DrEleanor Winpenny

Eleanor focuses on the developmental period of adolescence and early adulthood, to understand how structural, social and environmental determinants contribute to trajectories of health behaviours and the development of adult health inequalities. Eleanor’s work sits at the intersection of nutritional, behavioural and life-course epidemiology and makes use of advanced statistical methods for longitudinal analysis.

A particular research interest is the health and wellbeing of young adults as they transition out of school and into employment.  Analyses have examined changes in diet, physical activity and sleep across young adult transitions and how these contribute to adult health inequalities.  Changes in living arrangements, food environments and social exposures across these transitions support longitudinal analysis to examine the impact of changing exposures on health behaviours and health inequalities. Ongoing research is exploring how best to support young adults with mental health needs into employment, and how to support young people's health across these transitions.

Eleanor is PI of the Diet and Eating Behaviours across Early Adulthood Transitions (DEBEAT) study (www.debeat.org) which is collecting new data on adolescents as they transition out of secondary school. In wave 1 (2023-4) and wave 2 (2024-5) the study team collected data on diet (24hr recalls), health behaviours and structural and environmental determinants of health from ~2000 young adults, age 17-18 years old at wave 1.  We are analysing associations between changes in social and physical environments and changes in diet and health behaviour outcomes over the transition out of school.

Eleanor is the Mentoring Officer of the Society for Social Medicine and Population Health, and the Chair of the Special Interest Group on Young Adults within the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. Prior to joining Imperial as a Lecturer, Eleanor held an MRC Career Development Award fellowship within the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD was in Developmental Neuroscience, which she completed at the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge.