Background: The "Healthy and Active Fund" involved 17 community-based projects focused on the delivery of physical activity interventions, led by a variety of public and third sector organizations. As a novel, direct approach to capturing impact at this level, these organizations were encouraged to robustly evaluate and monitor their own project's outcomes, with core funds allocated to this process. This study aimed to explore project experiences of planning and completing evaluation activities, to better understand how to support community-based practice improvement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPoor quality urban environments substantially increase non-communicable disease. Responsibility for associated decision-making is dispersed across multiple agents and systems: fast growing urban authorities are the primary gatekeepers of new development and change in the UK, yet the driving forces are remote private sector interests supported by a political economy focused on short-termism and consumption-based growth. Economic valuation of externalities is widely thought to be fundamental, yet evidence on how to value and integrate it into urban development decision-making is limited, and it forms only a part of the decision-making landscape.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Road traffic injuries are a major but neglected global challenge. There are high and rising rates of road traffic injuries in Nepal. Most of the studies reporting these injuries in Nepal have used quantitative methods to describe the injury burden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Accurate road crash reporting is essential for evaluating road safety interventions and plans. Under-reporting of road traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities in police records has been widely described. The aim of this study was to apply and evaluate a community crash recording system, and assess the quality of the data in comparison with traffic police data in Nepal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Heavy goods vehicle drivers are an influential driving population in Nepal, with over 90% of goods in the country are transported by road. Due to the time spent on the road, drivers have long periods of exposure to the risk of crash involvement. The study explores the perceptions and experiences of heavy goods vehicle drivers and representatives from their professional association regarding road danger.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRoad traffic injuries in Nepal are increasing despite being largely preventable. Little evidence exists regarding the barriers and facilitators to a safer road system. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of professionals whose jobs had the potential to influence road safety in Nepal regarding challenges and potential solutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper sets out the rationale and process for the interviewing methodology utilized during a 3-year research pilot, 'Moving Health Upstream in Urban Development' (UPSTREAM). The project had two primary aims: firstly, to attempt to value economically the health cost benefits associated with the quality of urban environments and secondly, to engage with those in control of urban development in the UK in order to determine what are the barriers to and opportunities for creating healthy urban environments, including those identified through the utilisation of economic valuation. Engagement at senior level with those who have most control over key facets of planning and development implementation-such as land disposal, investment, development delivery and planning permission-was central to the approach, which encompassed the adoption of 'elite interviewing', a method developed in the USA in the 1950s and used in the political sciences but relatively unutilized in the health and environmental sciences [1].
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper sets out the main findings from two rounds of interviews with senior representatives from the UK's urban development industry: the third and final phase of a 3-year pilot, Moving Health Upstream in Urban Development' (UPSTREAM). The project had two primary aims: firstly, to attempt to value economically the health cost-benefits associated with the quality of urban environments and, secondly, to interview those in control of urban development in the UK in order to reveal the potential barriers to, and opportunities for, the creation of healthy urban environments, including their views on the use of economic valuation of (planetary) health outcomes. Much is known about the 'downstream' impact of urban environments on human and planetary health and about how to design and plan healthy towns and cities ('midstream'), but we understand relatively little about how health can be factored in at key governance tipping points further 'upstream', particularly within dominant private sector areas of control (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Busy and poor road infrastructure along routes to school poses high risk of traffic injury for children and adolescents. Ensuring every young person's safe journey to and from school is fundamental to achieving reductions in road injuries and Sustainable Development Goal 3.6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor over a decade, pandemics have been on the UK National Risk Register as both the likeliest and most severe of threats. Non-infectious 'lifestyle' diseases were already crippling our healthcare services and our economy. COVID-19 has exposed two critical vulnerabilities: firstly, the UK's failure to adequately assess and communicate the severity of non-communicable disease; secondly, the health inequalities across our society, due not least to the poor quality of our urban environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study explored barriers and facilitators to integrating health evidence into spatial planning at local authority levels and examined the awareness and use of the Public Health England 'Spatial Planning for Health' resource.
Methods: A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews followed by an online survey of public health, planning and other built environment professionals in England.
Results: Views from 19 individuals and 162 survey responses revealed high awareness and use of the Spatial Planning for Health resource, although public health professionals reported greater awareness and use than other professionals.
Research has demonstrated that housing quality is a key urban intervention in reducing health risks and improving climate resilience, addressing a key ambition of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Yet housing quality remains a problem even in high income countries such as England. In particular, hazards such as excess cold, excess heat and lack of ventilation leading to damp and mould have been identified as a major issue in homes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOlder adults from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups experience a relatively higher burden of physical inactivity compared with their counterparts from non-BME groups. Despite the increasing number of qualitative studies investigating the barriers and facilitators of physical activity among older adults from BME backgrounds in the UK, there is very limited review-level evidence. The aim of this review is to undertake a synthesis of existing qualitative studies, using a meta-ethnographic approach, to explore the barriers and opportunities for physical activity among adults and older adults from BME communities in the UK.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwenty miles per hour (32 km/hour) or 30 km/hour speed limits represent a potential strategy to reduce urban road injuries and are becoming increasingly widespread. However, no study has conducted a robust evaluation of the effects of city-wide 20 mph speed limits on road injuries. This study reports the effects of such an intervention, based on a natural experiment that took place in Bristol, UK.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: 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.
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.
Young people in the criminal justice system experience significant health and wellbeing issues that often stem from poverty and disadvantage and, in turn, are linked with offending and reoffending behaviour. There is ongoing interest in interventions such as participatory music programmes that seek to foster social reintegration, support mental wellbeing and equip young offenders with life skills, competencies and emotional resilience. However, there is a need for a situated understanding of both positive and negative experiences that shape potential outcomes of music projects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe important role that the environment plays in health and well-being is widely accepted, as is the impact that the built and natural environment can have on levels of physical activity. As levels of physical activity are a key determinant of health, promoting physical activity through actions to improve the environment is a priority for public health action. The challenge for public health is to ensure that the way the environment is shaped and transformed by a range of professionals, organisations and agencies, maximises health gain in relation to health, including physical activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
November 2015
Secondary sources of information indicate that the proportion of child deaths due to injuries is increasing in Nepal. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology of unintentional injuries in children, explore risk factors and estimate the burden faced by families and the community in the Makwanpur district. We conducted a household survey in Makwanpur, covering 3441 households.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In Nepal, childhood unintentional injury is an emerging public health problem but it has not been prioritised on national health agenda. There is lack of literature on community perceptions about child injuries. This study has explored community perceptions about child injuries and how injuries can be prevented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Deaths and injuries on the road remain a major cause of premature death among young people across the world. Routinely collected data usually focuses on the mechanism of road traffic collisions and basic demographic data of those involved. This study aimed to supplement these routine sources with a thematic analysis of narrative text contained in coroners' records, to explore the wider social context in which collisions occur.
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