Jan Boehnke

Dr. Jan Boehnke is a Senior Lecturer in Health Sciences at the University of Dundee's School of Health Sciences, where he leads research in psychometric epidemiology and evaluation design. He also maintains affiliations as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of York's Department of Health Sciences and as an Honorary Collaborator with the Anna Freud National Centre for Children & Families in London.

• University of Dundee: School of Health Sciences
• University of York: Department of Health Sciences (Visiting Senior Research Fellow)
• Anna Freud National Centre: Honorary Collaborator
• Central Institute of Mental Health: Guest Scientist
• Leibniz Science Campus Ruhr: Co-Lead of Workstream

Jan Boehnke's research focuses on psychometric epidemiology, which bridges mental health measurement and statistical methodology. His work emphasizes transdiagnostic perspectives on mental health, investigating how dimensional constructs rather than categorical diagnoses can better represent psychological phenomena. He specializes in developing core outcome sets, evaluating whether different outcome measures assess the same constructs, and designing evaluation frameworks for complex interventions. His research particularly addresses comorbidities between physical and mental illnesses and the measurement of quality of life in diverse populations.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on diabetes self-management for people with severe mental illness, digital mental health interventions for climate distress, quality of life assessment in mental disorders, psychiatric diagnosis standards, and person-centered care evaluation. These works reflect his commitment to methodological rigor in measuring health outcomes across diverse contexts.

• Sponsorship award from Trier University for outstanding dissertation
• ERASMUS programme funding for teaching at Cambridge
• Co-Editor-in-Chief of Quality of Life Research
• Over £8 million secured in research funding

Boehnke has supervised numerous PhD students working on topics related to mental health measurement, quality of life assessment, and evaluation design. His grant portfolio includes significant projects like the Department for Education-funded 'Education for Wellbeing' programme working with 370 schools across England, the NIHR Global Health Research Group IMPACT, and the DIAMONDS programme for diabetes self-management in severe mental illness. He serves on editorial boards for 'Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology' and 'Psychotherapy Research,' and is Co-Editor-in-Chief of 'Quality of Life Research.'

His research group 'Outcome Assessment and Health Economics' at the Central Institute of Mental Health develops methods to detect response style effects in questionnaires and explore the fairness of psychological assessments across diverse populations.