MRC Epidemiology Unit

Seminar – 19 October 2016 – Dr Ben Richardson
2016-10-19 12:30 - 13:30 UTC | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
A Capital Appetite: The Political Economy of UK Sugar Consumption
Dr Ben Richardson, Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick.

Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Abstract
The consumption of sugar is about more than its intrinsic sweetness. To explain why it is ingested in dangerously high quantities, we need to appreciate its appeal to the businesses that supply and shape our collective diets. Whether suspending shelf-life, modifying meal times or encouraging over-eating, the properties of sucrose have been extremely useful in helping industrial food manufacturers subvert the natural and cultural rules governing what can be eaten, when, and in what quantities. This has been underpinned by supportive state policy governing sugar production and trade, and light-touch consumer protection. However, as the proposed soft drinks levy and post-Brexit agricultural reforms suggest, this political settlement is not beyond challenge.
About Dr Richardson
Dr Richardson is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. His research is focused on the political economy of food and agriculture. He is the author of Sugar (2015, Polity) which examines the global politics of this commodity, as well as articles on hunger, farming, and international trade policy.
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Seminar – 19 September 2016 – Dr Francesca Cesari
2016-09-19 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Science publishing – behind the scenes at Nature

Dr Francesca Cesari, Chief Biological Sciences Editor at Nature.

Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
About Dr Francesca Cesari
Francesca Cesari is Chief Biological Sciences Editor at Nature, overseeing editorial content and management of the biological science section of Nature. She has a Master with honours in Molecular Biology from University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy, and obtained her Ph.D. from the Institute of Cell Biology in Tübingen, Germany, where she also began her post-doctoral work. She completed her post-doctoral work at The Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, UK. Prior to joining Nature she was a Senior Editor of Nature Reviews Molecular Biology and briefly worked at Nature Cell Biology as a Senior Editor. She was the Stem Cell and Development Editor at Nature for some years before her appointment to Chief Biological Sciences Editor in 2014.
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Physical Activity Measurement Seminar 2016
2016-09-05 08:00 - 2016-09-09 17:00 UTC | Møller Centre, Churchill College, Storey's Way, Cambridge, CB3 0DE, United Kingdom
APPLICATIONS TO THIS EVENT ARE NOW CLOSED.
On behalf of the Organising Committee of the 8th Physical Activity Measurement Seminar, we would like to invite you to join us at The Møller Centre in Cambridge, UK, for what promises to be an exciting event.
From the 5th September –9th September 2016, the MRC Epidemiology Unit will be holding its 8th seminar encouraging those who are interested or involved in the measurement of physical activity in the epidemiological setting to learn about the science and practical aspects of current techniques used in this field of research.
The primary objective of the seminar is to promote high quality field work in epidemiological studies through understanding of the underlying measurement principles and methods of data analysis.
For further information please see course pages.

Fenland Study Public Meeting - Wisbech
2016-07-06 18:30 - 20:00 (Europe/London) | ACT Theatre, Thomas Clarkson Academy, Corporation Road, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, PE13 2SE, United Kingdom
We would like to invite you to attend our Fenland Study Public Meeting at the Thomas Clarkson Academy in Wisbech on Wednesday 6 July 2016.
The first phase of the Fenland Study finished in 2015, with more than 12,000 volunteers from across Cambridgeshire taking part. Phase 2 is now underway, and over the next 4 years we are sending invitations to participants who attended an initial Fenland Study visit between 2005 and 2015, and who agreed to be re-contacted, to return for a 2nd visit.
To mark these milestones we are holding a series of public meetings. This is your chance to hear about progress so far, key scientific findings and our plans for future research, as well as to meet study staff and researchers.
The event will comprise of a short presentation, followed by a panel discussion where you will have the opportunity to ask the Principal Investigators questions about the study.
If you have a question that you’d like to ask the Fenland researchers, please submit it when you register, or email it to: Fenland-meetings@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk
Light refreshments will be provided from 6:30pm, with presentation and panel discussion will start at 7pm.
There is ample, free parking in the Thomas Clarkson Academy car park.
This event is free to attend, although you will need to register for tickets in advance as places are limited. To register please choose one of the following options:

Register on Eventbrite, using the link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fenland-study-public-meeting-tickets-24491071454

Contact us via email (Fenland-meetings@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk) stating your name, preferred date and how many places you would need for the meeting.

Call the Fenland Study Free phone number on 0800 085 618

If you have any special requirements, please let us know when you register your tickets.

MRC Festival of Medical Research - Are you in a healthy place?
2016-06-22 17:30 - 19:30 UTC | University Centre, Granta Place, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 1RU, United Kingdom
Are you in a healthy place? Travel, food and our neighbourhoods
Wednesday 22 June 2016 5.30pm – 7.30pm. University Centre, Granta Place, Cambridge CB2 1RU
This event has finished, please check our events pages and twitter feed to find out about upcoming events.
The places where we live, study and work shape our behaviours and health. But how healthy are our neighbourhoods? Join science writer and broadcaster Kat Arney, and explore the latest research from the MRC Epidemiology Unit about how our neighbourhoods influence how we get around and what we eat, and what this is doing to our bodies
Bring your smartphones, opinions and questions – and take away a new perspective on where you live.
5.30 – 6.15pm: Meet the scientists
Come and grab a drink, talk with scientists about their research at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, and have some fun on interactive activities.
Learn how we gather data and how it can be used to improve health and wellbeing.
Find out how far you have to pedal to burn off a single sugar lump, and what it does to your heart rate.
Take the sugar taste test – how sweet is too sweet, and how do your taste buds compare to other people’s?
6.15 – 7.30pm: Interactive presentations
Hear about how our research is shedding light on how the places we live and work affect our health. Test your knowledge and perceptions in an interactive Q&A. The main topics will be:
What does Medical Research have to do with my commute? Cambridge is famous for being the city in the UK with the highest levels of cycling. But what is it about the environment that influences how we get around? And is enough being done to encourage everyone to be a bit more active on the commute? Researchers have been studying the health impacts of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway and other transport projects around the country to try to answer these and other questions.

Are takeaways adding pounds? Are supermarkets slimming? We might like to think that the food we eat is all a matter of personal choice, but where we live and work can affect our choices. Research is shedding light on how food outlets near our home, work and travel routes influence what we eat, and ultimately our weight and health. But how full of takeaways, supermarkets and other food shops is your neighbourhood? Do you think it affects what you eat? And what, if anything, should be done about it?

Find out about other events that took place in Cambridge during the MRC Festival of Medical Research (18 – 26 June 2016) at:
www.mrc.ac.uk/about/events/mrc-festival-of-medical-research/mrc-festival-of-medical-research-2016-cambridge/

Fenland Study Public Meeting - Cambridge
2016-06-21 18:30 - 20:00 UTC | Wolfson Hall, Churchill College, Storey's Way, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0DS, United Kingdom
This event is fully booked, but tickets are still available for the Fenland Study Public Meeting in Wisbech on Wednesday 6 July.
We would like to invite you to attend our Fenland Study Public Meeting at Churchill College in Cambridge on Tuesday 21 June 2016.
The first phase of the Fenland Study finished in 2015, with more than 12,000 volunteers from across Cambridgeshire taking part. Phase 2 is now underway, and over the next 4 years we are sending invitations to participants who attended an initial Fenland Study visit between 2005 and 2015, and who agreed to be re-contacted, to return for a 2nd visit.
To mark these milestones we are holding a series of public meetings. This is your chance to hear about progress so far, key scientific findings and our plans for future research, as well as to meet study staff and researchers.
The event will comprise of a short presentation, followed by a panel discussion where you will have the opportunity to ask the Principal Investigators questions about the study.
If you have a question that you’d like to ask the Fenland researchers, please submit it when you register, or email it to: Fenland-meetings@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk
Light refreshments will be provided from 6:30pm, with presentation and panel discussion will start at 7pm.
There is ample, free parking at the College either along Churchill Road (the College’s private road) or in the main car park at the end of that road. Permits are not required. https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/our-location/find-us/
This event is free to attend, although you will need to register for tickets in advance as places are limited. To register please choose one of the following options:

Register on Eventbrite, using the link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fenland-study-public-meeting-tickets-24490599041

Contact us via email (Fenland-meetings@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk) stating your name, preferred date and how many places you would need for the meeting.

Call the Fenland Study Free phone number on 0800 085 618

If you have any special requirements, please let us know when you register your tickets.

Fenland Study Public Meeting - Ely
2016-06-14 18:30 - 20:00 UTC | The Maltings, Ship Lane, ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4BB, United Kingdom
This event is fully booked, but tickets are still available for the Fenland Study Public Meeting in Wisbech on Wednesday 6 July.
We would like to invite you to attend our Fenland Study Public Meeting at The Maltings in Ely on Tuesday 14 June 2016.
The first phase of the Fenland Study finished in 2015, with more than 12,000 volunteers from across Cambridgeshire taking part. Phase 2 is now underway, and over the next 4 years we are sending invitations to participants who attended an initial Fenland Study visit between 2005 and 2015, and who agreed to be re-contacted, to return for a 2nd visit.
To mark these milestones we are holding a series of public meetings. This is your chance to hear about progress so far, key scientific findings and our plans for future research, as well as to meet study staff and researchers.
The event will comprise of a short presentation, followed by a panel discussion where you will have the opportunity to ask the Principal Investigators questions about the study.
If you have a question that you’d like to ask the Fenland researchers, please submit it when you register, or email it to: Fenland-meetings@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk
Light refreshments will be provided from 6:30pm, with presentation and panel discussion will start at 7pm.
This event is free to attend, although you will need to register for tickets in advance as places are limited. To register please choose one of the following options:

Register on Eventbrite, using the link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fenland-study-public-meeting-tickets-24489451609

Contact us via email (Fenland-meetings@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk) stating your name, preferred date and how many places you would need for the meeting.

Call the Fenland Study Free phone number on 0800 085 618

If you have any special requirements, please let us know when you register your tickets.

Seminar - 11 May 2016 - Professor Terence Dwyer
2016-05-11 12:00 - 13:00 UTC | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
The contribution of physical activity to increased life expectancy

by Professor Terence Dwyer of the George Institute for Global Health, University of Oxford.

Meeting Rooms 1,2 &3, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus

Abstract
Recently, Terry Dwyer and his team reported their findings on the association of pedometer measured steps and mortality from a fifteen year follow up of these cohorts (Dwyer, T., et al. (2015). “Objectively Measured Daily Steps and Subsequent Long Term All-Cause Mortality: The Tasped Prospective Cohort Study.” PloS one 10(11): e0141274).
In a combined cohort of almost 3,000 subjects among whom 220 deaths occurred, a 40% reduction in mortality for those taking the highest number of steps compared to the lowest was observed. This was the first evidence from a population based cohort that PA measured objectively was inversely associated with mortality.
In this talk he will review the evidence on the relationship between PA, predominantly measured by questionnaire, and major health outcomes and put into context what this new data using an objective measure of PA adds to the overall picture. In describing how the complex puzzle of PA and health is developing he will identify what deficiencies in the evidence need to be addressed before greater certainty about the causal nature of the association can be reached.

About Professor Dwyer
Professor Terence Dwyer is a non-communicable disease epidemiologist with extensive experience in the conduct of cohort and case control studies with a focus on infant and child health.
Professor Dwyer’s research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and sleeping position was recognised by the NHMRC, Australia, as one of the thirteen most important contributions to medical research by Australia in the 20th century. This work was mainly conducted in the Tasmanian Infant Health Survey which enrolled 11,000 infants between 1988 and 1995.
Professor Dwyer currently leads two large global cohort collaborations. The first follows around 40,000 subjects who were first measured at school age, now moving into their 5th and 6th decades, to estimate separate effects of childhood physical and lifestyle characteristics on risk of major adult diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The second is the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (14C), a collaboration of birth cohorts in more than ten countries. It aims to obtain prospective evidence on the causes of childhood cancer by assembling data on 1 million mothers and babies who will be followed through childhood.

Bradford Hill Seminar -14 April 2016 - Dariush Mozaffarian
2016-04-14 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Large Seminar Room, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Forvie Site, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SR, United Kingdom
All are invited to the Bradford Hill Seminar:
Dietary priorities for obesity – are all calories created equal?

by Dean Dariush Mozaffarian, of Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy.
Large Seminar Room, Cambridge Institute of Public Health

This talk will be chaired by Dr Nita Forouhi
Nita leads the MRC Epidemiology Unit’s Nutritional Epidemiology programme, which aims to understand the relationship between diet, nutrition and the risk of diabetes, obesity and related disorders
Biography, Dariush Mozaffarian
Dariush Mozaffarian is Dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy, and the Jean Mayer Chair and Professor of Nutrition. The only graduate school of nutrition in North America, the Friedman School produces trusted science and real-world impact in nutrition. A board-certified cardiologist and epidemiologist, Dr. Mozaffarian’s research focuses on how diet and lifestyle influence cardiometabolic health and how effective policies can reduce these burdens. He has authored nearly 300 scientific publications on dietary fats, foods, and diet patterns; global obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases; and evidence-based and cost-effective dietary policies. Dr. Mozaffarian has served in numerous advisory roles including for the US and Canadian governments, American Heart Association, Global Burden of Diseases study, World Health Organization, and United Nations. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Time Magazine, and countless other news outlets, broadcasts, blogs, and websites.
Dr. Mozaffarian received his BS in biological sciences from Stanford (Phi Beta Kappa), MD from Columbia (Alpha Omega Alpha), and trained in internal medicine and cardiovascular medicine at Stanford and U. of Washington. Following his clinical training, he received his MPH from U. of Washington and Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard. Before he was appointed Dean at Tufts in 2014, Dr. Mozaffarian was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health for a decade and was clinically active on the cardiology service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is married with three children and a second degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Tackling obesity with Big Data – Seminar 16/03/16 – methods & models
2016-03-16 09:00 - 14:00 UTC | Mill Lane Lecture Rooms, 8 Mill Lane, Old Press Site. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1RX, United Kingdom
ESRC Strategic Network: tackling obesity with Big Data, Seminar 2 – methods and models
This is the second of four seminars held by the ESRC Obesity Strategic Network, to explore how Big Data can best be used to understand and tackle obesity.The seminar will be presented by:

Adam Drewnowski, School of Public Health, University of Washington
Darren Greenwood, Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine
James Woodcock, CEDAR & MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge
Robin Lovelace, School of Geography, University of Leeds

The panel discussion with be facilitated by Seraphim Alvanides, and include the seminar speakers along with Sandy Tubeuf and Daniel Lewis.
Full agenda and booking at www.cdrc.ac.uk/research/march-2016/
For further information contact Michelle Morris m.morris@leeds.ac.uk / 0113 343 0883
About the network
Increasing volumes of ‘data’ about individual behaviours are becoming available through social media, mobile phone geotagging, store loyalty cards and purchasing transaction data . There are many opportunities to use these data to benefit society. One key example is to better understand how the environment in which we live influences our behaviours leading to health concerns such as overweight and obesity. A better understanding of these complex interactions offers scope for designing interventions to addressing this significant ‘wicked’ challenge.
Obesity continues to be a problem in the UK with the most recent figures reporting 67% of men and 57% of women classed as overweight or obese. Overweight and obesity are serious health concerns and are risk factors for other non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis and certain cancers. In many places the environment in which we live makes it easy to gain weight. For example, fast food outlets are regularly closer to our homes and workplaces than supermarkets with healthier food choices, and it is often safer or more convenient to drive to work rather than walk. These factors encourage individuals to eat unhealthy foods and be sedentary rather than physically active, contributing to weight gain and subsequent overweight and obesity. This setting has been termed an ‘obesogenic environment’.
In order to promote healthier eating and more physical activity; groups of professionals need to work together to better understand how to modify these environmental influences so that it is easier to eat a good diet and be more active These groups of professionals include researchers with an interest in diet and physical activity as well as involved with promoting active travel, reducing crime and improving retail planning. Real changes also need the involvement of local government, planning organisations, retailers, charities and health practitioners. Experts in data analytics are required to harness the volumes of information available and use these in a meaningful way.
This network aims to do just that – bring together many different types of researchers with policy makers, retail and third sector organisations to work collaboratively in order to plan how to make best use of the large volumes of data now available to inform research, policy and practice in the prevention of obesity.
A network like this is a prime example of how the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts and together there is great potential to make a difference.
More at www.cdrc.ac.uk

Seminar – 04 February 2016 – Dr John Powles
2016-02-04 11:00 - 12:00 UTC | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Estimating the global burden of disease attributable to excess sodium within the GBD2010 study

by Dr John Powles of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge.

Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Abstract
Sodium intake increases blood pressure, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study we carried out a study to model the estimated effect of sodium consumption on mortality. We quantified global sodium intake, by age, sex, and country, based on urinary and dietary surveys from 66 countries representing 74.1% of the world population. We quantified blood pressure effects of sodium, by age, race, and hypertension, in a new meta-analysis of 107 trials; and blood pressure effects on cardiovascular mortality, by age, from meta-analysis of cohorts. Cause-specific mortality was derived from the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases Study. We estimated cardiovascular impacts of current sodium intake, compared with reference intake of 2.0 g/d, using comparative risk assessment, by age, sex, and country. In this modelling study, 1.65 million cardiovascular deaths were attributed to sodium consumption above a reference level of 2.0 g/d.
About Dr John Powles
Dr Powles graduated in Medicine from Sydney University, Australia in 1968. He subsequently spent 4 years in the UK then 16 years at Monash Medical School in Melbourne before coming to Cambridge in 1991. In Cambridge he has worked especially on East/West health differences in Europe, public health policies in developed countries and graduate education in public health. (For the University’s 800th anniversary he also helped create the walking tour 800 years of death and disease in Cambridge). Since retiring in 2011 he has continued teaching and research as an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow. Department of Public Health and Primary Care profile.
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Seminar – 18 January 2016 – Dr Jennifer Badham / Dr Ruth Hunter
2016-01-18 13:00 - 14:00 UTC | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
Using agent-based modelling for designing public health interventions: the SSNAP project
by Dr Jennifer Badham and Dr Ruth Hunter, of the UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast.
Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Abstract
Agent-based modelling (ABM) is becoming increasingly popular in public health. Applications include intervention development, understanding complex public health systems and evaluating the public health impact of public health interventions.
This seminar will introduce the opportunities for ABM in public health, describe how it can be useful for developing public health interventions and discuss some of the challenges.
SNAP (Social Networks and Physical Activity) is a public health intervention that utilises social networks (i.e. the connections between people) to promote physical activity. To optimise the way in which those connections are used, we are first building a simulation (SSNAP) using ABM to test different intervention designs.
The seminar will be of interest to public health interventionists, public health modellers and physical activity researchers.

CANCELLED: Seminar – 10 December 2015 - Dr Derek Yach
2015-12-10 11:00 - 12:00 UTC | TBC
We are very sorry to announce that the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar by Dr Derek Yach of the Vitality Institute has been CANCELLED.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Dr Derek Yach is Senior Vice President (SVP) of the Vitality Group, part of Discovery Ltd, where he leads the Vitality Institute. Previously, Dr. Yach was SVP Global Health and Agriculture Policy at PepsiCo, headed global health at the Rockefeller Foundation, was a Professor of Global Health at Yale University, and is a former Executive Director for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health of the World Health Organization (WHO). At WHO, he served as cabinet director under Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland where he led the development of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Global Strategy on Diet and Physical Activity. Read more.
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Seminar – 8 December 2015 – Professor Larry Frank
2015-12-08 12:30 - 13:30 UTC | MRC Epidemiology meeting rooms 1&2, Level 3 IMS, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to a CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar by Professor Larry Frank of the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.
About Professor Frank
Dr. Frank is the Bombardier Chairholder and Professor in Sustainable Transport and the Director of the Health and Community Design Lab at the University of British Columbia. He specializes in the interaction between land use, travel behaviour, air quality, and health. He has been studying the effects of neighbourhood walkability on travel patterns and sustainability for 25 years and has led over $20 million in funded research and lead or co-authored over 200 peer reviewed articles and reports, as well as two of the leading books, Health and Community Design and Urban Sprawl and Public Health, on these topics. Read more.
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Seminar – 27 November 2015 – Dr Audrey de Nazelle
2015-11-27 13:30 - 14:30 UTC | MRC Epidemiology meeting rooms 1&2, Level 3 IMS, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar by Dr Audrey de Nazelle of the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London
Selected results from the Transportation, Air pollution and Physical ActivitieS (TAPAS) comprehensive research programme on active travel
MRC Epidemiology meeting rooms 1&2, Level 3 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre
Abstract
Encouraging active travel has many benefits, but also perhaps some associated risks, and certainly much uncertainty still in how it works and how to estimate its impacts. The TAPAS programme was developed to tackle in a comprehensive way the multiple questions surrounding active travel, from its promotion to its overall impacts. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the health impact assessments developed in TAPAS, and cover some key results from the travel survey conducted in Barcelona and from the epidemiologic analysis on the combination of air pollution exposure and physical activity.
About Dr de Nazelle
Dr Audrey de Nazelle is a Lecturer in Air Pollution Management at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. She is an expert in risk assessment and exposure science. Her research is at the intersection of environmental sciences, health behaviour, transportation, and urban planning. Her work aims at guiding decision makers towards health-promoting built environments and policies. It involves novel and holistic approaches to assessing behavioral, environmental and health impacts of urban plans and policies. Read more.
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Seminar – 11 November 2015 – Dr Janis Baird / Dr Christina Vogel
2015-11-11 12:30 - 13:30 UTC | Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC), Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, United Kingdom
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar:
How do local food environment factors and psychosocial factors affect the dietary behaviours of mothers with young children and what are the implications for dietary inequalities?
by Dr Janis Baird and Dr Christina Vogel, of MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology, University of Southampton.
Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Abstract

Quality of diet is associated with level of disadvantage: findings from the Southampton Women’s Survey demonstrate that women with lower levels of educational attainment have significantly poorer diet quality than those with higher attainment. The poor diets of mothers with low educational attainment are of concern not only for their own health but particularly for the short- and long-term health of their children. A number of psychological and social factors, including self-efficacy and sense of control, have been associated with mothers’ level of educational attainment and dietary quality, but understanding of how local environmental factors interact with individual level factors in determining diet is more limited.
This seminar will focus on a programme of observational and complex intervention research that aims to understand and improve the dietary behaviours of women of childbearing age from disadvantaged backgrounds. We will describe the findings of our observational research examining associations between local food environment factors, individual factors and the dietary behaviours of mothers with young children, and will outline how our observational findings are being translated into complex community-based interventions.
About Janice Baird
Janis Baird is Associate Professor of Public Health Medicine at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton. Her research focuses on the translation of evidence of the developmental origins of health and disease into public health policy and practice. Janis co-leads a series of complex intervention studies which aim to improve the health and nutrition of women of childbearing age, with a particular focus on reducing inequalities. As well as having extensive experience of systematic review, she also has an interest in process evaluation and between 2011 and 2014 Janis chaired a group of researchers, funded by the Medical Research Council, who developed guidance on process evaluation within complex intervention studies.
Since 2009, Janis Baird and Christina Vogel have carried out research to characterise the food environments of women living in Southampton and explore their influence on women’s dietary quality. Their observational work is now informing the development of multi-level interventions which aim to improve diet by combining environmental strategies with individual-level behaviour change. Read more.
About Christina Vogel
Christina Vogel (nee Black) has had a long term interest in understanding what is it that makes people choose to eat the foods they do and, accordingly, completed undergraduate training in Nutrition and Dietetics and in Psychology at the Newcastle University, Australia. Christina has worked in public health nutrition for ten years in Australia and Europe. Her work has involved designing and delivering programs in remote indigenous and urban communities, conducting population health observational and intervention research, and developing public health policy. Christina has worked at the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK since 2009. She is part of the team that designed, implemented and evaluated the ‘Healthy Conversations Skills’ workforce development intervention and has developed a programme of observational research to enhance understanding of how the local food environment affects the dietary behaviours of mothers with young children.
Supported by an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship, Christina completed her PhD in 2014. Her research is the first in the UK to examine the psychosocial and educational pathways between the local food environment and dietary behaviours. She has developed a number of novel environmental metrics to describe place-health relations. Her work in structural equation modelling has been used to identify environmental, social and psychological focal points for an intervention to improve the dietary behaviours of mothers and their families which is in the early stage of development. Read more.
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