Community Health - Andover Project

Andover is a city in the Test Valley which is unique in the UK. It has an urban mix with many social problems: it is relatively isolated in the centre of the Salisbury plain, and it has a relatively stable population. But within Andover there has been an inspired leadership form the civic authorities acting in co-ordination with the chief executive of a health delivery company ‘Simply Health’. This leadership has launched a programme of civic enhancement and change based on a multi-stakeholder intervention with the aim to ‘revitalise Andover over the next 20 years’. One of the core aspects of the transformation is the wish to change the health of the community as a whole and to utilise many inputs into the structure and environment so that health rather than chronic disease is the natural outcome.

Epidemic chronic disease is the largest threat to the health service today: already over 12% of the NHS  budget is taken in combating aspects of chronic disease (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and some cancers) caused by three modifiable risk factors: diet, exercise and smoking. Although cluster randomised trials are possible I some parts of the world, these are not able to be carried out in the UK because of the ‘cross-talk’ between clusters. It is, however, possible to examine secular trends within a community where strong interventive measures are being undertaken and use national and baseline comparators.


Aims of the Andover Project

The purpose of this report is not to devise intervention strategies for promoting health in Andover. Rather, our aims are to:

1. Provide a synthesis of the most up-to-date evidence available on the major biological, behavioural, and societal risk factors for NCDs

2. Outline the existing global evidence on the most effective strategies for NCD prevention

3. Identify the most promising activities, already under consideration by the Andover Vision project or by the local authorities, that align with global evidence on what works for preventing and reducing NCDs.


The report will examine existing individual, environmental and public policy interventions and how these interventions could be applied to Andover at a community level taking into account geography, demographics, overall health and environment.
Multiple levels of data will be taken from various different sources in order to compile this report. These included demographics and health statistics, qualitative data sources, maps and surveys.


Strategic context

This project will support the NIHR biomedical research programme in that it addresses two of the stated aims for the NIHR research centres:

1.    To drive innovation in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of ill-health. This will be achieved by identifying the driving forced behind levels of health in a specified community and by establishing a UK specific cohort of patients by which markers of health will be identified.

2.    To translate advances in biomedical research into benefits for patients
By developing partnerships among researchers, health care providers and patient communities it helps to bring research advances to the people who need them.

3.    It will support the work of the proposed Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) strategy in that it will examine the effects of translational research in the community and investigate the opportunities for multiple stakeholder involvement in community health.


For further information on the Andover Project please contact Professor David Matthews via carol.hill@hmc.ox.ac.uk

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