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Professor Chris Bonell

MA MSc MSc PhD

Professor
of Public Health & Sociology

Room
218

LSHTM
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
United Kingdom

Tel.
+44 (0)20 7612 7918

Prior to working at LSHTM I was Professor of Sociology & Social Policy at University College London and Professor of Sociology & Social Intervention at the University of Oxford. I was also previously Research Team Leader in the UK government’s Social Exclusion Unit.

 

My main areas of research are on adolescent health, sexual health and evaluation methodology.

 

My research on adolescent health focuses on how schools and school based interventions can benefit or harm young people’s health. My research on sexual health examines the broader social determinants of adolescent sexual health behaviours and outcomes, and interventions to address these.

 

In terms of evaluation methodology I have written a number of methodological papers on: theorising and evaluating intervention harms; realist trials which combined rigorous evaluations of intervention effects with quantitative and qualitative analyses of what works for whom under what conditions; systematic reviews not only of effectiveness evidence but also process evaluation, qualitative evidence and theories of change; situations in which randomised trials are not appropriate and what alternatives exist; process evaluation; and empirical assessment of intervention transferability. Recent work on ‘dark logic models’ and 'realist trials' have twice been  awarded the President’s Prize by the European Society for Prevention Research.

 

I am an NIHR Senior Investigator and was a participant on various SAGE subcommittees advising government on Covid-19.

Affiliations

Faculty of Public Health and Policy
Department of Public Health, Environments and Society

Centres

Centre for Evaluation
Centre for Maternal Adolescent Reproductive & Child Health (MARCH)

Teaching

I currently lecture on Health Promotion Foundations, Health Promotion Approaches and Methods, Evaluation of Public Health Interventions, Principles of Social Research and Qualitative Methods.

 

I am interested in applications for doctoral study in the above areas.

Research

Current major projects include:

 

Randomised controlled trial of the Positive Choices whole-school sexual health intervention. PI, National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme.

 

Feasibility study of the Learning Together for Mental Health whole-school intervention to promote mental health. Co-PI, National Insitute for Health Research Public Health Research programme. 

 

4th National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and  Lifestyles. Co-I (LSHTM PI), Wellcome Trust/ESRC/NIHR.

 

Research Area
Child health
Complex interventions
Health outcomes
Health promotion
Public health
Sexual health
Social and structural determinants of health
Systematic reviews
Adolescent health
Alcohol
Behaviour change
Evaluation
Evidence use
Ethnography
Impact evaluation
Inequalities
Methodology
Mixed methods
Implementation research
Qualitative methods
Randomised controlled trials
Schools
Smoking
Substance use
Violence
Education
Discipline
Epidemiology
Sociology
Social Sciences
Disease and Health Conditions
HIV/AIDS
Non-communicable diseases
Sexually transmitted infection
Coronavirus
Country
United Kingdom
Uganda
Region
European Union
Sub-Saharan Africa (all income levels)

Selected Publications

Harnessing behavioural science in public health campaigns to maintain 'social distancing' in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: key principles.
Bonell C; Michie S; Reicher S; West R; Bear L; Yardley L; Curtis V; Amlôt R; Rubin GJ
2020
Journal of epidemiology and community health
The sustainability of public health interventions in schools: a systematic review.
Herlitz L; MacIntyre H; Osborn T; Bonell C
2020
Implementation science
Examining intervention mechanisms of action using mediation analysis within a randomised trial of a whole-school health intervention.
Bonell C; Allen E; Opondo C; Warren E; Elbourne DR; Sturgess J; Bevilacqua L; McGowan J; Mathiot A; Viner RM
2019
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Role theory of schools and adolescent health.
Bonell C; Blakemore S-J; Fletcher A; Patton G
2019
The Lancet. Child & adolescent health
Effects of the Learning Together intervention on bullying and aggression in English secondary schools (INCLUSIVE): a cluster randomised controlled trial.
Bonell C; Allen E; Warren E; McGowan J; Bevilacqua L; Jamal F; Legood R; Wiggins M; Opondo C; Mathiot A
2018
The Lancet
Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing.
Patton GC; Sawyer SM; Santelli JS; Ross DA; Afifi R; Allen NB; Arora M; Azzopardi P; Baldwin W; Bonell C
2016
Lancet
'Dark logic': theorising the harmful consequences of public health interventions.
Bonell C; Jamal F; Melendez-Torres GJ; Cummins S
2014
Journal of epidemiology and community health
The WHO Health Promoting School framework for improving the health and well-being of students and their academic achievement.
Langford R; Bonell CP; Jones HE; Pouliou T; Murphy SM; Waters E; Komro KA; Gibbs LF; Magnus D; Campbell R
2014
The Cochrane database of systematic reviews
Realist randomised controlled trials: a new approach to evaluating complex public health interventions.
Bonell C; Fletcher A; Morton M; Lorenc T; Moore L
2012
Social science & medicine (1982)
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