Bolton & Wigan Research Forum in Health & Wellbeing

Local Research Activity

A key aim of the Bolton Research Forum is to keep people informed about what research is going on locally. We believe there are several important reasons to advertise what research is already taking place. Not only is research dissemination important so that we can learn from its findings, but knowing who is doing what, where and how, can provide a point of contact to seek support and advice about similar projects or methodologies. It also helps to raise the profile of local research activity.

Research Databases

The National Research Register was an online database of all research of interest to or of value to the UK NHS, all research having approval through the Research Governance Framework was automatically registered. It is no longer updated but still holds historical informaiton.

To find out about research happening in one of the Greater Manchester PCTs you can look on the ReGrouP database

The Research Register for Social Care records social care research that has been subject to independent ethical and scientific review. This will include current and completed research, and research carried out by students and practitioners.

The UK Comprehensive Local Research Network portfolio supports high quality research, funded by the Nataional Institute for Health Research and its partners, that involves NHS patients and/or resources. You can search the UKCRN portfolio database to find out about these studies. This database does not contain details about ALL research happening in the NHS.

Research Abstracts

An important objective of the Forum is to help disseminate information on the findings of research in health and social care that has been carried out in Bolton. Often we don't get to know what people found, and researchers don't always have opportunities to present or publish their work to a wider audience. To support the dissemination process we encourage all researchers active in health and social care research, to complete and submit a Forum Abstract Form to enter onto this website. This includes research carried out as part of a postgraduate qualification.

All research abstracts sent to us will be posted on this website - the only criteria is that the research is relevant to health and social care, in some way. Therefore, we stress the importance to the reader of appraising the work themselves. We do not carry out any quality assessments ourselves. Guidelines for critically appraising research can be found on the Help & Support part of this website.

	Share your work and interests with others..... Click here to download the Abstract Form to tell us about your work

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Local Research Publications

An excellent way to disseminate the findings of research is to have the project published. While this can be difficult to do, people in Bolton continue to be successful in having work published in a range of different formats. The details of these are contained in this directory. Local libraries & those at the PCT, hospital or University of Bolton will be able to provide information on how to obtain a full copy of the published article.

	List of local Research Publications

Looking for advice on writing up your research? Check out our Books List for some suggestions or Click Here for on-line advice.

	Please remember to send us details of your publications!!!

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Health & Lifestyle Surveys

Information about the health and related lifestyles of people living in the population is rarely collected through routine data-sources. Most information is based on people once they become ill, or seek some form of care. To help fill this void, the previous Wigan & Bolton Health Authority carried out an extensive survey to find out important information to develop a greater understanding of health and activities related to health across different parts of the two boroughs.

The survey was carried out in 2001 and involved sending a comprehensive postal questionnaire to a random sample of 22,000 adults living in Bolton and Wigan. Over 70% of people returned a completed questionnaire and the main findings for Bolton are reported using a series of maps and tables. The survey was repeated in 2008 and an updated report will be available soon.

Copies of the Bolton 2001 report can be Downloaded Here in a PDF file.

Information about Wigan Borough health & lifestyle surveys coming at some point...

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