The physical, social and economic environments we live in influence what we eat and how much we move around. These dietary and physical activity behaviours have an effect on our health, others around us, and the wider world. These behaviours need to studied in different settings and across the life-course to discover how best to target whole populations and systems to bring about a positive shift in our health.
CEDAR was originally established in 2008 as one of five UKCRC Public Health Research Centres of Excellence. We now focus on communicating about diet and physical activity research, behaviours, interventions and policies, and sharing evidence and resources from research programmes at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge.
These programmes are discovering more about population-level influences and interventions on what we eat and how much we move around. They have a particular interest in the development and evaluation of public health interventions, and public health practice and policy.
Resources
We have a range of evidence resources and tools for practitioners and policymakers. You can explore them here. They include:
- A searchable publications database
- Evidence summaries, briefs and data visualisations
- Mapping and planning tools for the food environment and cycling investment.
- Talks and seminars
People
CEDAR draws on the expertise of a wide range of scientific disciplines at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, including behavioural science, biostatistics, epidemiology, health economics, health geography, and nutrition research.
Researchers who were members of CEDAR when it existed as UKCRC-funded Centre of Excellence in Public Health are listed here.
You can find a full list of MRC Epidemiology Unit staff and students here.
Partnerships
Research in this area is being used to develop and evaluate public health interventions, and is guided by the needs of public health practice. We work with public health organisations, schools, charities and a range of government, policy and guidance bodies.
History and legacy
You can read about the history of CEDAR and the UKCRC Public Health Research Centres of Excellence here.
Experience gained at CEDAR also informed the development of the NIHR Global Health Group on Diet and Activity Research (GDAR). GDAR is generating evidence on the factors that lead to poor diet and physical inactivity in low and middle income countries, evaluating interventions to change these factors, and using mathematical modelling to investigate the long-term health and economic effects of these interventions.
- Find out more at www.gdarnet.org