
Professor Claire Steves
Professor of Ageing and Health
Research interests
- Ageing
- Mental Health
Biography
Claire is a Professor of Ageing and Health and the Clinical Director of TwinsUK, King’s College London. She is also a Consultant Geriatrician at Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust.
Claire is interested in how each one of us ages differently and uses population studies like TwinsUK to understand what underlies this variability. She works across health boundaries, interested in both physical and mental health and the intersections between them. She established that environmental factors are particularly important in understanding trajectories of ageing. This has led to focused work on the relationship between the microbiome and conditions of ageing, including cognitive ageing, frailty and multi-morbidity. Claire also leads a high profile Wellcome Longitudinal Population Study grant to expand our ability to contribute to health sciences, by using data linkage with health, educational and environmental records, and social and environmental scientists.
In 2020 she brought her clinical experience to the design of the Zoe Covid study app which reached over 4 million people, and since then has led research on the impact of COVID-19 infection itself and the pandemic overall on lived experience of the participants. She also is the longitudinal population study lead on the National Core Study of Health and Wellbeing which aims to understand the health, social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic including how the pandemic has affected older populations.
Claire has published more than 100 research articles in high impact journals and appears regularly in the media.
Research

Adapting Pulmonary Rehabilitation for People Living with COPD & Frailty
People with COPD and frailty can benefit from, yet face trouble completing pulmonary rehabilitation. BreathePlus will develop and test a new adapted approach.
Project status: Ongoing

Ageing Research at King's (ARK)
Cross faculty consortium addressing ageing and healthy longevity.
News
Some people's brain function still affected by Long COVID years after infection
UK researchers have found that people with longer-term COVID-19 symptoms including 'brain fog' showed reduced performance in tasks testing different mental...

How much of a boost do “booster” COVID-19 jabs give?
Scientists have found the “booster” COVID-19 vaccine programme led to a large boost in the antibodies that help protect against coronavirus. High levels of...

Long COVID risk less during Omicron compared to Delta
The Omicron variant is less likely to cause long COVID than the Delta variant, new research has found.

Three types of long-COVID for people experiencing symptoms for 12 weeks or more
New research shows at least three distinct ‘types’ of long covid for people experiencing symptoms for 12 weeks or more.

Minorities bore disproportionate mental health impact of pandemic
Racial and ethnic minorities had higher rates of depression and anxiety than white people during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research has found.

Experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 associated with poorer mental health
Having symptoms of COVID-19 has been associated with worse mental health and lower life satisfaction.

ExeTera software provides deeper analytics of mass data sets from ZOE COVID Study App
ExeTera has allows researchers to manage very large time series datasets on millions of app users to make significant scientific contributions to...

People with prior mental ill health hit harder by pandemic disruption
People who had higher pre-pandemic levels of depression or anxiety have been more severely affected by disruption to jobs and healthcare during the pandemic,...

Impact of COVID-19 infection on later anxiety and depression is small and short-lived
Testing positive for COVID-19 has a slight association with subsequent anxiety and depression symptoms, new research has found. This association appeared to...

Double vaccination halves risk of Long COVID
Adults who have received a double vaccination are 49% less likely to have Long COVID should they contract a COVID-19 infection.

Features
King's contributes to pandemic response
Staff and students from across the King’s community are supporting efforts to combat the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.

Why are the elderly more at risk of death from novel coronavirus?
Dr Claire Steves, Clinical Senior Lecturer, explores the particular susceptibility of older people to the novel coronavirus?

King's contribution to coronavirus response
King's academics and researchers are supporting ongoing research and conversation addressing the global outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Spotlight
ZOE COVID Study app: How King's researchers slowed the spread of COVID-19
On March 24th 2020, the ZOE COVID Symptom Study App was launched. Since then, it has more than 4 million users and is now the world’s largest ongoing study...

Research

Adapting Pulmonary Rehabilitation for People Living with COPD & Frailty
People with COPD and frailty can benefit from, yet face trouble completing pulmonary rehabilitation. BreathePlus will develop and test a new adapted approach.
Project status: Ongoing

Ageing Research at King's (ARK)
Cross faculty consortium addressing ageing and healthy longevity.
News
Some people's brain function still affected by Long COVID years after infection
UK researchers have found that people with longer-term COVID-19 symptoms including 'brain fog' showed reduced performance in tasks testing different mental...

How much of a boost do “booster” COVID-19 jabs give?
Scientists have found the “booster” COVID-19 vaccine programme led to a large boost in the antibodies that help protect against coronavirus. High levels of...

Long COVID risk less during Omicron compared to Delta
The Omicron variant is less likely to cause long COVID than the Delta variant, new research has found.

Three types of long-COVID for people experiencing symptoms for 12 weeks or more
New research shows at least three distinct ‘types’ of long covid for people experiencing symptoms for 12 weeks or more.

Minorities bore disproportionate mental health impact of pandemic
Racial and ethnic minorities had higher rates of depression and anxiety than white people during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research has found.

Experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 associated with poorer mental health
Having symptoms of COVID-19 has been associated with worse mental health and lower life satisfaction.

ExeTera software provides deeper analytics of mass data sets from ZOE COVID Study App
ExeTera has allows researchers to manage very large time series datasets on millions of app users to make significant scientific contributions to...

People with prior mental ill health hit harder by pandemic disruption
People who had higher pre-pandemic levels of depression or anxiety have been more severely affected by disruption to jobs and healthcare during the pandemic,...

Impact of COVID-19 infection on later anxiety and depression is small and short-lived
Testing positive for COVID-19 has a slight association with subsequent anxiety and depression symptoms, new research has found. This association appeared to...

Double vaccination halves risk of Long COVID
Adults who have received a double vaccination are 49% less likely to have Long COVID should they contract a COVID-19 infection.

Features
King's contributes to pandemic response
Staff and students from across the King’s community are supporting efforts to combat the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.

Why are the elderly more at risk of death from novel coronavirus?
Dr Claire Steves, Clinical Senior Lecturer, explores the particular susceptibility of older people to the novel coronavirus?

King's contribution to coronavirus response
King's academics and researchers are supporting ongoing research and conversation addressing the global outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Spotlight
ZOE COVID Study app: How King's researchers slowed the spread of COVID-19
On March 24th 2020, the ZOE COVID Symptom Study App was launched. Since then, it has more than 4 million users and is now the world’s largest ongoing study...
