About Good Health and Wellbeing
Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.
Our work on SDG Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
We work towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 3 - Good Health and Wellbeing, to create a better and fairer world.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in 2015 by all United Nations member states. It provides a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.
Find out more about our work across all the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Research
Elephant Project
The Elephant Project is a multi-institutional collaboration that examines the increase in licensed hours for bars and clubs in two Scottish cities, including the rationale for and implementation of the changes and how services and businesses respond as well as the impact on health and other harms. The outcomes of the research will add to the national and international evidence base on the impact of expanded opening hours and inform local and national policy.
Generating Older Active Lives Digitally (GOALD)
The GOALD toolkit gives design considerations for the development of Digital Health Technologies (DHTs) to support physical and mental activity for older adults. The toolkit was developed from ESRC-funded research as part of the Generating Older Active Lives Digitally (GOALD) project. The GOALD project used intergenerational groups to examine how to design and deliver digital resources to provide and engage older people in structured activity programmes with the aim of improving their health and wellbeing.
The Daily Mile
University of Stirling research has shown that a simple local solution could improve the fitness of school pupils. Now more than 12,000 schools have adopted The Daily Mile approach. It all started in Stirling and has now spread to more than 80 countries. The initiative involves children taking a 15-minute break from class – in addition to normal intervals and physical education lessons – to either run, jog or walk around their school grounds.
The study found that pupils’ best responses came after physical activity that was set at their own pace. A 15-minute break from class can improve a child’s mood, attention and memory - enhancing their ability to learn.
Learning and teaching
Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence
The University of Stirling was designated as Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence by the Scottish Government in 2008, recognising its innovation and achievement in supporting performance athletes and providing world-class sports, fitness and training facilities. In the years since the University has held this accolade, Stirling athletes and para-athletes have become household names across a range of sports, most notably swimming, tennis, golf and football.
MSc Sport Nutrition
The University of Stirling is one of only six universities worldwide approved to provide this Masters conversion course in sports nutrition. This Masters degree focuses on the science behind sports nutrition and is designed specifically for students who already have an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Diploma in sports nutrition and want to further their knowledge.
Sport and Exercise Science
The BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science has a strong focus on the crucial importance of regular physical activity for achieving and maintaining good health and wellbeing.
Alongside a healthy diet, regular physical activity is one of the most important modifiable risk factors for a range of common chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. As large numbers of people do not currently achieve the minimum recommended amount of physical activity, there is a clear need to train graduates for a future career in health promotion.
The University does this through modules such as:
- Physiology of Sport and Exercise
- Applied Exercise Physiology
- Advanced Techniques in Applied Physiology
- Sports Medicine Health and Wellbeing
- Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, and Psychology of Exercise
- Physical Activity and Health.
University operations
Give It A Go sporting sessions
As an employer, the University is committed to ensuring that wellbeing will feature prominently in the support provided to staff. Utilising campus resources to encourage staff to enhance their physical and mental wellbeing, the team in Sport deliver several weekly free sessions for the wider staff community. Included are a multi-sport Pickleball, Table Tennis, and Badminton sessions, Staff Tennis in the indoor tennis centre, and Staff Football on the 3G pitch twice a week.
The University also delivers specific health and fitness classes to staff throughout the academic year, including Cycle classes, Bootcamp workouts, and dedicated time in the High Performance Strength and Conditioning suite. The University also delivers wellbeing classes, including Yoga, Pilates, and meditation workshops, as well as outreach sessions with a Wellness Check-up machine, where staff can get a comprehensive assessment of their wellness measurements and recommendations to support their own training.
Be Connected
Be Connected is the University’s student and staff life programme of events, developed to connect the Stirling community. The annual calendar is designed to support positive health and wellbeing, provide opportunities for skills/learning development, raise awareness of sustainable practice, and improve cultural competency.
Over the last three years, Be Connected has evolved from an online programme (delivered in response to the Covid-19 pandemic) to almost fully in-person events that are open and accessible to all. All BC events (approximately 80 per year) are free to access which has helped tackle the current cost of living crisis and associated stresses felt by the community.
In delivering, BC has encouraged cross-University connections, provided cultural education/support information, and encouraged departments to collaborate on similar projects to present a unified institution. The BC programme provides a positive experience of campus life and delivers initiatives that are targeted and attractive to the Stirling community.
Employee Assistance Programme
The University’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offers free, confidential advice and emotional, psychological and practical help, for a wide range of personal and work-related issues. Balancing everyday life alongside work and home can create pressures for all of us. Provided by Innovate Healthcare’s qualified and experienced therapists, staff can utilise this free service to achieve a positive balance for a range of issues from work stress to relationship issues and legal concerns.
Employees can also access up to six face-to-face sessions and family members over the age of 16 and living in the same household are also eligible to assess the confidential service.
Civic engagement
danceSing
University of Stirling research into delivering physical activity digitally to older adults in care homes and the community is helping improve wellbeing among older adults and ensuring technology developed for use to increase physical activity in ageing is appropriately designed.
The research, in collaboration with local company danceSing Care, initially comprised a feasibility study followed by a broader assessment of efficacy in a pilot study. It has led to a 181% increase in turnover for danceSing Care, moving from working with one local care home group to nine within the first two years, thus an increase of 334 care homes across nine private/council organisations across the UK using digital physical activity technology.
This is 2% of 2023 estimated total UK care homes, meaning 8167 additional older adults have benefitted from digital physical activity who may not have benefitted without this research. This increase was achieved primarily through providing evidence on the significance of the health and wellbeing benefits of taking part in digital physical activity, which led to the Scottish Government commissioning a rollout across 66 homes in Scotland and a light touch evaluation of the success of this through consultancy with the University.
Paths For All
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership between the University of Stirling and Paths for All, supported by the Universities of Edinburgh and Highlands and Islands, is bringing together academics and adolescents to co-produce a walking programme.
The 27-month programme of work builds on a solid foundation of work around Paths for All’s flagship Step Count Challenge in adults, but with the aim of improving the health and wellbeing of adolescents by creating a culture of walking both in and around the high school day.
Through using co-production methods, the hope is to empower adolescents to increase their activity levels whilst building the confidence to move and travel in and around high school life.
Intergenerational Living Hub
The Intergenerational Living Innovation Hub is a multi-million-pound research and development platform that will respond to the demands of an ageing population, transforming the narrative from one of challenge to opportunity.
Through pioneering novel approaches to ways of living, working and socialising, the hub will co-create the solutions necessary to support an ageing society to adapt to changing its demographics.
The hub will develop solutions that enhance wellbeing as we age, providing access to skilled work and driving inclusive economic growth through company creation and inward investment.