Good health is more than the absence of disease. It is also about the ability to participate in society and to deal resiliently with physical, mental and social challenges at all stages of life. The environment in which we grow up, live and work, our behaviour and social relationships: all these factors influence health and wellbeing. At the same time, we face major societal challenges, such as addressing physical and mental health problems, reducing health inequalities, and shaping future-proof healthcare. These challenges call for new insights, an integrated approach and collaboration.

The Health & Wellbeing theme brings together researchers and educators from Leiden University and Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) to study questions of health and wellbeing in their interconnectedness, taking an interdisciplinary approach as its starting point. We combine expertise across a wide range of fields, from biopsychosocial processes and behaviour to history, archaeology, technological innovations, governance and culture. We consistently place health within a broad societal context.

From Leiden and The Hague, we work closely with citizens, healthcare professionals, governments and civil society organisations, so that scientific knowledge can be connected with applications in practice.

The research and education within Health & Wellbeing can be summarised under three subthemes:

1. Physical and mental health across the life course
2. Health inequalities and an inclusive society
3. Sustainable and future-proof healthcare

The leads of Health & Wellbeing are Jet Bussemaker (Chair, Governance and Global Affairs/Health Campus), Marieke Adriaanse (Social and Behavioural Sciences/Health Campus), Jessica Kiefte-de Jong (LUMC/Health Campus), Marco Spruit (Science/Health Campus), Paul van Trigt (Humanities) and Sarah Schrader (Archaeology).

Would you like to find out more about our work? Read our position paper.

See our expert carousel below for a further overview of our members. These also include our LUMC colleagues Nienke Slagboom (syndemics and health inequalities), Niels van den Berg (healthy ageing), Janet Kist (GP, epidemiologist) and Rimke Vos (health scientist and epidemiologist). All the experts featured are points of contact for the wider networks they represent.