Annual Report 2001
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25629_Cvr 9/8/02 9:31 AM Page 1 2001Annual Report - 2001 Annual Report - 20012001 University of Glasgow • 4 Lilybank Gardens • Glasgow G12 8RZ T: +44 (0) 141 357 3949 • F: +44 (0) 141 337 2389 • W: www.msoc-mrc.gla.ac.uk July 2002 25629_Txt 9/8/02 9:20 AM Page 1 The MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit The Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU) is jointly funded by the UK Medical Research Council, and the Chief Scientist Office at the Department of Health at the Scottish Executive. The Unit's aim is to: Promote human health by the study of social and environmental influences on health. Specific objectives include: • Studying how people's social positions, and their social and physical environments, influence their physical and mental health and capacity to lead healthy lives; • Designing and evaluating interventions aiming to improve public health and reduce social inequalities in health, and; • Influencing policy and practice by communicating the results and implications of research. During 2001 we continued to work towards all three objectives, in particular by expanding our portfolio of evaluation research, engaging directly with policy makers, and grappling with issues around 'what counts as evidence' in public health policy making. We have aimed to contribute especially to the evidence base of Scottish policy-making, and to maintain our wider UK links while developing and sustaining international collaborations. We were pleased to welcome as visiting workers Mehrangiz Ebrahimi-Mameghani from Iran, Kristina Manderbacka and Ilmo Keskimäki from Finland, Matthew Shaw from MRC Gambia, and Deborah Osbourne from Australia, as well as Joy Adamson from the MRC HSRC and Ian Deary from the University of Edinburgh. In this report we describe recent work and list publications and presentations in 2001 and early 2002. Our web site (www.msoc-mrc.gla.ac.uk) contains copies of this and previous annual reports, and other information about SPHSU, including full reports of projects and feedback leaflets we send to study participants. Any inquiries about our research or other activities should be directed to the named researcher(s) or to our librarian, Mary Robins. Sally Macintyre OBE PhD FRSE FMedSci 25629_Txt 9/8/02 9:20 AM Page 2 Staff List 3 The West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study: Health in the Community 4 Social and Spatial Patterning of Health 6 Gender and Health 11 Sexual and Reproductive Health 16 Measuring Health, Variations in Health and the Determinants of Health in Scotland 22 Evaluating the Health Effects of Social Interventions 26 Ethnicity, Religion & Health 31 Young People’s Health & Health Behaviour 36 Other Research 44 Other Unit News 46 Professional Activities by Unit Members, 2001-2002 47 Publications and Presentations, 2001-2002 48 25629_Txt 9/8/02 9:20 AM Page 3 4 The MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit Staff, Students and Co-workers, 2001 to mid-2002 DIRECTOR: ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS: Sally Macintyre OBE PhD FRSE FMedSci Graham Hart PhD Mark Petticrew PhD RESEARCH STAFF: Joanne Abbotts BSc Lisa Arai MSc (left 28.09.01) Caroline Allen PhD Ursula Berger Dr. Oec. Publ. Katie Buston PhD Allan Clark BSc (left 20.08.01) Judith Connell MA Steven Cummins PhD Geoffrey Der MSc Matt Egan PhD Anne Ellaway MSc Rani Elwy MSc (left 30.06.01) Carol Emslie PhD Graeme Ford MA Islay Gemmell PhD (left 26.10.01) Jacki Gordon MPH Mary-Kate Hannah MSc Seeromanie Harding MSc Marion Henderson BA Cassandra Higgins MPhil Kate Hunt MSc Katy Levin MSc Alastair Leyland PhD Maria Maynard PhD Laura McKay MA Alice McLeod MSc (left 31.05.2001) Philip McLoone BSc David Morrison MB ChB MRCPI MPH (left 10.10.01) Gillian Norrie BSc David Ogilvie MA MB BChir MPH DRCOG DF Karen Scanlon BA Helen Sweeting PhD Hilary Thomson MPH Katrina Turner PhD Patricia Walls MSc (left 31.03.01) Patrick West PhD Daniel Wight PhD Rory Williams DPhil Lisa Williamson MPhil Robert Young BSc GRADUATE STUDENTS: Margaret Callaghan MSc (CSO-funded) Rosemary Davidson BSc (MRC-funded) Carolyn Davies BSc (MRC-funded) Pamali Goonetilleke MPhil (MRC-funded) Helen Harper MSc (MRC-funded) Dominique Harvey MA (MRC-funded) Shona Hilton MSc (MRC-funded) Rosemary Howkins MPhil (Wellcome Trust-funded; left 30.09.01) Anne Mills MA (MRC-funded) Rosaleen O’Brien MSc (MRC-funded) Peter Seaman MA (MRC-funded) HONORARY/ATTACHED/VISITING RESEARCH STAFF: Joy Adamson PhD, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol Fred Cartmel BSc, Department of Sociology, University of Glasgow (left 06.06.01) Ian Deary BSc PhD MBChB MRC Psych F, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh (left 01.02.02) Mehrangiz Ebrahimi-Mameghani MSc, Department of Human Nutrition, University of Glasgow Raymond Illsley CBE, PhD, Visiting Professor, School of Social Sciences, University of Bath Ilmo Keskimäki MD DMed Sci, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES), Helsinki, Finland Kristina Manderbacka PhD, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES), Helsinki, Finland Nanette Mutrie DPE MEd PhD Barbara Thompson OBE, PhD, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Aberdeen Michael van Beinum BSc MBChB MPhil, Lanarkshire Health Board Phil Wilson MA DPhil MB BChir MRCP FRCGP DCH, Department of General Practice, University of Glasgow Stuart Wood MD FRCGP, Department of General Practice, University of Glasgow SUPPORT STAFF: Kate Campbell, Survey Support Officer Andrew Craney HND, Receptionist Sharon Davidson BA, Project Administrator Catherine Ferrell MA, Survey Manager Patricia Fisher HNC, Research Support Officer John Gilchrist* HNC, Computing Officer Val Hamilton MLitt Elaine Hindle HNC, Survey Support Officer Barbara Jamieson MSc, Unit Administrator Fiona McDonald, PA to Professor Macintyre Edna McIntyre*, Secretarial Assistant Jean Money*, Secretarial Assistant/Accounts Guy Muhlemann PhD, Computer Systems Manager Carol Nicol MSc, Programmer/Analyst Louise O’Neill, Receptionist Margaret Reilly, Research Support Officer Mary Robins HNC, Librarian Amanda Thomson* MA, Managing Editor, Social Science and Medicine *part time staff 25629_Txt 9/8/02 9:21 AM Page 4 5 The West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study: ‘Health in the Community’ The 'West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study: Health in the community' is a resource for all Unit programmes. Its aim is to investigate the social processes producing or maintaining differences in health by key social positions (in particular, social class, gender, area of residence, age, ethnicity, and family composition). Three age cohorts (born 1932,1952 and 1972, and aged 15, 35 and 55 at first contact in 1987/88) are being followed up using home-based interviews and postal questionnaires, and we hope to continue this until 2007 (i.e., for twenty years). The study design has two components: 1) Regional Samples. Around 1,000 people in each age group were sampled from 52 postcode sectors in the Central Clydeside Conurbation, which includes the City of Glasgow. This is a socially heterogeneous region with a population of 1.7 million, and the postcode sectors were chosen to reflect a continuum of social deprivation. The interviews (in 1987/8, 1990/1, 1995/6 and 2000/2) are wide-ranging, and include questions on paid and unpaid work, housing, income, family composition, social support, stress, life events, leisure activities, health promoting and health damaging behaviours, beliefs and values, and many other material, cultural and psychological factors, along with measures of physical and mental health and well being. Other measures include height, weight, girth, blood pressure, respiratory function, reaction times, and (in 1995/6 only), cardiovascular reactivity and salivary immuno-globulin-A. 2. Locality Samples. Two localities in Glasgow City with contrasting socio-residential characteristics were chosen for more intensive study. The aim is to collect data both on the residents and on the area, and to explore processes by which place of residence might influence health and the ability to lead a healthy life. The diagram shows the (approximate) location of our study localities, the NW and SW, and of the four more homogeneous neighbourhoods into which we have split them for further analysis. It also indicates some of the socioeconomic characteristics of these neighbourhoods. The West End is a middle class Victorian urban neighbourhood, and Garscadden is an adjacent inter-war high status local authority housing estate. Mosspark is a similar estate but located near the poorest area, Greater Pollok, which is a deprived peripheral housing scheme. Data were collected from residents in the three age cohorts (initial sample sizes around 300 per cohort per locality) in 1987/8, 1992, and 1997. Both regional and locality samples are being re-interviewed in 2000-2 using computer-based personal interviews administered by trained nurses. Randomly or purposively selected sub-samples from the region and localities are used for more intensive studies on particular topics. Currently these include studies of educational and labour market trajectories (Cartmell, page 40), identity and health among people of Irish and non-Irish descent (Walls, page 33), the social construction of gender and health (Emslie and Hunt, page 14), and influences on GP consultations (Mills, page 6). 33 2119 8 9 Study Localities and Neighbourhoods 7 52 6 1991 Census Characteristics. Garscadden West End 56 NW Locality: Garscadden, West End SW Locality: Greater Pollok, Mosspark 64 2420 10 Overcrowded 28 29 Social Class 4 & 5 16 Mosspark Male Unemployment Greater Pollok No Car 0 5km 25629_Txt 9/8/02 9:21 AM Page 5 6 The MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit Social & Spatial Patterning of Health Since the middle of the nineteenth century it has been observed in Britain that health and longevity vary both by social status and by area of residence. The aim of this programme is to study socioeconomic and spatial inequalities in health across time and across the life course, using data about individuals, households and areas, and a range of geographical and historical scales.