Anna Pearce

Anna Pearce is a Senior Research Fellow at the MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, specializing in child health inequalities and policy evaluation. She leads initiatives like the NIHR-funded project on child poverty reduction policies and co-directs the Reducing Health Inequalities workstream. Her research leverages administrative cohorts to investigate socioeconomic disparities in vaccination, ADHD diagnosis, and mental health outcomes across the life course.

Education includes a PhD in Child Public Health (UCL), MSc in Demography & Health (LSHTM), and BSc in Geography & Population Studies (Bristol).

Research interests focus on:

• Child poverty impacts on health trajectories
• Policy mechanisms for reducing inequalities
• Longitudinal analysis of linked administrative data

Publications demonstrate consistent themes in health equity, with recent work examining pandemic impacts on mental health, social media's role in adolescent risk behaviors, and causal pathways of income inequality on mortality.

Achievements include:

• Wellcome Trust University Award for cohort development
• Co-investigatorships in UKPRP Maternal and Child Health Network

Grants and collaborations emphasize administrative data innovation for evaluating child poverty interventions (e.g., Scottish Child Payment).