CITY KNOW-HOW
Worrying trends in terms of human health and planetary health are receiving increasing global concern. City leadership, planning and development all place the constraints on urban behaviours and lifestyles, usually accelerating the problems. It is imperative that human health and environmental impacts become core foci in urban policies around the world. Changing our trajectory will require concerted action. Cities & Health aims to be part of that change; it is dedicated to supporting the flow of knowledge, in all directions, to help make this happen. We support better communication between researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, communities, and decision-makers in cities. This is the primary purpose of this City Know-how section of the journal. ‘Research for city practice’ disseminates lessons research, allowing researchers to explain new knowledge and key messages arising from their studies for city leaders, communities, and the professions involved in city policy and practice. ‘City shorts’ provide glimpses of what is being attempted or achieved ‘on the ground’ and ’case studies’ are where you will find evaluations of interventions. Lastly, ‘Commentary and debate’ extends the conversations we are having to develop and mobilise important and innovative thinking. We invite you to join these conversations. In order to strengthen communities of interest, we would like to include many and varied voices, including those from practitioners, politicians and policy-makers and researchers who are supporting health and health equity in everyday urban lives. Whether you are a just starting out on your journey, or an old hand, we would love to hear from you!
Marcus Grant
Editor-in-Chief, Cities & Health
Lindsay McCunn
Commissioning Editor, Cities & Health
We start Cities & Health volume four with an issue that contains a rich selection of research and commentary that will be of interest to those pursuing the path of making urban environments healthier for people, and for the planet. This issue of the journal provides access to a diverse and informative blend of research findings for urbanists of all kinds, as well as policy-makers – and, perhaps, funders who are involved in the shaping places, that, in turn, shape people’s lives.
In the issue, we offer a series a shorter articles focused on practical commentary, followed by seven empirical research papers. Each research paper has its own ’research for city practice’ briefing in this City Know-how section. Many built environment professionals and urban policymakers will find these digests useful because they cover a range of issues, including urban density and active travel, climate change adaptation and health, and supporting the health of people with complex needs through housing residential services. With demographic change persisting as an ongoing health concern in many countries, three papers cover various aspects of health in an ageing population.
Striking a cogent balance between urban density, active travel, and health is always prudent. At an international level, no golden solution exists as the nuance of location kicks in with all its variability of geography, zoning (or its absence), movement network patterns, and layout. To expand our understanding, Ahmad and team present a comparison of the health and environmental impacts of increasing urban density against the increasing propensity to walk and cycle in Nashville, Texas in the US. The next paper is also from the US, where Holmes and Eisenman explore how we protect public health while navigating some of the barriers to climate change adaptation. They draw lessons from incremental advancements in public health through examples of adaptation to climate change in Florida.
Professionals from the housing and health sectors often seek to work more closely with each other. In Yorkshire, UK, a pilot project has been established to put forward a new model of supported housing-based care as part of an approach to improve the health and wellbeing of people with complex needs. Warwick-Booth’s team adeptly evaluated this pilot and were able to assess the level of annual savings in care costs. The intervention is based on an appraisal of client needs using five ‘upstream’ determinants of health: economic well-being, home and housing, self maintenance of health and well-being, life skills, and social isolation.
Intuitively, we know that the ways in which humans psychologically experience the urban environment is key to understanding adverse stress reactions. Our psychosocial responses to city settings also help to determine our perceptions of comfort and restoration. With the current media focus on mental health in many countries, the question arises: how well do policy-makers and designers understand the built environments of the public realm, and its impact on our brains and mental life? This question has led to the developing field of in situ research. If you are as intrigued by this methodology as we are, you will want to read the results from Neale and his team on the impact of walking in different urban environments on brain activity in older people. In a contrasting paper, Gardener and Lemes de Oliveira delve into the subjective experience of older people, starting with the proposition that negative perceptions of urban outdoor environments (e.g., lack of safety, social incivility, and scant infrastructure for active transportation) are associated with reduced activity and poor health and well-being for the elderly. The authors explore such perceptions in their study titled ‘Urban environment cues for health and well-being in the elderly’. Of interest too will be Kloseck et al.’s paper examining what they call the ‘lived experiences of the oldest-old’, from the angle of community support and health services within the WHO age-friendly city framework. Continuing with the theme of ageing, we are proud to publish our second visual essay in this issue, titled ‘Older people’s emotional connections with their physical urban environment’ by Mysyuk and Huisman.
Readers will also find a number of shorter articles in this issue. Coburn’s team present a case study, an in-depth look at the transformation of Medellin, Colombia, into a ‘City for Life’. Medellin has been a focus for many in terms of its citywide policies that have aimed to support population health, inclusion and reduce inequities. This case study, in particular, provides valuable insights for international healthy city programmes.
Three comment pieces have also been published in this issue. Amri highlights the changing global urban landscape, noting that the world is mostly urban and that the global south now houses most of the world’s urban population. She points to the need for global actors to strategically reconsider their role in working with cities, to tackle new issues that come with this global change, and the inevitable challenges posed by cities in a world that is rapidly urbanising. Palti poses the provocative question about whether mass transit is a ‘poisoned chalice’, discussing how transit systems may actually be damaging to social wellbeing. The final comment piece is by Anguelovski and an extensive team. Their paper is called ‘Gentrification and health in two global cities: A call to identify the full scope of impacts for long-term residents’. In it, they discuss how the impacts of gentrification on the everyday lives and well-being of socially vulnerable residents have often occupied political agendas. Despite such attention, they point out that research on how gentrification affects a multiplicity of health outcomes has remained scarce. Using qualitative data collected in Boston and Barcelona, they identify how the health and well-being of long-term residents may be affected by gentrification and call for new multi-methods research.
We end this issue with two reviews. Cooper reviews the Healthy City Design congress held in London, 14–15 October 2019, with the intriguing title ‘Dystopia, utopia – or somewhere in between?’ We also carry a review by McCunn of the recently published book ‘Urban Mental Health’, edited by Bhugra, Ventriglio, Castaldelli-Maia and McCay. The book is a tour-de-force with a collection of 24 chapters written by 40 researcher-practitioners from around the world. Undoubtedly, it makes for recommended reading for those trying to gain better insight into the psychology of urban living.
Comparison of environmental and health benefits of density-induced active transport versus increasing likelihood to walk and cycle a given trip
The problem: The transportation sector accounts for approximately 23% of total energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions worldwide and 33% in the USA. At the same time, low levels of physical activity contribute to the burden from non-communicable diseases.
What we did: We estimated reduction in CO2 emissions and health co-benefits in greater Nashville for two scenarios:
a) if people in Nashville were as likely to walk and cycle a trip of a given distance as are people in England, and
b) if there was a more compact urban form reducing travel distances and indirectly increasing walking and cycling trips
Both of these measured benefits would be helpful in forming sustainable urban societies.
What our study adds: Our scenario is based on the estimates of health and environmental benefits at disaggregated data using a much larger individual-level dataset than is available for most city regions. This provides more realistic results than the models based on linear and population-level data. This propensity approach takes the real behaviour of a population in another highly motorised society. Similarly, we have modelled trip distance and modal choice of a compact urban form scenario against Nashville’s existing density.
Implications for city policy and practice: Our scenarios, as policy goals, should help in city-to-city policy learning. Policy changes to increase propensity to walk and cycle could occur more rapidly than substantially increasing density. From a population health perspective, our findings should be encouraging in that important gains could be realised from increasing active travel even in a sprawling city.
Full research article: A comparison of the health and environmental impacts of increasing urban density against increasing propensity to walk and cycle in Nashville, USA
Authors: Sohail Ahmad (@sohailplanner), Anna Goodman, Felix Creutzig (@efesce), James Woodcock, Marko Tainio (@MarkoTainio)
City Know-how editor: Marcus Grant
Public health sector adaptation to climate change in Florida
The problem: Public health departments face a range of challenges to effectively adapt to climate change, including contentious politics. The state of Florida is one of the most vulnerable states to climate change but climate change can be a controversial issue.
What we did and why: We wanted to understand the ways in which public health departments in Florida are working to protect vulnerable populations from the effects of climate change. We reviewed reporting documents from the Florida Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (FLBRACE) program and interviewed former program administrators and project managers. We examined the activities public health departments are undertaking to address climate change, the challenges they faced and how they overcame these obstacles.
What our study adds: This study adds to the growing literature on the role of public health practitioners in climate adaptation planning. It provides local perspectives from a state which is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but where they face political and institutional constraints. It identifies ways to strategically implement climate adaptation projects while also attending to realities of climate change politics.
Implications for city policy and practice: This study provides insight into the challenges faced by local health officials to effectively navigate constraints to develop and implement climate adaptation policies and programs. It highlights the need for cities and states to seek and support capacity building initiatives which can assist practitioners' design programs which protect public health in innovative ways.
Resources and further information:
Florida Building Resilience Against Climate Effects Website Facebook.
Full research article: Incremental advancements in public health adaptation to climate change in Florida
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Climate Change and Health Programme.
Authors: Tisha Holmes (@tishjosepholmes) and David Eisenman
City Know-how editor: Marcus Grant
Housing support to improve health and reduce service costs
The problem: Housing and health are linked but the evidence about this is complicated. Professionals from both housing and health could do more in working together as a way to improve health, by providing housing-related support in urban areas. Currently, there is a lack of research about how this might work.
What we did: We evaluated a partnership between housing and public health, in which a pilot new model of care was created. Using mixed methods of data collection, we looked at whether a new model of care led to improvements in the lives of clients from their point of view, gathered the views of stakeholders involved in the project and examined the economic case for this intervention.Footnote
What our study adds: This study adds evidence about a new model of care/intervention delivered through a housing and health partnership. It improved the health and wellbeing of people by giving them individualised support. Those using the service reported positive views of their experiences, perceptions of better health as well as increased independence and less social isolation. The intervention was associated with reduced use of community health-care services; saving £20,818 over the period of the pilot project (one year).
Implications for city policy and practice: This intervention cost little to implement whilst offering a service with the client at the centre. As such, this would allow health and housing partnerships to enhance service user experiences whilst reducing health-care costs. Housing providers working with health colleagues can not only improve the health of those with long-term conditions but also reduce local health-care usage costs through the provision of care closer to home and a holistic service offer.
Links to other resources and support:
Centre for Health Promotion Research https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/school-of-health-and-community-studies/research/health-promotion/
Full research article: Personalised housing support to improve health and wellbeing: findings from a local pilot programme in Yorkshire, England
Blog: Health promotion through housing support: A success story available at https://chprblog.com/2017/07/04/health-promotion-through-housing-support-a-success-story/
Authors: Louise Warwick-Booth, Susan Coan and Anne-Marie Bagnall
City Know-how editor: Marcus Grant
The impact of walking in different urban environments on brain activity in older people
The problem: Given the global increases in both urbanisation and ageing populations, it is important to understand the impact that urban spaces (busy, quiet and green spaces in particular) have on older adults if they are to maintain healthy, active lifestyles.
What we did: We used mobile neuroimaging to record neural responses in older adults walking in different urban environments. Participants walked on predefined distinctly different routes. This allowed us to explore the effects of being fully immersed in an environment, and we examined neural change related to attention and relaxation. We found changes in beta activity, associated with increases in attention, in busy urban environments when compared with urban green space.Footnote
What our study adds: This study looks at brain activity associated with walking in urban environments in older people. It builds on the increasing body of research seeking to understand how the environment affects neural responses in the brain, and associated health and wellbeing outcomes; for the first time with people aged 65+ in ‘real world’ settings. We have identified neural signatures associated with experience of different kinds of urban spaces in older people.
Implications for city policy and practice: The findings and methodology will be useful for planners and designers of public spaces and residential environments, as well as for policy-makers and health practitioners, in helping understand beneficial or detrimental effects of urban places on an ageing population.
Research article: The impact of walking in different urban environments impacts the brain activity of older adults
Links to other resources and support: Information on this research project as well as others across a larger project: Mobility, Mood and Place. A lifelong health and wellbeing research project.
Authors: Chris Neale, Peter Aspinall, Jenny Roe (@jennyroe), Sara Tilley (@saraatilley), Panagiotis Mavros (@mavrosp), Steve Cinderby (@s_cinderby_SEI), Richard Coyne (@ecran99), Neil Thin (@neilthin), Catharine Ward Thompson
City Know-how editor: Marcus Grant
How does the city outdoor environment impact on the health and well-being of the elderly?
The problem: Health and place are related. We also know that a balanced diet, active healthy lifestyles, fresh air, and exposure to green/blue environments do us the world of good. Yet an ongoing disparity in health and longevity between neighbourhoods within cities remains. The global ageing population is expanding, with 25% estimated to be over 65 years of age in 2050. As a society, we must identify factors that support health and well-being for this age group.
What we did: We reviewed a mass of original research from 2010 and 2017 in depth to establish what elderly people think about how their neighbourhood environment affects their health.Footnote
What our study adds: Our review adds a robust evidence base, providing urban environment health and well-being cues for architects, planners and public health providers to consider.
Perceived environmental characteristics that facilitate or serve as barriers to the health and well-being of the elderly living in an urban environment need to be taken seriously.
Associated perceptions show that both physical features and non-physical domains are inextricably intertwined and appear to influence each other symbiotically.
Implications for city policy and practice: Establishing what the elderly think about their outdoor urban environment regarding its impact on their health has far-reaching implications for age-friendly new build community design and regeneration projects. When environment shortfalls are addressed in the short-term, mobility of the elderly and health and well-being may be improved and drain on health services reduced. City policy and public health stakeholders are urged to collaborate closely with elderly communities to consider equity, accessibility and inclusivity.
Full research article: Urban environment cues for health and well-being in the elderly
Links to other resources and support:
Institute of Health Equity, Planning for the future Healthy Streets at TfL, Place Alliance.
Authors: Maria Anna Gardener (@MariannaGarden1) and Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira (@lemes_f)
City Know-how editor: Marcus Grant
The experience of living in an age-friendly community
The problem: As long as seniors are managing well they are invisible to the health system. Health and related support systems only respond when a crisis occurs; a reactive rather than a preventive approach. Our study emphasises the need to include property owners, urban planners and residents as part of a collaborative team with the health system to identify individuals at risk at an early stage.
What we did: We explored the experiences of ten community-dwelling individuals 80 years of age and older who appear to be at risk. They live independently in the community but require support, particularly social support. We profile healthier older-old who, by personally finding and accessing resources including helping each other, can successfully age in place. These individuals have very little contact with the formal health system. Our study examined environmental factors that may hasten or delay loss of independence.
What our study adds: Although communities may initially be designated age-friendly; environments can change. This may render the environment less age-friendly than previously. Our study found that the local environment might change in response to economic factors in ways that compromise its age-friendly nature. A more integrated approach, linking property owners, urban planners and local businesses with the health system, to both design and maintain built environments, is required to promote optimal independent living for individuals in advanced age.
Implications for city policy and practice: Older adults are not a homogeneous group. Urban designers, service planners, developers and businesses play a pivotal role in creating and maintaining communities that provide a safety net to prevent crises and enable sustained independent living into advanced ages. Community design that recognises and integrates structures to support the needs of the oldest-old may provide a protective buffer to enable these individuals to remain in their homes longer.
Full research article: Use of community support and health services in an age-friendly city: the lived experiences of the oldest-old
Links to other resources and support: The Sam Katz Community Health and Aging Research Unit.
Authors: Flora M. Vieira Zamora (@fvieiraz), Marita Kloseck, Deborah A. Fitzsimmons, Aleksandra Zecevic and Patrick Fleming
City Know-how editor: Marcus Grant
Research for City Practice Notes on Contributors
Dr Sohail Ahmad is a Research Fellow in GCRF Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC). Ahmad investigates low-carbon urban development options and socio-spatial exclusion issues in built environments and housing in south Asian cities. These empirical studies have extensively employed (spatial) econometrics analyses using Stata and R on large datasets. Prior to joining SHLC, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Berlin with joint affiliation to the Technische Universität Berlin.
Peter Aspinall is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Studies at Heriot-Watt University and an Honorary Fellow in the School of Clinical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. His main research interests are in visual function and quality of life; environmental psychology and inclusive design, with a particular emphasis on quantitative methods. He has worked with Professor Catharine Ward Thompson on a number of projects focused on older people’s perceptions and experience of the outdoor environment.
Anne-Marie Bagnall is an experienced systematic reviewer and researcher. She uses innovative methods of evidence synthesis to determine what works to improve people’s health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. She is an Associate Lecturer for the UK Cochrane Centre Learn and Teach Faculty, and a member of the What Works for Wellbeing Centre’s National Methods Advisory Group. Anne-Marie’s research focuses on evaluations and evidence syntheses of interventions that may reduce health inequalities. For example, a NIHR-funded systematic review of peer interventions in prison settings and a systematic scoping review and case studies to inform the NICE Community Engagement guidance update.
Steve Cinderby is a Senior Researcher at the SEI centre in the University of York specialising in community resilience, wellbeing and participatory research methods. He has specialised in the development of communication approaches for improved environmental decision-making outcomes. These have been aimed at increasing knowledge sharing, improving the capacity for pro-environmental behavioural change, and boosting local community resilience and wellbeing.
Susan Coan works on a wide variety of health-related research projects and has a great deal of experience working with vulnerable groups of people, for example, people with mental health problems, adults with learning disabilities, young children and older adults in general. Susan is also part of the CommUNIty team, supporting the development of sustainable community partnerships between third sector organisations and Leeds Beckett University, promoting improvements to community health and wellbeing. It works by promoting knowledge exchange between communities, community organisations and academics, fostering collaborative research and enterprise and opening up opportunities for participation in higher education.
Richard Coyne researches and teaches on the cultural, social and spatial implications of computers and pervasive digital technologies. He has published eleven books with Pitman, Addison-Wesley, Routledge, Bloomsbury and MIT Press on digital technologies. He recently published Network Nature: The place of Nature in the Digital Age (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), and a book on the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce: Peirce for Architects (Routledge, 2019).
Professor Felix Creutzig is head of the Land Use, Infrastructures and Transport working group and Chair of Sustainability Economics at Technische Universität Berlin. He was lead author of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report and lead analyst of the Global Energy Assessment. His research focuses on (a) conceptualising, quantifying and assessing mitigation potential for GHG emissions in cities world-wide, (b) building models of sustainable urban form and transport, (c) land rents as a complement for financing sustainable infrastructures, (d) analysing the role of capital stocks and infrastructures for climate change mitigation, and (e) land use-mediated uncertainty in integrated assessments.
Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira is a Reader in Urbanism and Architecture at the University of Portsmouth, with a PhD in History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism awarded by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona. In addition to over 10 years’ experience teaching in higher education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, the author’s research expertise is in planning models aimed at balancing urbanisation with nature, particularly related to the green wedge idea, green and blue infrastructure, sustainable and resilient planning models and planning history and theory. The author is the author of Green Wedge Urbanism: History, Theory and Contemporary Practice (Bloomsbury, 2017).
David Eisenman, MD, MSHS, is a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles and has a joint appointment at the University of California Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health, where he directs the Center for Public Health and Disasters.
Deborah A. Fitzsimmons is Professor of Healthcare Innovation and Technology in the School of Nursing and Allied Health at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. Her research focuses on innovative care delivery models, with a particular focus on how information and communication technology can leverage specialist resources and facilitate expanded care capacity and timely care delivery.
Patrick Fleming, MSW, RSW, has been practising social work for 37 years, 3 years in child welfare and 34 years in geriatric mental health. He has been a strong advocate for older adults, a champion concerning elder abuse in the community and a major support for London becoming an Age-Friendly designated city by the World Health Organization. Patrick currently chairs the local Elder Abuse London Middlesex Network and the Social Support and Health Services Working Group with the Age-Friendly London Network.
Maria Anna Gardener as a mature student the author was awarded a BSc (Hons) Physiology in 2012, followed by a MA Research Science in February 2016 for empirical feasibility research on respiratory muscle training for snoring. More than 20 years’ work experience and expertise gained prior to entering tertiary education includes both clinical and complementary approaches to healthcare in a wide range of profit and non-profit applications. In 2016 the author was awarded a PhD scholarship from the University of Portsmouth to examine the nexus between the urban environment and health and well-being. The author is at present in year 3, writing up her PhD.
Dr Anna Goodman works in transport and health topics, with a particular focus on sustainable travel. She is particularly interested in how secondary analysis of routine datasets can be used to evaluate existing interventions and model the impacts of potential interventions. Anna is based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Tisha Holmes, MPA, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University. Her research seeks to reduce risk and build socio-ecological resilience to environmental hazards and promote grassroots level capacities through community outreach and participatory engagement.
Chris Neale is a researcher at the University of Virginia interested in understanding how urban and rural environments can impact health and wellbeing in a range of participants, but with particular interest in older adults. His background is in cognitive neuroscience, and he continues to use various neuroimaging methods to assess brain activity in research populations.
Panagiotis Mavros is a researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) of the Singapore-ETH Centre, where he is the Project Coordinator of the project Cognition, Perception and Behaviour in Urban Environments. His research is focused in on wayfinding behaviours in complex multilevel environments, using psychophysiological methods to study the experience of urban space, and the translation of spatial cognition research into design and policy.
Marita Kloseck is Director of the Sam Katz Community Health and Aging Research Unit, a Scientist with the Lawson Health Research Institute and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Kloseck has 38 years of clinical, research and community development experience. She is known for her novel work engaging communities, consumers and frail older individuals as active research partners to improve health, chronic disease outcomes and independent living in communities of seniors.
Jenny Roe is an environmental psychologist who explores how our interactions with the world shape our health, wellbeing and behaviours. She specialises in understanding how access to restorative environments in our cities create and sustain our health and wellbeing. Her research aims to advance social justice by tackling health and environmental inequities relating to the built environment. She directs the Center for Design and Health at the University of Virginia.
Dr Marko Tainio studies transport, environment and health. He is using modelling methods, especially Health Impact Assessment, to estimate environment and health effects of urban transport policies. Marko has recently joined in the Sustainable Urban Programme in Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Finland, as Principal Researcher.
Neil Thin specialises in appreciative social planning, i.e. engaging multidisciplinary happiness and wellbeing scholarship in public policy and practice. He also has over 20 years of practical and policy experience working towards the reduction of poverty and promotion of justice and wellbeing in poorer countries, working at all levels from grassroots to governmental and international official agencies. He has frequently served as a social development adviser and trainer for international development agencies such as the UK Department for International Development, UN Agencies, the World Bank, and international NGOs.
Sara Tilley is a transport geographer, interested in exploring the links between mobility in the urban environment and health and wellbeing, especially in younger and older age. She is now Study Manager and Research Fellow on OPENspace’s NIHR-funded research into the effectiveness of the Forestry Commission Scotland woodland improvement programme, Woods In and Around Towns (WIAT).
Flora M. Vieira Zamora was a Master of Science graduate student in the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Graduate Program in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario. Her program of research focused on enhancing health and community services for older individuals living in the community. She is currently completing her PhD at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
Catharine Ward Thompson is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), and Director of the OPENspace research centre. Her research focuses on inclusive access to outdoor environments, environment–behaviour interactions, landscape design for older people, children and teenagers, and salutogenic environments. Catharine also has expertise in the history and theory of urban park design and conservation, the history of landscape design, and landscape aesthetics and perception.
Louise Warwick-Booth has a background in sociology and specific interests in health and social policy. Louise has conducted research with vulnerable women, drawing upon feminist participatory approaches to data collection. Her evaluation research is used in practice to further develop interventions, and to capture the voice of service users. Louise has published several text-books such as Social Inequality, 2nd Edition (2019), Global Health Studies: A Social Determinants Perspective (2018) and Contemporary Health Studies: An Introduction (2012 with colleagues). Louise is also the author of numerous journal articles.
Dr James Woodcock is a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant holder. He leads a programme of work on transport and health modelling at the University of Cambridge, and has published extensively in both leading health and transport journals. Key achievements include the ITHIM suite of tools, the Propensity to Cycle Tool, and WHO HEAT tool.
Aleksandra Zecevic is Associate Professor in the School of Health Studies in the Faculty of Health Sciences and an Associate Scientist with the Lawson Health Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario. Her program of research focuses on a systems approach to falls and injury prevention in the elderly, safety culture in healthcare, biomechanics (gait, balance, mobility) and age friendly-cities.
Notes
Photo: Upper Butts one of the case studies. This provides accommodation to 40 one-bedroom flats with a resident Scheme Manager working Monday to Friday from 8.00 am until 2.45 pm. Upper Butts is within walking distance to the nearest town centre amenities.
Photo: A participant wearing a mobile neural imaging headset in The Meadows, Edinburgh. Credit: Richard Coyne.
Photo: St George’s Church in Portsea, Portsmouth.