Background
Women aged 40-65 years who live in deprived coastal communities are an under-researched population with some of the worst health outcomes in England. These women are working in greater number and until later in life, and they play a crucial role in the unpaid caring sector in an ageing population. There is a largely unexplained difference in female life expectancy of 6 years between the most and least affluent coastal areas in East Sussex. The publication of the UK government’s first Women’s Health Strategy in 2022 has coincided with the welcome and long overdue global recognition of the need for more multi-disciplinary research in both women’s and older people's sexual health and sexual wellbeing. Historically, women have been under-represented in clinical research and there is a largely unexplained difference in female life expectancy of 6 years between the most and least affluent coastal areas in East Sussex. Women’s sexual and reproductive health is related to multiple human rights and should be available in adequate numbers, physically and economically accessible without discrimination, and of good quality. Women in England do not feel that they have good access to sexual health and wellbeing services, an issue most pertinent in coastal communities with a high burden of ill health across almost all conditions. The social and economic consequences of ‘levelling-up’ access to sexual health and wellbeing services are far-reaching, including early recognition of infections, cancer prevention and reduction in gynaecological morbidity. Our hypothesis is that lack of access to research and services contributes to poor sexual health and wellbeing outcomes for midlife women who live in deprived coastal communities in East Sussex.
University Hospitals Sussex (UHS), as part of the Sussex Integrated Care System (ICS), aims to reduce the region’s deprivation-linked gap in healthy life expectancy, and improve people’s experiences of services. Our research with the help of our collaborators will consolidate ICS links between BSMS, UHS, community services and those who commission services to fulfil these ambitions for a marginalised population. The government’s national Women’s Health Strategy, which aims to tackle the gender health gap, has recently been published, and its Sexual Health Strategy, focused on sexual health across the lifespan is due to be published soon. Our research will tie in with these strategies. It will also address Public Health England’s 2019 report into health inequalities in coastal areas, and the Chief Medical Officer’s major recommendation in 2021 to concentrate research funding on the high burden of ill health in coastal communities to avert a public health crisis. The strategic aims of Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey, Sussex (ARC KSS) include ‘prioritising the development and evaluation of interventions to tackle poor health among those at greatest risk’. Collaborating with this strong team regionally, and using their experience in tackling other health disparities, will place BSMS at the forefront of the country’s most current healthcare objectives.