This PhD will explore how technologies aimed at reducing falls in residential care settings are valued by different stakeholders. Falls are a major cause of morbidity, loss of independence, and healthcare utilisation among older adults living in care homes. While falls prevention in residential care settings has been widely studied, there is comparatively limited evidence on stakeholder views regarding different falls prevention technologies and models of care, particularly across health and social care contexts. Understanding stakeholder preferences is important because technologies developed without consideration of user and provider priorities may fail to meet real-world needs, resulting in poor uptake, inappropriate implementation, and limited impact. Ignoring preferences may also lead to weak demand signalling for developers and policymakers, increasing the risk that resources are invested in technologies that are unacceptable, impractical, or unlikely to be adopted in routine care. Using stated preference methods, such as a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE), the project will examine attitudes towards approaches designed to reduce falls risk in residential care homes.

There is scope within the PhD to investigate whether preferences vary according to factors such as deprivation, geography, cognitive impairment, or provider characteristics, and to explore how preference evidence could be incorporated into decision making within health and social care systems. The project may also provide opportunities to develop methodological expertise in conducting stated preference research with older adults and people living with cognitive impairment or dementia.

The studentship will be linked to the SENSITISE project at the University of Leeds, an NIHR-funded programme examining how technologies are designed, commissioned, and used in adult social care. SENSITISE aims to understand what different groups, including people using services, care staff, providers, commissioners, and technology developers, value in social care technologies, and how these preferences can support better decision making. The PhD will contribute to this wider programme of work by focusing specifically on falls prevention in care homes and residential social care settings.

This is an excellent opportunity for a candidate wishing to undertake a PhD in health economics and social care research, particularly those with interests in ageing, dementia, inequalities, and quantitative methods.

The successful applicant will join the School of Medicine PhD programme and work closely with supervisors and colleagues across both the School of Healthcare and the Academic Unit of Health Economics (AUHE) within the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (LIHS). The PhD is jointly held between the two Schools within the Faculty of Medicine and Health and will provide an interdisciplinary training environment spanning health economics, social care research, and applied quantitative methods. Although administratively based within the School of Medicine, the student will be primarily based within AUHE and integrated into its active programme of research in health economics and preference elicitation methods.

This PhD will explore how technologies aimed at reducing falls in residential care settings are valued by different stakeholders. Falls are a major cause of morbidity, loss of independence, and healthcare utilisation among older adults living in care homes. While falls prevention in residential care settings has been widely studied, there is comparatively limited evidence on stakeholder views regarding different falls prevention technologies and models of care, particularly across health and social care contexts. Understanding stakeholder preferences is important because technologies developed without consideration of user and provider priorities may fail to meet real-world needs, resulting in poor uptake, inappropriate implementation, and limited impact. Ignoring preferences may also lead to weak demand signalling for developers and policymakers, increasing the risk that resources are invested in technologies that are unacceptable, impractical, or unlikely to be adopted in routine care. Using stated preference methods, such as a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE), the project will examine attitudes towards approaches designed to reduce falls risk in residential care homes.

There is scope within the PhD to investigate whether preferences vary according to factors such as deprivation, geography, cognitive impairment, or provider characteristics, and to explore how preference evidence could be incorporated into decision making within health and social care systems. The project may also provide opportunities to develop methodological expertise in conducting stated preference research with older adults and people living with cognitive impairment or dementia.

The studentship will be linked to the SENSITISE project at the University of Leeds, an NIHR-funded programme examining how technologies are designed, commissioned, and used in adult social care. SENSITISE aims to understand what different groups, including people using services, care staff, providers, commissioners, and technology developers, value in social care technologies, and how these preferences can support better decision making. The PhD will contribute to this wider programme of work by focusing specifically on falls prevention in care homes and residential social care settings.

This is an excellent opportunity for a candidate wishing to undertake a PhD in health economics and social care research, particularly those with interests in ageing, dementia, inequalities, and quantitative methods.

The successful applicant will join the School of Medicine PhD programme and work closely with supervisors and colleagues across both the School of Healthcare and the Academic Unit of Health Economics (AUHE) within the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (LIHS). The PhD is jointly held between the two Schools within the Faculty of Medicine and Health and will provide an interdisciplinary training environment spanning health economics, social care research, and applied quantitative methods. Although administratively based within the School of Medicine, the student will be primarily based within AUHE and integrated into its active programme of research in health economics and preference elicitation methods.