Oliver has a long standing interest in the prevention of obesity, particularly the role of ‘population approaches’ in the promotion of healthy eating and regular physical activity. In particular he has used modelling to estimate and understand the health impacts of different fiscal measures (taxes on unhealthy foods and subsidies on fruit & vegetables). In his PhD he will focus on ‘the other side of the equation’ – looking at how we can support and encourage people to undertake regular physical activity.
He will be working with David Ogilvie, Jenna Panter and James Woodcock looking at how the (built and social) environment in which we live influences how we walk and cycle for travel, and what this means for our health. He will be seeking to identify ways we can change the environment to promote walking and cycling, understand how these ‘interventions’ work and what the health benefits from such changes in travel will be. This project will build on his modelling expertise, using the Integrated Transport and Health Impact Modelling Tool, as well as developing news skills in the analysis of natural experiments. This later work will use empirical data from the Commuting and Health in Cambridge and Traffic and Health in Glasgow to understand the actual effects of real environmental changes.
– See more at: http://www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/people/students/oliver-mytton/
