Supervisor

Jenna Panter

Programme

Population Health Interventions

Summary

Moving home is a window of opportunity for new habits to be developed and routines set. Behavioural psychologists suggest that behaviours are both individually and environmentally cued. Moving into new housing developments designed to be more supportive for walking and cycling could be an important way to both trigger both environmental and psychological cues.

This PhD studentship that seeks to address some of the research questions about the way that people’s activity patterns change when they move and their impacts on health. Possible research questions include:

What are the policy contexts that affect how new housing developments are built?

In this project we will compare different new housing developments (across Cambridgeshire and within the Eastern region) and understand how and why decisions are made about the provision of infrastructure and facilities with particular attention on the policy landscape. This will include documentary analysis and interviews with local government officials.

What impact does moving home and the associated changes in the environments that people are exposed to have on their travel patterns?

This will involve secondary analysis of existing data collected from a cohort of around 10,000 participants living in Fenland who we have been following up for the last 10 years (Fenland study). Approximately 10% of those have moved home in that time and using detailed data on travel patterns, we intend to see how their environments have changed, as well as their changes in travel patterns.

How do new developments affect the health of the entire population in an area (including the population living around the new developments)?

This will involve secondary analysis of existing data collected from our built environment change dataset which we have collated across the UK to assess areas that have experienced new housing developments and linking this to datasets on individuals health and behaviour, including but not limited to the UK household longitudinal study (UKHLS) and UK Biobank and others.

Other questions could include:

• What are the spatial and temporal patterns of these changes in new housing developments?
• What are the other social and physical processes and systems that bring about any changes in health outcomes?