Find the gap: where is the healthy, enjoyable human body in policy?

Posted by Rachel Kurtz, PhD researcher at Durham University

Balancing varied and sometimes conflicting priorities within a large geographical area and between multiple departments is not a job to be envied. Ensuring the detail is suitably deliberated while also holding in mind how a policy affects other interests must be attempted but cannot possibly be achieved to perfection. My role on behalf of County Durham Sport was much easier. Over three weeks in June, I reviewed Durham County Council documents and the priorities of the Area Action Partnerships (AAPs) to identify areas of local strategy that did (or did not) address the issues of physical inactivity and the climate emergency. As an environmentally-informed, lifelong dancer-turned-researcher, I simply had to view the documents from two perspectives in which I am already personally invested and consider possible changes. Some interesting things emerged.

As you might expect, topics are viewed through whatever lens highlights policy concerns in that area. For example, the County Durham Plan understands physical activity functionally, through land use, waste, and movement of people, advocating for active travel (walking, cycling etc.) and providing and improving recreational areas. Meanwhile, the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy considers the environment as either beneficial or detrimental to public health, e.g. air quality. Thinking that is limited by departmental divisions can make it difficult to link overlapping policy areas. Consequently, councils are attempting to increase communication and collaboration by forming multi-disciplinary teams to create joint policy and consider issues from multiple perspectives. The County Durham Health and Wellbeing Board (author of the previously mentioned strategy) is one such team. This ongoing shift towards a collaborative approach is already countering siloed thinking and Durham County Council is taking a systems perspective through its work in Mental Health, from its strategic partnership both within and outside the council to delivery vehicles like the AAPs (which give local people and organisations a say on how services are provided). Nonetheless, a change of perspective inevitably exposes assumptions and raises new challenges, and this was no exception.

Encouragingly, some of the documents reviewed, such as the 2018 Open Space Needs Assessment, comprehensively address both focus areas, however in most cases the environment features more prominently than physical activity. A Physical Activity Strategy is still being developed, therefore gaps in this area might be expected and indeed in many cases the human body was entirely absent from policy. However, what was most noticeable was the underlying attitude where physicality was mentioned. Almost none of the policy documents feature the healthy, enjoyable human body. To cite a specific example: while addressing a rising mental health crisis, the Health and Wellbeing Strategy implicitly regards bodies as problems to be solved. This is particularly noticeable in the section on older people who are seen as frail and in need of preventative and remedial support. The framing of the strategy is already being addressed in this case but overall, any focus on the impact of health and wealth inequalities on the body tends to see physical inactivity as a problem rather than an opportunity. There were exceptions at delivery level (e.g. the Healthy Weight Action Plan and some AAP interventions, both of which are very much about enrichment) but at the strategic level, bodies are overwhelmingly framed as problematic. This is true even where you might expect an enrichment perspective such as the Children and Young People’s Strategy and Strategic Walking and Cycling Delivery Plan.

As a dancer and embodiment researcher this outlook is all too familiar, and I understand it as cultural rather than a failing of the council. In the main bodies are accommodated, objectified and treated as problems to be solved, while the sensual, experiencing body is largely ignored. Unfortunately, when we take this deficit perspective, we lose important, humanising opportunities for productive fun. Policy could be very influential in this respect. If we choose instead the underpinning belief that bodies are an incredible gift through which we explore and enjoy an endlessly engaging world, we automatically find more playful and interesting solutions. Suddenly new possibilities abound, like generating power from playground equipment or a dancefloor made with kinetic tiles. When we remember our sense of fun, urban environments become play spaces for curious bodies. Street furniture is for parkour, roller blading or skateboarding as well as resting. Outdoor games and gyms spill out of parks and line the route of our walking commute. Community growing spaces (already a popular solution to poor diet, food miles, climate change preparedness, physical inactivity, social isolation and low income) are no longer confined to small allotment plots but proliferate around the city alongside the begonias, encouraging healthy eating and a pedestrian habit.

Negotiating such varied needs and uses does of course require extensive consultation and consideration, which again highlights the importance of a partnership approach through which all voices are heard, but as I said at the outset, policy making is inevitably a difficult job. The bonus of reframing in this way is that by using strategies that are intentionally enjoyable rather than those that feel worthy or obligatory, uptake is likely to be far higher and as a result there is a better chance of achieving positive outcomes. Surrounded by the richness of creative human expression and snacking on free, community-grown fruit as we walk, jog, cycle or even dance our way to work and school, why would we choose to drive? 

Images:

1. Photo by Anthony Fomin on Unsplash

2. Photograph 'Exercise Machines' (2103264189_e26de7ba22_z) by Catherine via Flickr © 2007: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30325243@N00/2103264189 (CC BY 2.0) Adapted (cropped)

3. Photo by markusspiske on Pixabay

Uniting planning and health to tackle obesity

Public Heath England (PHE) has just published practical guidance, informed by Fuse research, for local authorities wanting to use the planning system to improve public health. In this blog post Andy Netherton and Michael Chang, from PHE's Healthy Places Team, tell us how they hope the guidance will be used to tackle obesity.

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Obesity is a modern day public health challenge that cannot be met by a traditional scientific approach alone. Tackling obesity levels in England requires action by national and local government, health and social care, non-governmental agencies, communities and individuals – a whole system approach.

Traditionally the vast majority of public discussion and state campaigns target individual level behaviour change and treatment. This does not address the environment in which we live, that influences the decisions and actions that we make; things such as what we eat, whether we exercise, how we travel to work, how we interact within the community and if we have access to and use open spaces.

These physical environmental factors can be influenced by national and local policy and action. State led interventions are difficult to put into place due to the need for evidence within complex social and environmental determinants. The difficulty to isolate evidence related to these interventions and local government capacity to balance competing demands results in an inconsistent approach to policy adoption.

The use of planning policy and development management is a clear example of an intervention to tackle obesity which is not yet consistently applied across the country. Practice across the country has shown a diverse range of approaches in local plans and planning appeal decisions which has taken over 10 years to develop, but is now accelerating.

Figure 1 – Charting the use of planning for healthy weight environments

This policy to implementation lag has to be seen in the context of an increasing obesity challenge, both in terms of prevalence and health inequalities.

Figure 2 – key obesity data and trends

Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet, England, May 2019 - NHS Digital, Government Statistical Service

Is the reason down to the nature of local evidence provided or the knowledge of the individual local authority teams, planning inspectors or the wider planning regime?

This was recognised within the Childhood Obesity: a plan for action, Chapter 2. The challenges it identified, included the proliferation of fast food outlets, less active travel, limited access to green spaces and physical activity; and these factors create an environment that makes it harder for children and their families to make healthy choices, particularly in some of our most deprived areas.

The Childhood Obesity plan confirmed that local authorities have a key role in tackling this challenge and pledged support:

• to make sure that all local authorities are empowered and confident in finding what works for them, and;
• to develop resources that support local authorities who want to use their powers and provide up to date guidance and training for planning inspectors. 

In response Public Health England (PHE) has released guidance on using the planning system to promote healthy weight environments.

Previous research by PHE (Spatial Planning and Health: Getting Research into Practice (GRIP) study report) identified that local authorities would benefit from support that reduced the need for resource input, for example reduced duplication to create policy and practice. This publication is aimed at getting knowledge into action by providing guidance and a template supplementary planning document (SPD), one of many planning levers available to local authorities, that can be used by local authority planning and public health teams. It answers the following questions:

• What is the current evidence base linking the built and natural environment and healthy weight? Specifically, can the local food environment influence diet and obesity?
• How can the planning regime be used to promote healthy weight environments?

The publication identifies the background work necessary in order to comply with planning policy development, where the key is the use of local evidence and consultation. It specifically provides guidance on the use of the 400m exclusion zone for hot food takeaways, features of the built environment and building design that promotes physical activity, use of green space, allotments and neighbourhood design.

The provided supplementary planning document (SPD) is a starting point that requires local content and policy to be added. It can be used as a whole or parts selected on local need or to dovetail to existing local policies. Clearly this intervention is one intervention that must be used within a wider national and local obesity strategy.

There remain challenges to promoting a healthy food environment, for example the impact from the rise of industrial kitchens for food delivery must be monitored. Work must continue to influence the energy and compositional content of other food options and build our homes and neighbourhood to allow people to more active.

This publication provides guidance on a practical evidence based intervention that draws together several professional groups within a local authority. Gateshead Council have successfully adopted and defended on appeal, controls on hot food takeaways as part of a wider approach to tackling obesity and promoting healthy weight environments. It is hoped that for many areas working together to tackle obesity will provide confidence to further unite planning and health. It moves the debate from a deficit model of obesity to an asset based (salutatogenic*) approach to promoting healthy weight.


*Israeli-American sociologist Aaron Antonovsky coined the term "salutogenesis" to describe an approach which focuses on a positive view of wellbeing rather than a negative view of disease.

Supporting vulnerable communities in Australia and the UK: linking data through knowledge exchange

Posted by Theodora Machaira, PhD student at Teesside University

On the 8th of March we were pleased to welcome Jen Lorains, researcher from Australia, in Fuse. Jen was successful in winning a Winston Churchill fellowship and decided to visit Fuse as her main research interest is knowledge exchange and translational research.

As part of her visit, Jen delivered a Knowledge Exchange Seminar on ‘Early Childhood Data with Communities in Australia’. Her presentation focused on the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) which is a national census which measures physical health, social skills, communication and general knowledge, language skills and emotions of 5 years old children. The AECD data is publically available and although it is not primarily used for knowledge exchange, it certainly facilitates it by enabling key stakeholders in early years to work with the data in order to improve child development outcomes.

Theodora (left) with Jen Lorains

Jen’s presentation was interesting on a number of levels but from a PhD researcher’s point of view, two things were most striking. First of all, thinking about child development assessments in diverse populations, I felt that Australia and the UK are not as different as I thought. In Australia, diversity exists mainly between indigenous and non-indigenous populations. Indigenous Australians have their own language, rituals and beliefs, which in early years and education settings can be challenging to deal with. Although, diversity in the UK is different and not as clear cut with many different cultures calling the country their home, diversity is also an issue over here and is now perhaps more prominent than ever. With that in mind, I was wondering, how fair (or accurate for that matter), is it to collect data on child development from all 5 years old children in English? Isn’t it possible that an indigenous child has good communication skills but in a different language? Of course, this cannot necessarily be taken into consideration in a national census. But surely that begs the question, are we classing children as having delayed development when perhaps we shouldn’t?

The second thing that got my attention was the issues with knowledge exchange in Australia that Jen discussed. She talked about how different professionals use the data and how challenging it is to have everyone on board when trying to develop common approaches to help children in areas where vulnerable children are identified as different professionals identify different solutions for highlighted problems. As my PhD focuses on systems change and developing a common approach between early years’ professionals, I again, thought about the similarities between Australia and the UK. Perhaps foolishly (I am only a year into my PhD!) I thought that these issues are a UK phenomenon, however, I quickly realised during Jen’s presentation that they are not.

Intrigued by these observations, I started talking to Jen after the seminar (and because Jen had an hour and a half to kill before her train) we decided to go for a drink after her seminar. Although some people might disagree, I thought that the pub was a great setting for knowledge exchange! We discussed my and her thoughts having travelled to the UK, USA, Canada and Peru, and realised that using research data with different communities in these counties requires researchers to be skilled in knowledge exchange. This will enable researchers to include these communities in interpreting the data and developing useful interventions with these communities. This might sometimes feel like fighting a lost battle but is essential to support vulnerable children identified through collected census data.

Green and blue commuting

Guest post by Dave Berry, Lecturer in Pharmaceutics, Durham University

How do you get to work? Like most people, I personally use a car. Sometimes I run, more often than not though, I use a bike. However, I was asked to blog about the times I do none of these things and still get to work.

As I’ve said I regularly cycle to work, I do this for a number of reasons: 

1) I have a bike and walking past it in the morning makes me guilty
2) It saves money
3) I’m lucky enough to live within 6 miles of work
4) It’s good for the environment
5) It keeps me happier

On the way to work

The last point may not seem like a particularly pertinent one, but exercise has a significant benefit on my mood and leads to positive outcomes across the rest of my life. Without exercise everything has a tendency to get a bit black for me. This was made worse by a move of job two years ago to the North East where the darkness in winter becomes quite oppressive for the uninitiated. Despite the cold and dark I enjoy cycling in winter, coming home cold and wet to then become warm and dry, gives me a feeling of taking winter head on and most of the time it feels like I’m winning. I do however sometimes get bored. It’s still just cycling repeatedly down a road when it boils down to it.

I love being outside and our move to the North East, from the Peak District, makes getting to wide open spaces feel hard at times. I do happen to live near a river, with a lovely path down to it very close to my house. I’m also very lucky to work even nearer a river, specifically three metres from the same river, so one bored day I made the logic leap and decided it would be quite nice to try and canoe to work.

This would have been very simple if:

a. I owned a kayak/canoe
b. I had any real experience (since scouts) of paddling. 

By this time though I’d become excited, so these small obstacles seemed less relevant, especially since I’m a strong swimmer. I bought a kayak on Ebay, a paddle (having heard tales of problems without one) and a spray deck.

Nearly at work

I did a bit of homework before setting off on my maiden voyage, as I/my wife were unsure of many practical points. These included:

• What happened if I fell in? Emergency clothes stashed at work.
• How would I get the Kayak from home down to the river? Kayak trolleys can be bought (£25-80) for the 800m trundle. Got some strange looks from the neighbours though.
• How long will it take to get the six miles? I picked a day where I had no specific time to get to get to work and discovered I moved at about five and a half miles an hour (which is pretty average).
• What happened if I fell in, how clean is the Tees? Quite clean actually, there are salmon living in it.
• Showers? Gym at work (I’m lucky enough to work for a University)
• Where would I store my kayak? I’m lucky enough to work at a University with a boat house - otherwise it would have been funny looks with it locked in the bike shed.
• What are the rules for navigating a river? Very basics are drive on the right, if it’s bigger than you- get out of the way to the right of it.

One practicality that I hadn’t really considered was the need for a license to travel on the water. This can be purchased from the canals and rivers trust on an annual or day rate basis.

There was a little bit of a splash on the first attempt and the emergency clothing was called for, but it did get me the seclusion, exercise and general feeling of adventure I was looking for. So I’d recommend it.

I appreciate that I’m incredibly lucky to be able to do this and have a fairly unique set of circumstances, but in the UK we all live near a river and many of them are managed by the Canal and Rivers Trust, so there probably is a river or canal near you that could be used. Go on, make a splash.

A map of the canals and managed water ways can be found here: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/canals-and-rivers

Did you enjoy reading this post? If so, please vote for Fuse in the UK Blog Awards 2016 by clicking here

Translating local action to national policy

Guest post by Robin Ireland, Chief Executive, Health Equalities Group and Director, Food Active

North West England (NWE) has some of the worst health statistics in the country calling for transformative and challenging approaches by its local public health community. Merseyside-based social enterprise, the Health Equalities Group (HEG) including heart health charity Heart of Mersey has worked with and supported NWE’s Directors of Public Health since 2003.

Obesity and maintaining a healthy weight present huge problems both now and in the future. Balancing the need for a population-based prevention approach whilst government policy focuses on targeting individuals with expensive weight management programmes is particularly difficult. At the same time individual stigmatisation is both unhelpful and particularly damaging. Somehow we have to work towards changing cultures so that junk food is less easily available, that healthier food is the popular choice and walking and cycling are positively encouraged.

The NWE Directors of Public Health asked HEG to develop a collaborative approach to healthy weight in 2012 and the Food Active campaign was eventually launched in November 2013. It calls for policies to:

• Control the marketing of junk food to children and young people
• Place a duty on sugar sweetened beverages
• Enforce 20mph speed limits in urban areas (lower traffic speeds make cycling, walking and play safer)

In the same way Liverpool and the NWE played an important role in the development of smoke free policies, Food Active hopes to bring local pressure to bear on government in calling for a more upstream approach to addressing obesity.

We began by building the evidence base around attitudes towards sugary drinks and modeling the effects a tax on such drinks may have on consumption. This in turn can be compared with the prevalence and cost of type 2 diabetes, and bariatric surgery etc. As data show teenagers are the highest consumers of sugary and ‘energy’ drinks, we established a media-friendly campaign called ‘Give Up Loving Pop’ to raise the debate and heighten the pressure for action. In the same way that regional tobacco control organisations have worked closely with national charities such as Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Food Active has developed relationships with the Children’s Food Campaign and Action on Sugar.

In 2014, learning from ASH and the excellent work of local government on the Local Authority Declaration on Tobacco Control, Food Active started to develop a similar declaration on healthy weight. A regional meeting followed by workshops with three North West authorities showed that such a declaration could:

• Raise with elected representatives and the public that local authorities have a role to play in addressing obesity
• Help to show a wide range of policies (such as transport, planning and leisure) all have a part to play in promoting healthy weight

A Local Authority Declaration on Healthy Weight is more complex than its tobacco control equivalent and it is being developed in two parts; the first with some generic commitments (such as agreeing that obesity and overweight are a priority), the second more locally focused and aligning with local policies and priorities (for example Local Transport Plans).

As previously, the North West’s health needs will help to make the call for more concerted and resourced national action.

Robin will be speaking about the Food Active campaign tomorrow (9 September) at the CPPH Seminar - Sweetness, social norms and schools: factors influencing children and young people’s food and drink practices 

Robin Ireland

robin.ireland@hegroup.org.uk
@robinHEG

Did you enjoy reading this post? If so, please vote for Fuse in the UK Blog Awards 2016 by clicking here

Virtually on holiday

Posted by Emma Dorée, Communications Assistant, Fuse and Teesside University

The out-of-office replies are clogging the inbox and the rain is pouring… it must be that wonderful time of the year again – holiday time!

The blog has been working extremely hard this year, making sure that everyone is kept up to date with all the latest research activity taking place in and outside of Fuse. It has sat and listened to everyone
else’s holiday stories and seen everyone’s holiday snaps whilst beavering away, keeping all the virtual plates spinning.

But the time has now come for the Fuse blog to sit back and relax and enjoy a few weeks off.

After enjoying an active holiday in France last year, the blog has this year decided to go to Marbella to relax and be pampered so that it can get rid of all of its stresses. Following a strict plan of exercise and healthy food it will be showing off its beach bod while enjoying a month of sun (factor 30 at all times), sea and spas where its biggest decision will be deciding which of the cocktails (non- alcoholic of course) to try from the menu next. Plans such as jet skiing and testing out the Marbella nightlife (dancing is physical activity after all) are all on the agenda but of course we’re sure it will make time for a little culture and sightseeing too.

Hopefully it won’t get frustrated by the high fat and high sugar treats on offer at the airport or in the supermarkets and start posting pictures, but you never know!

So see you in September everyone! Happy holidays!

52 weeks in public health research – the (very) rough guide

Guest post by Avril Rhodes

Remember the natty idea to take photographs representing a year of working in public health research? Well, how about a quick analysis of what we saw, snapped and submitted? Here are the exciting and indeed revealing results.

After looking at 198, or was it 200, images a portrait of researchers concerns emerges – not exactly Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, so much as the Rhodes' hierarchy of academic obsessions.

Bottom or is it top of the pile comes food. It’s official – no less than 42 pictures, close up and distance shots, ranging from individual snacks, drinks and meals to full size conference spreads and displays. I felt slightly queasy after looking at them all. Feed those academics!

The next most important thing is to feed the mind. Any passing course, lecture, symposium and the like weighing in with 20 pictures. But there’s lots more that get close to the mind-feeding category although making more cameo-esque appearances, such as degree ceremonies, IT, stands and posters, books, theses, work in progress and journal covers. Publication definitely counts. Completing work even more.

The office – no not the TV series, comes next, with 16 images, inflated perhaps with opportunities created by moving office and the delights of standing desks and desks tied to exercise apparatus. I would not have dreamed that taking a picture of the immediate work environment was so important. 

Travel ranks highly but possible to count in different ways. Railway stations are significant at 11 pictures, especially Newcastle Central – of world significance as stations go, but that’s just me. Car travel featured just slightly with a nod to cycling. Active travel (good and bad) is clearly a source both of delight, when stairs get favoured, and frustration, when lifts are promoted. Exercise equipment got a decent look in too. 

Signs and marketing really played on the collective academic mind. Labelling, the impact of shop placements and advertising, spelling mistakes, unintended humour, public health messaging, came in with around 12 images. Some of this felt a bit judgemental, when it came to cheap unhealthy food signs. Not too many wider determinants of health, it has to be said.

 

Field work related images scored a fairly respectable 9.

 

Culture kept creeping in. Museum visits, architecture, music, sculpture were all there. Nature played a relatively small part, but researchers did appreciate the cute, the beautiful, office plants and the changing seasons.

 

Then a whole rag bag of one-offs. Some were clearly novelty items or personal reminiscences, and some seemed like stream of consciousness, or pet concerns.

Curiously, the academic world was quite short of pictures of people, except in crowd shots doing serious lecture type stuff. It looked a camera shy world. So what do we have? A hard working, semi-office bound, nomadic community that likes writing, learning, unable to switch off form public health even when undertaking a leisure activity or just walking around the town, that enjoys high art and longs to sniff a flower. Is this what we are? The camera apparently doesn’t lie.

Whipping town planners into shape

Guest post by Michael Chang, Town & Country Planning Association

Obesity is climbing up the national and local government agenda, and following two previous seminal publications – the Foresight Report on reducing obesity in 2007 and the Marmot Review of health inequalities in 2010 – one of the many spotlights has now firmly fixed on town planners and the planning system.

So all eyes will be on town planners at the Fuse event – More than enough on our plates: tackling the takeaway food diet at source – on Thursday (30 April).

This blog will attempt to shed some light on what planning can, must, should and could do. Coming from a non-academic background and admittedly a town planner, I take a pragmatic but liberal view of the planning system. This is not surprising as I work for a charitable organisation which essentially championed good planning for healthy outcomes for people in the Victorian times through the building of two garden cities in Letchworth and Welwyn.

Planning is a legal mechanism tasked with a land use function and exists to ensure the sustainable use of a scarce resource that is the land and the natural environment. What we do is grounded in what planning law, dating back to the 1990s, allows us to do and what national policy in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published in 2012 requires us to do. Why do I emphasise these dates? Simple. Laws change and policies evolve. Of all the planning laws and policies we have had, there has never been an explicit reference or requirement to consider access to fresh healthy food. That is, until 2014 with the online Planning Practice Guidance which the government hailed as a triumph in condensing thousands of guidance into an accessible and evolving online guidance, and which supports the NPPF. In addition to having a section on health and wellbeing, it states:

The range of issues that could be considered through the plan-making and decision-making processes, in respect of health and healthcare infrastructure, include how: opportunities for healthy lifestyles have been considered (e.g. planning for an environment that …promotes access to healthier food).

Healthier food is of course not defined but at least planners are now strongly encouraged to consider food in planning.

Laws and policy frameworks haven’t stopped some enlightened local planning authorities in doing what they think is right for their local areas to use current planning powers to improve access to healthy food or rather, to restrict the proliferation of unhealthy land uses. We know there are dozens of councils now pursuing planning policies to prevent burgeoning shops serving unhealthy foods, albeit meeting increasing resistance from the food industry and also from within different sections of the planning profession. Actions in planning also take time: five years between the publication of Foresight (2007) to the first Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) on takeaways in 2009 and the Greater London Authority’s takeaways toolkit in 2012. Also there are more than 350 local planning authorities across England, so we still have a long way to go.

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) published the Planning Healthy Weight Environments resource in 2014 which highlighted the following considerations regarding food in planning:

• Development avoids overconcentration of hot-food takeaways (A5 class use for the sale of hot food for consumption off the premises) in existing town centres or high streets, and restricts their proximity to schools or other facilities for children and young people and families.
• Shops/markets that sell a diverse offer of food choices are easy to get to by walking, cycling or public transport.
• Leisure centres, workplaces, schools and hospitals with catering facilities have a healthier food offer for staff, students, and/or customers.
• Opportunities for supporting innovative approaches to healthy eating through temporary changes of use have been explored.
• Development maintains or enhances existing opportunities for food-growing, and prevents the loss of food-growing spaces.
• Opportunities are provided for households to own or have access to space to grow food – for example roof or communal gardens, or allotments.

So the key message of this blog is: there is actually no legal, or professional, basis that stops town planners from taking appropriate policy actions to promote healthier communities through the provision and access to fresh healthy food. Much of what is needed is a cultural change within the profession, more active support of colleagues in public health in the planning process, continuing advocacy by national organisations, and last but not least (especially where Fuse is concerned), translating valuable evidence from academia to a format planners can use.

52 weeks in public health research, part 47

Posted by Bronia Arnott, Dominika Kwasnicka, and Lynne Forrest

From Bronia Arnott: The only way (is Essex)? Recently I was in Essex and the queue of traffic with all of the “slow” warnings on the road resonated with me as I had just had a systematic review of interventions to reduce car use and increase more active and sustainable modes of travel accepted for publication.

From Dominika Kwasnicka: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) strongly recommends that adults engage in any suitable form of physical activity. So you just need to pick and choose the one that’s best for you. Here is an adult version of a bouncy castle at a great event co-organised by one of Fuse's practice and policy partners Scott Lloyd. It’s always good to try new things. And if a bouncy castle isn’t your thing, how about some ice skating this winter?

From Lynne Forrest: A number of Fuse representatives, including myself, Shelina Visram and David Hunter, were among the 1500 delegates who attended the European Public Health (EUPHA) conference on Health Inequalities in Glasgow. This is my poster on a systematic review and meta-analysis that found no evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in stage at diagnosis for lung cancer.

From Bronia Arnott: An early morning trip to Newcastle Central Station which has recently been refurbished and is now looking much better. They even have some bike racks in decent places rather than stuck out of the way at the wrong end of the station. Coincidently, I was off to talk to people about active travel!


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A reminder from the Fuse blog group:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in most of our lives, we foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on our own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and we’ll post them as soon as we can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Email your posts to m.welford@tees.ac.uk or contact any member of the Fuse blog group.

52 weeks in public health research, part 44

A day in the working life of Amelia Lake

Today has been about cars and traffic. Moving from one bit of the North East to another - all in the name of Fuse! Truly wish I'd been on a train - then I'd get work done...

Refuelled at Durham University and time to head to the Wolfson Research Institute for meetings with the rather fabulous Fuse energy drink team...

It's meeting 3 in a three location day hampered by horrendous traffic. I'm feeling weary but I'm energised talking about our Fuse energy drink research...

Big word of the week - courtesy of my colleague Stephen Crossley (@akindoftrouble).

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A reminder from the Fuse blog group:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in most of our lives, we foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on our own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and we’ll post them as soon as we can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Email your posts to m.welford@tees.ac.uk or contact any member of the Fuse blog group.

52 weeks of public health research, part 9

Posted by Bronia Arnott, Amelia Lake and Jean Adams

From Amelia Lake: years of hard work condensed into a succinct & excellent presentation. Ashley Adamson introduces Rachel Tyrrell's PhD presentation just before her viva. As one of her supervisors I'm still excited by the research Rachel conducted!

From Jean Adams: a welcome splash of colour on our desk/kitchen table at home reminding us that winter never lasts forever, and that mental well-being is as important as physical health.

From Bronia Arnott: at the train station again on the way to another meeting. Only to Durham for an askfuse meeting this time.

From Bronia Arnott: this is what my commute to work looks like - why not share a picture of yours?

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.