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The University of Southampton
Health Sciences

Professor Ann Bowling BSc, MSc, PhD

Visiting Professor

Professor Ann Bowling's photo

Professor Ann Bowling is a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton.

Ann has a background in social science and public health.  Her main research interest is quality of life in older age, and its measurement.

I am a quantitative social scientist, with a history of research on ageing, funded by research councils and government bodies.

Key Research Interests

Advisory Groups Membership

2016+: Invited member of the FP7 MOPACT Peer Review Team. ' MOPACT brings together 29 partners from 13 countries across Europe in a unique collaboration to study the interfaces between the demographic developments and the five main dimensions of their economic and social impact...'.

Abbeyfield Research Grants Panel (2013+)

Member EPSRC & Joint Research Councils workshop on Lifelong Health and Well-being: Enhancing mobility and independence in an ageing population (2012).

Associate Editor International Journal of Ageing and Human Development (2012+ - previously member of editorial board)

Editorial board member of Ageing Research and Health Expectations (2010+).

Management group of UCL MRC Crucible Centre on Lifelong Health and Well-being (2008-10).

Member NIHR Research for Patient Benefit London Region Committee (2006-10)

Member MRC workshop on Patient reported outcome measures - PROMS: Identifying UK research priorities (2009).

Member of Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 Sub-Panel 07 Health Services Research (2006-8)

Member of NIHR  Health Technology Assessment (HTA)  Commissioning Board (2004-8)

Collaborations

2012-14 Understandings of satisfaction questionnaires by ethnic group: carers (stroke), co-applicant, PI: Dr. Nan Greenwood, SGUL.

2012-14 Homelessness and dementia. co-applicant, PI: Prof Jill Manthorpe (Kings).

2011-14. Well-being in older people (RCT telephone support), co-applicant, PI: Prof. Gail Mountain, University of Sheffield.

2009-12 Women's British Regional Heart Study follow-up, co-applicant, PI: Prof. Shah Ebrahim. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

2008-11 Promoting physical activity in the over 65s, co-applicant, PI  Prof. Steve Iliffe PI, UCL.

2010-11 International Longevity Centre www.ilcuk.org.uk dissemination of Older People's Quality of Life Questionnaire.

Presentations and Prizes

Invited presentations and plenaries:

2014: AgeUK Taunton, Taunton Racecourse, Living Later Life conference. Invited keynote lecture. 23 Oct 2014.

2014: Royal Society of Medicine, London, Section of Geriatrics and Gerontology. Invited presentation on ageing & quality of life. 23 Jan 2014.

2013: New Dynamics of Ageing: ‘NDA and AgeUK event of the decade’. Invited presentation. Business Design Centre, Islington, London N1, October 21 2013.

2013: AgeUK The oldest old. Invited presentation. Royal College of Surgeons, April 22 2013.

2012: Cross Research Council New Dynamics of Ageing. My Home Life (dignity in care homes). Invited plenary discussant on QoL. Royal Institute for British Architects, London, June 22, 2012.

2012: AgeUK & Campaign to End Loneliness. International conference (Gulbenkian Foundation) on Loneliness and well-being. Invited plenary presentation: ‘What do we know about well-being, how to measure it, and what influences it.' Mansfield College, Oxford, July, 2012.

2011: Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland - CARDI conference, invited plenary presentation on Measuring Quality of Life. Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 7 June 2011.

2011: International Longevity Centre national event for policy makers, academics, lay people, practitioners: invited plenary presentation of OPQOL, Institute of Actuaries, ILC-UK and the Actuarial Profession in partnership with ESRC Joint Debate: Measuring Quality of Life, Institute of Actuaries,  Holborn, May 10 2011.

2011: Greater London Older People's Forum Kensington, invited presentation on Measuring Quality of Life, alongside Laura Ferguson of the Campaign to End Loneliness and Cllr Robert Freeman, Kensington and Chelsea BC, Kensington town Hall, 27th May 2011.

2011: Cambridge Older People's Enterprise (COPE), invited presentation on Measuring Quality of Life,  Guildhall, Cambridge, 27th July 2011.

2011: Derby 50+ forum - older people's Forum, invited presentation on Measuring Quality of Life,  Assembly Rooms, Derby, 28th July 2011.

2011: Presentation on quality of life to British Gerontology Society, Plymouth, 5th July 2011.

2011: Presentation on quality of life  to VII International Association of Geriatrics and Gerontology European Congress, Bologna, Italy April 15th 2011.

2010: AgeUK Policy meeting, invited presentation on Measuring Quality of Life, AgeUK, Pentonville Rd London N1, 29th July, 2010.

2008: International Cadenza Conference on Successful Ageing: invited plenary presentation ‘Successful ageing', University of Hong Kong, November 2008.

2008: NICE lay member meeting: invited presentation on; quality of life concepts and measurement, NICE, Holborn, London, 2008.

Awards

Books:

1998 BMA Medical Book Competition, Highly Commended, Basis of Medicine, Ann Bowling Measuring Health: A review of quality of life measurement scales, 2nd edition, Open University Press.

2015 BMA Medical Book Awards 2015, Highly Commended, Basis of Medicine, Ann Bowling and McGraw Hill Education, Research Methods in Health, Investigating Health and Health Services, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill Education and Open University Press.

Professional:

2006 Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom, Ann Bowling elected Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health.

OPQOL and OPQOL-Brief quality of life measures

For access to OPQOL and OPQOL-Brief quality of life measures please use the following links:

https://eprovide.mapi-trust.org/instruments/older-people-s-quality-of-life-brief-version

https://eprovide.mapi-trust.org/instruments/older-people-s-quality-of-life

Useful Downloads

Need the software? PDF Reader

Research interests

  • Questionnaires development & psychometrics
  • Patients' experiences
  • Quality of life in older age
  • Equity of access to health care
  • Social gerontology

As PI

2010-11 £29,263 ESRC. Follow-on funding to disseminate OPQOL: Promotion of quality of life in older age and active ageing.

2009-11 £ 63,253 HTA. Measurement of patients' expectations for health care continuation.

2007-9 £308,173 ESRC (New Dynamics of Ageing Programme). Psychometric testing of the multidimensional Older People's QoL questionnaire and the causal model of QoL under-pinning it.

2009 £6000 UCL Crucible MRC Lifelong Health and Well-being Centre. Can social robots reduce loneliness and improve psychological well-being? (PI; other co-applicants from UCL Computer Science Peter Bentley, Nadia Berthouze). Pump priming funds.

2007-10 £214,422 HTA. Measurement of patients' expectations for health care.

Research Collaborations

Co-applicant on four year (2014-18) ESRC award led by Professor Martn Knapp, LSE,with Universities of Newcastle, Sussex, and Southampton: ES/L001896/1:

'Comprehensive approach to modelling outcome and cost impacts of interventions for dementia.'

The underlying purpose of the overall project is to generate new evidence and feed it into policy and practice discussions so as to improve the lives of people with dementia and their carers. This will be done by developing a comprehensive, integrative, quantitative set of models to estimate current and future needs, and the outcomes and costs of interventions aimed at meeting them.

Within this award, AB, has a funded work-package on focus group research, and one in collaboration with Professor Emily Grundy (LSE), involving secondary analyses of ELSA and NCDS on: 'Patterns of social interaction and participation over the life course: Associations with cognitive function and formal help-seeking in later life'.

2013-2014 (Start: 01-01-2013) £198,091.78 from ESRC (ES/K004077/1). Loneliness in later life: a longitudinal analysis using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. (Co-applicant with PI: Prof. Christina Victor, Brunel University.

2012-14 £400,000 approx. from NIHR SDO. Homelessness and dementia with PI: Prof Jill Manthorpe Kings College London

2011-14. £813,433 from NIHR, PHRb. Well-being in older people (RCT telephone support) with PI: Prof. Gail Mountain, University of Sheffield.

2012-14 £350,000 approx. from NIHR ISCE Ethnicity and satisfaction carers Stroke with PI: Nan Greenwood, SGUL.

2008-11 £1,349,765 from HTA.  Promoting physical activity in the over 65s with PI: Professor Steve Iliffe PI

2009-12 £530,000 from DoH. Women's British Regional Heart Study follow-up with PI: Prof. Shah Ebrahim LSHTM/WHO India et al.

2009 <£3000 from UCL Crucible Centre. Measuring well-being with UCL Museums, Biology Dept. Helen Chatterjee, Joy Morris, Linda Thomson and Guy Noble.  Pump priming funds

Research group

Complex Healthcare Processes

Research project(s)

Measurement of patients' expectations for health care continuation

Quality of Life in older age: Psychometric testing of the multidimensional Older People's Quality of Life (OPQOL) - Dormant

Measuring broader quality of life outcomes

Quality of life measures in older age and psychometrices

Professor Ann Bowling
Email: a.bowling@southampton.ac.uk
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