Science & Research

Our Evidence

Holly Health is a leading provider and researcher, in behaviour change and chronic condition management, using scalable digital approaches. Read more about our evidence here.

Healthy Ageing Study Results

Researchers: Dr Daniela Mercado Beivide, Ph.D., Liliana Chow, BSc, Age UK Lewisham and Southwark

31st October 2023

Healthy Ageing Study Results

Funded by the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge, Holly Health and Age UK Lewisham and Southwark partnered to research and co-design the Holly Health service, tailored for healthy ageing. Our 12-week pilot with older adults showed statistically significant improvements across multiple health outcome measures.

Holly Health Health Outcomes (in a GP setting)

Researchers: Dr Daniela Mercado Beivide, Ph.D., National NHS Primary Care Partners

4th April 2023

Holly Health Health Outcomes (in a GP setting)

Holly Health has partnered with over 100 UK GP practices, with a population coverage of over 500,000 patients. This report illustrates the key outcomes we've seen so far from our primary care partnerships, including statistically significant improvements in physical and mental health outcomes across all assessment categories, after using Holly Health for 8 weeks.

Holly Health and Long-Term Condition Management

Researcher: Dr Daniela Mercado Beivide, Ph.D.

30th November 2023

Holly Health and Long-Term Condition Management

This research report used restrospective survey methods to explore the impact of using Holly Health to support the self-management of long-term conditions. Highlights include 33% of users reported needing less support from their GP as a result of using Holly Health for 8 weeks.

Holly Health and Musculoskeletal Health

Researchers: Dr Daniela Mercado Beivide, Ph.D., Liliana Chow, BSc

31st October 2023

Holly Health and Musculoskeletal Health

This report details the outcomes of using Holly Health in a cohort of patients with an MSK condition, after using Holly Health for 8+ weeks. Highlights include significant improvements in physical and mental health outcomes and self-management skills, as well as testimonials of improved pain management.

Health Outcomes in Long-Term Use of Holly Health

Researcher: Dr Daniela Mercado Beivide, Ph.D.

31st August 2023

Health Outcomes in Long-Term Use of Holly Health

This research report explores the impact of using Holly Health for 5 to 12+ months. Our retrospective survey found that almost 2/3rds of respondents (63%) considered that their physical health has improved, over half (55%) reported their mental health has improved and 37% of users reported needing less GP support, after 5+ months of using Holly Health.

An Evaluation of Impact after Six Months of Holly Health Use

Researcher: Dr Daniela Mercado Beivide, Ph.D.

5th August 2024

An Evaluation of Impact after Six Months of Holly Health Use

This research report presents a pre-and-post analysis of physical and mental health outcomes for Holly Health users after 6 months of engagement. Results include a 14% increase in physical activity, a 16% reduction in anxiety and 1.7 fewer GP visits in high NHS service users, translating to a potential reduction of 11 visits per repeat visitor per year.

Holly Health and Hypertension: A Thematic Analysis

Holly Health intern Alessandro Chincotta, MSc

27th November 2024

Holly Health and Hypertension: A Thematic Analysis

Intern Alessandro Chincotta, MSc, conducted in-depth interviews with Holly Health users with hypertension as part of our government-funded UKRI Future Economy project. His aim? To capture users' firsthand experiences and challenges, providing insights to shape a service that truly supports their needs.

BMJ Heart: Holly Health in primary care patients with a history of heart disease

Researchers: Dr Daniela Mercado Beivide, Ph.D., Dr Leon Wan, Ph.D., Grace Gimson

30th September, 2024

BMJ Heart: Holly Health in primary care patients with a history of heart disease

Read our latest piece evaluating the impact Holly Health across health outcomes in primary care patients with a history of heart disease, presented at the 2024 BACPR annual conference, (British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation) and published in 'Heart', the international journal from BMJ and BCS publishing.

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The Science Behind Holly Health

We're a team of scientists, clinicians and entrepreneurs who understand that emotions, stress, and a busy life make habit change really hard! We bring together our experiences in science, startup and product growth, healthcare integration, and coaching, to keep building our impactful and scalable service.

Some of the core components of the service are:

Mindfulness-based techniques

To pay full attention to the present moment and get in touch with brain and body

Mindfulness interventions can lead to substantial physical and mental health outcomes. Studies show that practising mindfulness has measurable effects on the brain: It helps us better regulate our emotions by strengthening or ‘rational brain’ (also known as the pre-frontal cortex), increases our sense of happiness and wellbeing by decreasing our internal chatter, and increases awareness of our internal bodily signals (called interoceptive awareness).

Mindful eating in particular has been shown to reduce emotional eating, binge eating episodes and eating ‘just because’ (also called external eating), ultimately leading to a better relationship with food.

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Aligning goals with values, and learning to observe unhelpful thoughts without fighting them

This evidence-based approach is framed around personal values rather than short-term goals, which has been shown to result in long-term commitment for change.

ACT also increases cognitive flexibility, which helps us ‘detach’ from unhelpful thoughts which typically lead to or contribute to anxiety, self-criticism, over-thinking and other mental health challenges.

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The science of self-compassion

To treat yourself with kindness through the ups and downs of life, for better all round wellbeing

Studies show that compassion is associated with increase life-satisfaction, happiness, intrinsic motivation, optimism and social connectedness.
It is also negatively associated with maladaptive qualities such as self-criticism, depression, anxiety, and rumination.

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CBT

Identifying patterns in behaviours, thoughts and feelings to instil awareness and develop helpful techniques.

CBT is the gold standard for many mental health challenges and conditions. The idea behind CBT is identifying and challenging thoughts and behaviours, as well as understanding their relationship with emotions. This approach includes helpful tools such as restructuring and meta-cognition for identifying unhelpful thought patterns and developing alternative responses and coping strategies which facilitate behaviour change.

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Small habits approach

Small, incremental changes that build confidence, and create and sustain long term health behaviours

Habit loops are formed in the brain through regular repetition of small actions. Evidence from behaviour change theories like the COM-B model and self-determination theory show that feeling capable and empowered to take action leads to long-term behaviour change. That’s why starting small is key to feel motivated to keep going in a way that feels achievable and sustainable.

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What Holly Health users think...

The fact that the app is using nudge theory in such a way, coupled with accessible information and practical videos, is what I like about the app. The tone of the messaging is not authoritative, but encouraging; not repetitive, but playful; not boring same-old, but inspirational.

Geoff

The Holly bird is really encouraging and tells you things like “you’re doing great” which I find helps keep my spirits high. The app has also helped me to make a mental note of how I’m feeling on a good day, so that I can come back to those positive emotions.

Beverley

I've really appreciated the gentle nudging and encouraging approach. I’ve learnt to be more kind to myself when untangling old habits and being proud of how far I’ve come. It’s very much worth it.

Mary

Holly Health is a service for anyone who's feeling a bit out of control or they don't have any time to themselves, they're always playing catch up. Small habits that build routines give a sense of being more grounded and in touch with ourselves, less pulled along by outside forces.

Francis

After years of being bogged down in guilt and feelings of self-doubt every time I gained a single pound (and elation every time I lost it again), this considered and sustainable approach to living and eating happily is exactly what I needed.

The "be kind to yourself " approach is refreshing. It's a release to be free from "the more you can achieve the more successful you are" that's so stressful. As well as lessening stress I seem to be losing weight too. I feel so lucky to be able to access this.

I’m finding Holly Health way more effective than anything else I've tried because of how small and reasonable the chunks of change are.

It's helped me to stop the all or nothing mentality, and I'm finding it easy and even I look forward to my daily activities because they are easily doable as they are shorter than I'd usually try to do.

I'm managing anxiety better, and severe episodes of anxiety are more rare. I'm getting out of the habit of negative automatic thinking, but it's still work in progress. My exercise levels are much better, and I'm eating better too.

I genuinely think it has motivated me to make the biggest improvements I’ve ever made in my life. I feel so much more responsible for my own health. I am able to manage my lifestyle in a healthy and sustainable way.

I’m finding Holly Health way more effective than anything else I've tried because of how small and reasonable the chunks of change are.

On Web, Android and iOS, rated 4.5 in app stores, with over 800 ratings

Science + Research

Our Evidence

The Science Behind Holly Health

Mindfulness-based techniques

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

The science of self-compassion

CBT

Small habits approach

Core Outcomes

What Holly Health users think...

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