Institute of Global Health, University College London

Is perfection the enemy of good? Challenges and opportunities for building the evidence-base to inform sexual and reproductive health policy and practice

Wed 15 May

Department of Public Health & Primary Care

All are welcome to our next hybrid Bradford Hill Seminar by Prof Cath Mercer of the UCL Institute for Global Health, who will discuss:

'Is perfection the enemy of good? Challenges and opportunities for building the evidence-base to inform sexual and reproductive health policy and practice'.


This will be a hybrid event

No registration required to attend in person at:

Large Seminar Room, East Forvie Building, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0SRT.

Registration required to attend online

Please register in advance on teams at: https://rb.gy/4svy5i

About this talk

Poor sexual and reproductive health causes significant morbidity. Last year, nearly 400,000 new sexually transmitted infections were diagnosed in England alone. Additionally, there is increasing awareness of sexual rights, the role of sexual pleasure and wellbeing, and what these mean for a satisfying sex life and our general health and wellbeing.

Yet this critical aspect of our lives is highly sensitive and sometimes stigmatised making sexual behaviour, its drivers and consequences difficult to research. Methods are required that maximise response and minimise bias so that the resulting evidence is of sufficient quality, including for informing policy and practice.

Such methodological rigour is neither cheap nor quick, and since the COVID-19 pandemic shifted expectations around both the timelines for acquiring evidence and the public’s willingness to participate in research, do we need to re-think how we do research in challenging fields such as sexual and reproductive health? Do we need to revise in our definition of what is 'good enough'?

About Professor Cath Mercer

Cath Mercer is Professor of Sexual Health Science at University College London. A statistician and demographer by training, Cath is internationally recognised as an expert in developing and employing robust methods that advance the scientific study of sexual behaviour, one of the most socially-sensitive disciplines, leading studies that work for - and with - marginalised communities through to the general population, in a variety of settings, employing a range of study designs and research methods.