The latest news from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research
- New Evidence Brief: financial hardship, diet and obesity
- CEDAR in the media: Price gap between more and less healthy foods grows
- CEDAR in the media: Walking, cycling and public transport best for wellbeing
- Neighbourhood food environments, diet and health – slides available
- Martin White joins CEDAR – and news of other new staff
- Recent CEDAR Publications
- CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Unit Seminars
New Evidence Brief – Financial hardships, diet & obesity
Findings from the Whitehall II and EPIC-Norfolk studies
New research is showing that, beyond conventional indicators of socioeconomic status, financial hardship at all levels of society can affect people’s diet, health and weight. With financial uncertainty affecting people in different ways, what does this mean for strategies to promote healthy weight?
- View the Evidence Brief as a web page
- Download as a pdf
- Order printed copies from ocf26@cam.ac.uk
- More Evidence Briefs here
CEDAR in the media
Price gap between more and less healthy foods grows
A study, published in the journal PLOS One, tracked the price of 94 key food and beverage items from 2002 to 2012. Its findings show that more healthy foods were consistently more expensive than less healthy foods, and have risen more sharply in price over time.
While less healthy foods had a slightly greater relative price rise since 2002, the absolute increase was significantly more for more healthy foods – a total average increase of £1.84 per 1000kcal for more healthy food across the decade, compared to £0.73 for less healthy food.
In 2002, 1000 kcal of more healthy foods – as defined by criteria devised for the UK government – cost an average of £5.65, compared to purchasing the same quantity of energy from less healthy food at £1.77. By 2012 this cost had changed to £7.49 for more healthy and £2.50 for less healthy foods.
- Read the full story
- Read the full paper: The Growing Price Gap between More and Less Healthy Foods: Analysis of a Novel Longitudinal UK Dataset by Nicholas Jones, Annalijn Conklin, Marc Suhrcke, Pablo Monsivais
Among widespread media coverage of this story were reports from Channel 4 News, The Daily Telegraph, The Times (£), The Daily Mail, The Independent, The Scotsman, NHS Choices Behind the Headlines, Huffington Post, Newsweek, LBC Radio, BBC World Service and a number of regional BBC Radio stations.
Walking, cycling and public transport beat the car for wellbeing
Walking or cycling to work is better for people’s mental health than driving to work, according to research by health economists at the University of East Anglia and the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR).
The study shows that people who stopped driving and started walking or cycling to work benefited from improved wellbeing. In particular, active commuters felt better able to concentrate and were less under strain than if they travelled by car.
These benefits come on top of the physical health benefits of walking and cycling that are already widely documented. Experts also found that travelling on public transport is better for people’s psychological wellbeing than driving.
- Read the full story
- Read the full paper: Does active commuting improve psychological wellbeing? Longitudinal evidence from eighteen waves of the British Household Panel Survey by Adam Martin, Yevgeniy Goryakin, Marc Suhrcke
Wide-ranging media coverage of this story included BBC News, with an interview with Adam Martin here, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, Daily Mail, The Scotsman, a comment piece by Lauren Laverne in the Guardian, the NICE news section, and Fox News.
Neighbourhood food environments, diet and health – slides now available
What do we really know about the connections between the neighbourhood food environments, diet and health? How should policy and planning in this area be used to promote public health? These and other questions were explored at our research and policy meeting on 4 November.
Thanks to all who contributed to a successful day. If you missed it, you can download abstracts and slides at www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/healthy-place-2014/programme
Martin White joins CEDAR / MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge
We’re very pleased to announce that Martin White has joined CEDAR and the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge to lead research into Dietary Behaviours and Public Health Interventions.
His research programme will be focused on understanding the determinants of behaviour and the development and evaluation of interventions that impact dietary behaviours. He will also play a leadership role in the Unit and CEDAR.
Previously Director of Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research – www.fuse.ac.uk – Martin is a clinical academic, trained in medicine and public health, with broad experience of public health research and practice, and a national and international reputation for his research and leadership. He has an interest in developing research on the influence of the food industry, the impact of social and policy interventions on diet, and the population impact of individual level interventions.
More new staff
We’ve had a lot of other new starters in the last few months. Jean Adams, an NIHR Research Fellow, has also joined us from Newcastle and Fuse. Jean will be leading a programme looking at population approaches to promoting healthy diets.
Our Public Health Modelling programme has expanded over the last year, with the appointment of four post-doctoral researchers – Marko Tainio, Ali Abbas, and Philippe Giabbanelli at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, and Arno Steinacher at the MRC Biostatistics Unit.
The Physical Activity and Public Health team has welcomed Amelia Harshfield and Yelena Alexander as Data Analysts, Adam Bostanci as Scientific Editor for the Commuting and Health in Cambridge Study, and Richard Prins and Cornelia Guell as Career Development Fellows. The Behavioural Epidemiology team welcomes Katie Morton as a Career Development Fellow.
You can find details of all our researchers and staff on our webpage at www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/people
Recent CEDAR publications
The following papers have been published since the last CEDAR Bulletin. All are Open Access.
- Active commuting and perceptions of the route environment: a longitudinal analysis. Jenna Panter, Simon Griffin, David Ogilvie. Preventive Medicine
- A systematic literature review with meta-analyses of within- and between-day differences in objectively measured physical activity in school-aged children. Hannah L. Brooke, Kirsten Corder, Andrew J. Atkin, Esther M. F. van Sluijs. Sports Med
- Clustering and correlates of multiple health behaviours in 9-10 year old children. Leonie Elsenburg, Eva Corpeleijn, Esther van Sluijs, Andrew Atkin. PLoS One
- Development of methods to objectively identify time spent using active and motorised modes of travel to work: how do self-reported measures compare? Jenna Panter, Silvia Costa, Alice Dalton, Andy Jones and David Ogilvie. IJBNPA
- Early child care and obesity at 12 months of age in the Danish National Birth Cohort. Sara Benjamin Neelon, C S Andersen, C S Morgen, M Kamper-Jørgensen, E Oken, M W Gillman and T I A Sørensen. Int J Obes (Lond)
- Evaluating the impacts of new walking and cycling infrastructure on carbon dioxide emissions from motorized travel: A controlled longitudinal study. Christian Brand, Anna Goodman, David Ogilvie, on behalf of the iConnect consortium. Applied Energy.
- Family-based interventions to increase physical activity in children: A meta-analysis and realist synthesis protocol. Helen Elizabeth Brown, Andrew J Atkin, Jenna Panter, Kirsten Corder, Geoff Wong, Mai JM Chinapaw, Esther van Sluijs BMJ Open
- How can planning add value to obesity prevention programmes? A qualitative study of planning and planners in the Healthy Towns programme in England. Denise May Goodwin, Fiona Mapp, Elena Sautkina, Andy Jones, David Ogilvie, Martin White, Mark Petticrew, Steven Cummins. Health & Place
- Nutrition practices of nurseries in England. Comparison with national guidelines. Sara E. Benjamin Neelon, Thomas Burgoine, Kathryn R. Hesketh, Pablo Monsivais. Appetite.
- Persistent financial hardship, 11-year weight gain and health behaviors in the Whitehall II study. Annalijn I. Conklin, Nita G. Forouhi, Eric J. Brunner, Pablo Monsivais. Obesity
- Prevalence and Correlates of Screen time in Youth: An International Perspective. Andrew Atkin, Stephen Sharp, Kirsten Corder, Esther van Sluijs; on behalf of the International Children’s Accelerometry Database (ICAD) Collaborators. Am J Prev Med
- Promoting breastfeeding in child care through state regulation. Benjamin Neelon SE, Duncan DT, Burgoine T, Mayhew M, Platt A Matern Child Health
- Reliability and Validity of the Transport and Physical Activity Questionnaire (TPAQ) for Assessing Physical Activity Behaviour. Emma J. Adams, Mary Goad, Shannon Sahlqvist, Fiona C. Bull, Ashley R. Cooper, David Ogilvie; on behalf of the iConnect Consortium. PLoS One
- Severity of injuries in different modes of transport, expressed with disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) Marko Tainio, Dorota Olkowicz, Grzegorz Teresiński, Audrey de Nazelle, Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen. BMC Public Health
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of increased vegetable and fruit consumption on body weight and energy intake. Oliver T Mytton, Kelechi Nnoaham, Helen Eyles, Peter Scarborough and Cliona Ni Mhurchu. BMC Public Health
- Time Spent on Home Food Preparation and Indicators of Healthy Eating. Pablo Monsivais, Anju Aggarwal, Adam Drewnowski, American Journal of Preventive Medicine
- Using the Medical Research Council Framework for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions in a Theory-Based Infant Feeding Intervention to Prevent Childhood Obesity: The Baby Milk Intervention and Trial. Rajalakshmi Lakshman, Simon Griffin, Wendy Hardeman, Annie Schiff, Ann Louise Kinmonth, and Ken K. Ong. Journal of Obesity
- Variety more than quantity of fruit and vegetable intake varies by socioeconomic status and financial hardship. Findings from older adults in the EPIC cohort. Annalijn Conklin, Nita Forouhi, Marc Suhrcke, Paul Surtees, Nicholas J. Wareham, Pablo Monsivais. Appetite
- Why don’t poor men eat fruit? Socioeconomic differences in motivations for fruit consumption. Rachel Pechey, Pablo Monsivais, Yin-Lam Ng, Theresa M. Marteau. Appetite
You can search nearly 200 CEDAR scientific papers by author, journal, study, title and abstract keywords on our publications database at www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/publications
CEDAR / MRC Epidemiology Unit Seminars
CEDAR jointly organises a seminar series with the MRC Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, a chance to hear from leading researchers in diet and physical activity, along with the occasional policymaker. Details of current talks are available on our website and at talks.cam.ac.uk. To receive email notifications of the latest talks, complete the form at www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/news/seminars
- Dr David Lubans, Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Australia
A physical activity and fundamental movement skill intervention for children attending primary schools in low-income communities: The SCORES cluster RCT
Friday 5 December 2014. 3.00 – 4.00pm
Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Sciences, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC). Direction to Addenbrooke’s Hospital here, and look for ‘ATC’ in the bottom left of this map.
- Dr Mark Beauchamp, Associate Professor, School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Canada
Novel Group-dynamics Approaches to Physical Activity Promotion Across the Lifespan
Thursday 18 December 2014, 12.30-1.30pm
MRC Epidemiology Unit meeting rooms, Level 3, Institute of Metabolic Sciences, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC).
- Dr Martin Brown, UK Health Forum
Multiple Interacting Diseases and Risk Factors – the UK Health Forum’s MIDRIF program
Wednesday 14 January 2015, time TBC
Meeting rooms, Level 4 Institute of Metabolic Sciences, Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre (ATC)
Direction to Addenbrooke’s Hospital here, and look for ‘ATC’ in the bottom left of this map.
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Questions and comments to Oliver Francis: ocf26@cam.ac.uk