Socio-economic and environmental determinants of health and disability

Applications are invited for a full-time PhD in the joint disciplines of Health Economics and Health Geography, within the broad area of the social, economic and geographical determinants of health, disability and/or health behaviours. The specific focus is subject to the student’s preferences and will be elaborated in discussion with the supervisory team but the theme of the studentship will be the testing and integration of methodologies for the measurement of relevant social and physical environments into econometric studies of the determinants of health. The key characteristic of the research will be in the use of econometric techniques to conduct secondary analysis of one or more relevant datasets that allow for incorporation of geographic information, using geographical information systems (GIS). A list of potential datasets is given below. The work may have a UK and/or an international focus.

The student will be located in the Norwich Medical School, and there will be opportunities to directly link the research to the supervisors’ involvement in the Centre for Diet and Physical Activity Research (CEDAR) (www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk), a national centre of excellence funded by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, and in the Department of Health-funded Behaviour and Health Research Unit (BHRU) (www.bhru.iph.cam.ac.uk) - both high-profile collaborations with the University of Cambridge. There is also an opportunity to link in with the international work undertaken by the supervisors, funded by the European Commission, the World Bank or WHO, among others.

Potential datasets to be used may include (but are by no means limited to):
- British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) / Understanding Society
- Millennium Cohort Study UK
- SPEEDY
- ALSPAC
- EPIC Norfolk
- Active People Survey
- Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)
- Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS)
- English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)
- Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)