Designing healthier neighbourhoods: a systematic review of the impact of the neighbourhood design on health and wellbeing.

Several studies have investigated the impact of neighbourhood design on health and wellbeing, yet there are limited reviews investigating the quality of the evidence and the most effective interventions at a population level. This systematic review aims to clarify the impact of the neighbourhood design on health and wellbeing and evaluate the quality of the evidence underpinning such associations. Eight electronic databases were searched for studies conducted between 2000 and 2016.

Moving Health Upstream in Urban Development: Reflections on the Operationalization of a Transdisciplinary Case Study.

This paper describes the development, conceptualization, and implementation of a transdisciplinary research pilot, the aim of which is to understand how human and planetary health could become a priority for those who control the urban development process. Key challenges include a significant dislocation between academia and the real world, alongside systemic failures in valuation and assessment mechanisms. The National Institutes of Health four-phase model of transdisciplinary team-based research is drawn on and adapted to reflect on what has worked well and what has not operationally.

The relationship between buildings and health: a systematic review.

Background: The built environment exerts one of the strongest directly measurable effects on physical and mental health, yet the evidence base underpinning the design of healthy urban planning is not fully developed.

Method: This study provides a systematic review of quantitative studies assessing the impact of buildings on health. In total, 7127 studies were identified from a structured search of eight databases combined with manual searching for grey literature.

Exploring the multidisciplinary extent of public health career structures in 12 countries: an exploratory mapping.

Background: While much is known about multidisciplinary public health (MDPH) professional practice in the UK which developed particularly in the 1990s, little is known about it in other settings especially low and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study reports on findings of a mapping review of public health career structures and an examination of how multidisciplinary they are in 12 countries.

Methods: A 12-element template was used to collect data from relevant websites and key informants with public health experience in the 12 countries.

Food for Life: evaluation of the impact of the Hospital Food Programme in England using a case study approach.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact and challenges of implementing a Food for Life approach within three pilot NHS sites in 2014/2015 in England. Food for Life is an initiative led by the Soil Association, a non-governmental organisation in the UK that aims to encourage a healthy, sustainable food culture across communities.

Design: A case-study approach was undertaken using semi-structured interviews with staff and key stakeholders together with analysis of relevant documents such as meeting minutes, strategic plans and reports.

Association between Food for Life, a Whole Setting Healthy and Sustainable Food Programme, and Primary School Children's Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables: A Cross-Sectional Study in England.

The promotion of dietary health is a public health priority in England and in other countries. Research shows that the majority of children do not consume the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables (F&V). There has been relatively little research on the impact of programmes, such as Food for Life, that (a) integrate action on nutrition and food sustainability issues, and (b) are delivered as commissions in a local authority area.

Inter-sectoral Transfer of the Food for Life Settings Framework in England.

Organisational settings such as schools, workplaces and hospitals are well recognised as key environments for health promotion. Whilst there is extensive literature on specific types of settings, little empirical research has investigated the transfer of frameworks between sectors. This study analyses Food for Life, an England-wide healthy and sustainable food programme that evolved in schools and is being adapted for children's centres, universities, care homes, and hospital settings.

Promoting integration of the health and built environment agendas through a workforce development initiative.

There is a renewed and growing recognition of the links between public health and the built environment, which has underlined the need for improved joint working between public health and built environment professionals. However, currently there is little engagement between these two sectors. This paper outlines a workforce development initiative that aims to increase capacity for such joint working, through shared learning and reflection between professionals from the built environment sector and those from the specialist public health workforce.

The impact of participation in performing arts on adolescent health and behaviour: a systematic review of the literature.

This article reports a systematic review of literature published between 1994 and 2004 on the effects of performing arts for health in young people aged 11-18. The review includes research on music, performance, drama and dance in community settings and non-curricular mainstream education. A total of 17 electronic databases were searched and 3670 papers identified, 104 of which met relevance criteria.

Missed opportunities? Locating health promotion within multidisciplinary public health.

This paper examines the complex interconnections between the development of health promotion and multidisciplinary public health, respectively. Health promotion takes a distinctive interdisciplinary and multiprofessional perspective on health. Historically, it has brought together practitioners from varied disciplinary backgrounds, education and training.

Artefact or reality? Increases in persons notified to the Regional Drug Misuse Database in the South West of England, 1996-2001.

The incidence of new persons and repeat attenders presenting for treatment for problem drug misuse in the South West of England more than doubled from 1996-1997 to 2000-2001. During this time there was an increase in the number and severity of chronic cases, both in terms of the prevalence of heroin and crack-cocaine use and in the frequency of injecting and sharing injecting equipment. Growth in the availability of treatment, changes in notification practice and sub-regional variation make it difficult to be confident about real rates of increase, or age, gender and substance misuse changes, but the size of these changes mean they are unlikely to be purely artefactal.