Profile

Biography

Hilary Graham has a background in sociology and social policy. She has a track-record of research on social inequalities in health, with a particular focus on health-related behaviours. Her research is also exploring, and seeking to integrate, the connections between public health (the health of current and future populations) and the biophysical environment (the health of the planet). Hilary received a CBE for services to social science in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2014 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2016.

She has led a range of research programmes, including the ESRC Health Variations Programme (1996-2001), which investigated the links between social and health inequalities, and the Department of Health Public Health Research Consortium (2005-11), which informs the evidence base to improve health and tackle health inequalities. She was a member of the Social Policy and Social Work Panel for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and has served as Vice-Chair of the ESRC Research Committee. She is a member of the Cancer Research UK Prevention Research sub-committee and the NHS Sustainable Development Unit Research and Implementation Advisory Group, and is contributing to the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change.

Hilary Graham’s books include Unequal Lives: Health and Socioeconomic Inequalities (Open University Press, 2007) and Understanding Health Inequalities (Open University Press, 2010). She was also an author for the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health.

Qualifications

• PhD Sociology, University of York
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education, University of York
• MA Sociology, University of York
• BA Sociology, University of York

Research

Overview

Current research interests include environmental change and public health, health behaviour and behaviour change, and socioeconomic inequalities in health.

Projects

• HOPE - Health of Populations and Ecosystems (ESRC funded)
• Promoting health and protecting the environment: a systematic review of qualitative studies of behaviours with health and environmental benefits (DH PHRC funded)
• Health behaviours and health behaviour change among adults in England (DH PHRC) funded
• Barriers and facilitators to smoking cessation in pregnancy and following childbirth
• Multiple risk behaviours among parents with dependent children. Department of Health Public Health Research Consortium
• Patterning across public health attitudes, experience and knowledge in Britain

Research group(s)

• Public Health and Society

Publications

Full publications list

• Hilary Graham's publications

External activities

Memberships

• Fellow of the British Academy
• ESRC Research Committee
• Cancer Research UK Prevention Expert Review Panel
• Sustainable Development Unit Research and Implementation Advisory Group (NHS England and Public Health England)