More active lifestyles and healthier diets reduce the risk of multiple chronic diseases. However, the environments we have created to live in — our cities, food and transport systems and workplaces, for example — are not always conducive to healthier lifestyles. It is possible to change people’s economic, physical and social conditions in order to support healthier behaviours, but we need more scientific evidence on how best to do this to guide public health action.
This PhD proposal will investigate how changes in fiscal, physical or social environments can improve diet and increase physical activity. The research will examine the effectiveness and equity of environmental and policy interventions that modify the contexts shaping dietary and physical-activity behaviours, with particular interest in understanding whether their effects differ across socioeconomic and demographic groups. The proposed research will combine epidemiological and causal inference methods with routinely collected, longitudinal data to evaluate both the effects of such interventions and the mechanisms through which they influence behaviour. This aligns closely with the focus on evaluating real-world interventions and generating evidence to inform population health policy, while addressing an important public health question: how can place-based interventions targeting diet and physical activity achieve meaningful improvements in health without widening existing inequalities?
Potential Supervisors: