Assistant Professor and Wellcome Fellow at the Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Dr Amrit Kaur Purba is a social epidemiologist specialising in the digital determinants of health. Her research examines how digital environments causally influence adolescent health and wellbeing, and how these factors may contribute to health inequalities at the population level.
Research
Dr Purba’s interdisciplinary background spans clinical practice, causal epidemiology, social psychology, and evidence-based public health policy. This enables her to bridge individual-level clinical insight with population-level causal analysis and regulatory impact.
Previously based at the Oxford Internet Institute and the University of Cambridge, she has developed a distinctive conceptual approach to digital health research. She conceptualises digital technologies as commercially structured exposures - designed environments shaped by corporate incentives - and applies rigorous causal methods to understand how these systems influence adolescent health, wellbeing, and inequality, particularly among those most at risk.
She is the founder and lead of the Digital Determinants of Health Hub, a policy, practice, and research hub advancing ethical and innovative approaches, including generative AI and social media data donation, to generate robust causal evidence from real-world digital environments. The Hub’s work strengthens evidence-based policy and regulation, supporting the development of safer and more equitable digital systems.
A central feature of her research is participatory and ethical digital science. She develops transparent methods for accessing and analysing digital engagement data, co-producing research tools with young people and embedding lived experience into study design, interpretation, and dissemination.
Through structured Youth and Policy Advisory Groups, Dr Purba ensures that diverse perspectives shape research priorities and outputs. By integrating methodological rigour, participatory practice, and cross-sector collaboration, her work builds the evidence infrastructure needed to respond to rapidly evolving digital environments and the inequalities they may create or reinforce.
Research Interests
Digital Determinants of Health
Adolescent Health & Wellbeing
Social Psychology
Intersectionality & Social Justice
Open Research & Meta-Science
Public Health
Health Inequalities
Causal Inference in Observational Data
Epidemiology
Social Determinants of Health
Participatory & Inclusive Research
Online Platform Data Donation
Impact & Recognition
Dedicated to enhancing scientific rigour, Dr Purba effectively communicates her findings to alleviate public concerns. Her work, supported by national and international funders, charities, and foundations, has been recognised in numerous high-impact, peer-reviewed publications, including the prestigious British Medical Journal. These contributions have significantly influenced health policy and provided guidance to educators and caregivers worldwide, helping to leverage digital media as a tool for promoting health rather than impeding it.
Dr Purba plays a crucial role in public health initiatives focused on the digital determinants of health, actively working to reduce health inequalities. Recognising the broader societal implications of her work, she engages with policymakers, regulators, and the media to communicate research findings and provide expert guidance. Her work has had significant national impact, and she currently serves as an expert advisor to 10 Downing Street, the Department for Education, the Home Office, Ofcom, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the Metropolitan Police, and the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
She has informed UK Government policy on youth social media use as Deputy Director of DSIT’s Commission on Social Media and Youth Health and as a member of the Department for Education Technical Advisory Committee. She is also a member of the UK Government Anti-Knife Crime Coalition, advancing cross-sector solutions to reduce youth violence online and offline.
Internationally, Dr Purba serves as an expert advisor to the United Nations and is part of the Technology Harms Forensic Research Collaborative at Cornell University, serving on the founding team of an international, multi-institutional initiative spanning the UK, US, and global partners to establish a digital harms research hub.
Dr Purba's research and insights have been showcased at numerous UK and international conferences, and she has been featured in media outlets such as the BBC, The Times, Forbes, Independent, and The Scotsman. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Sigma Theta Tau International Honour Society Award, the Royal College of Nursing Foundation Trevor Clay Award, the University of Cambridge Talk Like TED Award, the University of Oxford’s Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Award, and the University of Glasgow’s World-Changing Alumni Award – Highly Commended.
Youth Opportunity Summit at St James’s Palace.
Hosted by His Majesty King Charles III through the King Charles III Charitable Fund and The King’s Trust, recognising the UK Anti-Knife Crime Coalition’s efforts. Attended by Idris Elba, Sir Keir Starmer, Baroness Lawrence, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State Lisa Nandy MP, and youth campaigners with lived experience.
UK Anti-Knife Crime Coalition Roundtable at No. 10 Downing Street.
Hosted by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Idris Elba also present.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Technical Consultation Meeting on Social Media and Drug Use Prevention.
Recent media contribution: Idris Elba: Our Knife Crime Crisis (BBC, 2025)
Recent Publication
Addressing Youth Violence on Social Media: Time to Prioritise Digital Sanitation, BMJ Archives of Disease in Childhood (2025)
