arts engagement, fostering future international research in this area.
2. Publish analytical codes, research materials, and papers to facilitate open science practice.
3. Create summary reports and infographics for lay audiences, disseminating them through international networks. 
4. Present findings at international conferences.
5. Support the Lab’s policy work by translating evidence into policy briefs.

Project Team

Following a competitive search process, the fellowship was awarded to Dr Hei Wan (Karen) Mak of the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at UCL, led by Prof Daisy Fancourt.

Funding and Support

Support for this project was provided by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab.

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