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Dr Will Ball
@wpball.com
3.2K followers 1.1K following 2.4K posts
Interested in working out how to reduce unfair and avoidable differences in health. Mostly youth mental health. Chancellor's Fellow at Robert Gordon University | Social Epidemiologist | Pro Cycling | Rstats | Causal Inference 🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🍉
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · Nov 10
I've had a bit of an influx of new followers this weekend. Welcome!

I'm a Social Epidemiologist based in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I do research on young peoples mental health - mostly about how socioeconomic exposures cause inequity, but also working out how much better things could be in a fairer society.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 15h
Thanks. On second thoughts, I'm not sure this can be improved.
A photograph of a laptop screen showing a google sheet with a 3D bar chart in it. The chart shows counts for people's favourite sports. Made by a 7 year old.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 15h
How long before I can get her to use {ggplot2}?

(She is 7)
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 15h
My daughter has been learning how to make charts in google sheets.

"Let's make it 3D...........COOL!!!"

The joy of dataviz
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 16h
Yes - a very specific translational gap that isn't even on their radar it seems.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 16h
Funnily enough one of the 'trends' identified in the 2022 report was that there was increased funding for translational research - just not at the methodology stage
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 17h
Methods are not a priority (and it shows)
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 18h
Source: hrcsonline.net/wp-content/u...
hrcsonline.net
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 18h
Reading some interest stats about health research funding in the UK in recent years.

- Only 7% goes to Mental Health research
- Only 5% of that MH funding goes to studies related to prevention
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 23h
Preliminary findings from my latest piece of research suggest that butter wouldn't melt.
A cute Boston Terrier puppy sat on a rug, looking innocently at the photographer.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 5d
Very strange logic from Hansen. I wonder if this was an off the cuff quote & not a well thought out official response?

Imho, protestors are doing the right thing - raising awareness & putting pressure on institutions.

UCI should take the same stance as w/ Rusvelo - no Israeli registered teams.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 6d
Current status: sleepy
A very cute Boston Terrier puppy curled up on a sofa and fast asleep.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 6d
She is super cute and has a nice temperament already. Very playful and bursts of energy, but not overly mischievous!
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 6d
We have a new family member.

This is Frida.
An incredibly cute black and white Boston Terrier puppy is sitting on a green bean bag chair
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 12d
Are you saying the authors didn't try hard enough?
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 25d
Last try wins? #ENGVSCO
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 27d
Yes, apparently there were a few last minute shenanigans with venues pulling out.

Never been to Bradford before, but it appears that there's a lot of regeneration going on in the centre.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 27d
Thanks Peter!
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 27d
Now en route home to the North East of Scotland - exciting news from the AGM that Aberdeen will be hosting #SSM2027 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 27d
I'm delighted, if somewhat surprised, that I was awarded the highest scoring ECR abstract at #SSM2025

Quite a nice birthday present for me!

Many thanks to the kind reviewers and to SSM organisers. Had a great time in Bradford.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 27d
It's just as Prof Notorious B.I.G always said:

"Mo [unequal distribution of] money, mo problems"
jameslarkin13.bsky.social
James Larkin @jameslarkin13.bsky.social · 27d
Less inequality = fewer problems

@profkepickett.bsky.social lays our her vision for a good society at #SSM2025

@socsocmed.bsky.social
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 28d
Some very interesting discussion, especially around constraints on the ability of researchers to influence policy.

I wonder whether we should perhaps spend less time trying to influence policymakers as they are now, and more time building a public mandate

#SSM2025
socsocmed.bsky.social
Society for Social Medicine & Population Health @socsocmed.bsky.social · 28d
Less than 15 minutes to our plenary panels, and already heard many important insights from Susan Hinchcliffe & Jenny Harries

#SSM2025
Jenny Harries & Susan Hinchcliffe (speaking) during a debate Jenny Harries speaking during a panel debate Panel speakers Jenny Harries, Susan Hinchcliffe and Felix Kumi-Ampofo at the start of the debate
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 28d
*panel discussion
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 28d
"Build alliances with people who create different types of evidence"

Good advice from @profkatsmith.bsky.social in the 'translating evidence into policy' plenary at #SSM2025
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 29d
I'm at #SSM2025 in Bradford and will shortly be presenting some research looking at adolescent mental health emergency department attendances.

Some core descriptive epi methods applied to linked electronic health records covering the whole population of teens in a Scottish Health Board.
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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · Sep 9
It takes 10 click throughs to add money to my son's school lunch account:

Login >
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