Heriot-Watt University

Graduate Student, School of the Built Environment

Thesis Title: Exploring the relationship between physical activity and urban form in UK neighbourhoods

About

Physical activity is well-known to be a determinant of good health.  However, there is evidence that people are becoming less rather than more active as a consequence of changes in work pattern, travel patterns and domestic life.  The results of this inactivity are serious: more than half of men and women, and one quarter of children in the UK will be obese by 2050, with a consequent increase in coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes (Foresight, 2007).

At the same time, evidence is emerging that levels of physical activity are influenced by the built environment and the opportunities that neighbourhoods offer for active travel and exercise. Research points to higher density, increased land use mix, grid-iron street patterns and proximity to open spaces as factors which increase physical activity.  However the majority of this research has been carried out in Australia and the US where typical densities are significantly lower and grid-iron street layouts more common than in the UK. My research explores the relationship between objective measures of urban form and physical activity within the UK.

I am in my first year of research conducting a literature review and about to embark on a secondary analysis of datasets from the EPSRC funded CityFrom project (http://city-form.org/uk/), Scottish Health Survey, Scottish Household Panel Survey and general land use database (GLUD). A substantial part of the project will be developing case studies from Edinburgh households through interviews, focus groups, activity monitoring and diary methods.

I received a masters in social research methods from Goldsmiths University in 2003 and worked as RA at London Southbank Univerity.  I have also worked administratively within the NHS and a London Primary Care Trust.

I am currently tutoring an undergraduate sociology course at the University of Edinburgh.

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