Supervisor(s)

Jenna Panter, David Ogilvie

Programme

Population Health Interventions

Summary

People’s physical and social environments influence behaviour such as diet and physical activity, and these in turn affect the risk and experience of chronic diseases. It is now an established policy goal in the UK and many other countries to create environments which encourage physical activity with potential health, social and planetary co-benefits. However, major scientific uncertainty surrounds the effects of environmental interventions to change population patterns of activity and the mechanisms by which that goal might be achieved.

Building on a recently produced GB-wide dataset on changes in the built and natural environment between 2015 and 2020, we propose a studentship that links these data with administrative data to examine the physical activity and related health and equity impacts of environmental changes such as new green space and other changes in land use. The combination of national data such as Census, ASHE and Understanding Society as well as opportunities for detailed work in regions where there are well characterised cohorts. The student will use statistical and GIS techniques to investigate the spatial, social and temporal effects of environmental changes on health and wellbeing. We will explore comparability of findings with the Welsh Environment data focussing on greenspace provision from 2010-2019.

If you are interested in this topic, please contact Jenna Panter in the first instance.