1,736 research outputs found
Twenty-five years of Health & Place: citation classics, internationalism and interdisciplinarity
Full text linkTo mark 25 years of Health & Place Health & Place, we identify and appraise some key contributions to the journal over this period. We use citation data to identify ‘classics’ from the journal's back catalogue. We also examine trends in the international reach and disciplinary homes of our authors. We show that there has been a near 7-fold increase in the number of published papers between the early and most recent years of the journal and that the journal's citation levels are amongst the top 2% of social science journals. Amongst the most cited papers, some clear themes are evident such as physical activity, diet/food, obesity and topics relating to greenspace. The profile of the journal's authors is becoming more internationally diverse, represents a broader range of disciplines, and increasingly demonstrating cross/interdisciplinary ways of working. Although Anglophone countries have led the way, there is an increasing number of contributions from elsewhere including emerging economies such as China. We conclude with some comments on likely future directions for the journal including enduring concerns such as greenspace, obesity, diet and unhealthy commodities (alcohol, tobacco, ultra-processed food) as well as more recent directions including planetary health, longitudinal and lifecourse analyses, and the opportunities (and challenges) of big data and machine learning. Whatever the thematic concerns of the papers over next 25 years, we will continue to welcome outstanding research that is concerned with the importance place makes to health
First person – Jamie Whitelaw
Full text linkFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Jamie Whitelaw is first author on ‘ CYRI-B loss promotes enlarged mature focal adhesions and restricts microtubule and ERC1 access to the cell leading edge’, published in JCS. Jamie conducted the research described in this article while a post-doctoral researcher in Prof. Laura Machesky's lab at CRUK Scotland Institute, Glasgow, UK. He is now a Lecturer at University of the West of Scotland, Blantyre, investigating host–pathogen interactions with a focus on the role of the host cytoskeleton
Kathleen Jamie, Chitra Ramaswamy & Amanda Thomson: Antlers of Water - Live Event
No full text‘When we read and write, when we love our fellow creatures, when we walk on the beach, when we just listen and notice, we are not little cogs in the machine, but part of the remedy.’ These luminous words by Kathleen Jamie form part of the introduction to Antlers of Water, an outstanding collection of contemporary Scottish writing about nature and landscape.
The generosity of Jamie’s approach as editor of the collection goes beyond the stellar selection of contributors such as Amy Liptrot, Karine Polwart and Malachy Tallack: she also invokes the agency of readers to make a difference. ‘If, by reading, you are encouraged or confirmed in your love of the natural world, if you’re inspired simply to… look outside, then our job is done.’
In a discussion led by the BBC's Clare English, Jamie is joined by award-winning journalist Chitra Ramaswamy as well as visual artist and writer Amanda Thomson – both contributors to the anthology – to discuss Scotland, landscape and the more-than-human world around us.
This is a live event, with an author Q&A.
Part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival Making Climate Change Personal festival theme
The neighbourhood effects of geographical access to tobacco retailers on individual smoking behaviour
Full text linkObjective: To investigate whether neighbourhood measures of geographical accessibility to outlets selling tobacco (supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations) are associated with individual smoking behaviour in New Zealand.Methods: Using Geographical Information Systems, travel times from the population-weighted centroid of each neighbourhood to the closest outlet selling tobacco were calculated for all 38,350 neighbourhoods across New Zealand. These measures were appended to the 2002/03 New Zealand Health Survey; a national survey of 12,529 adults. Two-level logistic regression models were fitted to examine the effects of neighbourhood locational access upon individual smoking behaviour after controlling for potential individual- and neighbourhood-level confounding factors, including deprivation and urban/rural status.Results: After controlling for individual-level demographic and socioeconomic variables, individuals living in the quartiles of neighbourhoods with the best access to supermarkets (OR1.23, 95% CI 1.06-1.42) and convenience stores (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.03-1.38) had a higher odds of smoking compared to individuals in the worst access quartiles. However, theassociation between neighbourhood accessibility to supermarkets and convenience stores was not apparent once other neighbourhood-level variables (deprivation and rurality) were included.Conclusions: At the national level, there is little evidence to suggest that after adjustment for neighbourhood deprivation better locational access to tobacco retail provision in New Zealand is associated with individual-level smoking behaviour
Sociospatial inequalities in health-related behaviours: Pathways linking place and smoking
No full textThere has been a resurgence of interest in how the social, built and cultural environments contribute to shaping health outcomes. The pathways relating place to health behaviour have received less attention. We develop a nuanced understanding of the pathways linking individuals, places and smoking. Two key pathways operate: place-based ‘practices' and place-based ‘regulation’. Future geographical research should pay attention to the different scale effects, encompass a wider set of influences which affect the liveability and social composition of neighbourhoods, and specify group differences in the impact of the local economic and social environment upon smoking.<br/
Community inequality and smoking cessation in New Zealand, 1981-2006
No full textThe overall prevalence of smoking in New Zealand reduced from 32% in 1981 to 23.5% in 2006 but rates
of smoking cessation have not been consistent among all social, demographic and ethnic groups. The
period 1981–2006 also saw macroeconomic changes in New Zealand that resulted in profound increases
in social and economic inequalities. Within this socio-political context we address two questions. First,
has there been a social polarisation in smoking prevalence and cessation in New Zealand between 1981
and 2006? Second, to what extent can ethnic variation in rates of quitting be explained by community
inequality, independently of socio-economic status?We find that smoking behaviour in New Zealand has
become socially and ethnically more polarised over the past two decades, with greater levels of smoking
cessation among higher socio-economic groups, and among New Zealanders of European origin. Variations
in quit rates between Maori and European New Zealanders cannot be fully accounted for by ethnic
differences in socio-economic status. Community inequality exerted a significant influence on Maori (but
not European) smoking quit rates. The association with community inequality was particularly profound
among women, and for particular age groups living in urban areas. These findings extend the international
evidence for a relationship between social inequality and health, and in particular smoking
behaviour. The research also confirms the importance of considering the role of contextual factors when
attempting to elucidate the mechanisms linking socio-economic factors to health outcomes. Our findings
emphasise that, if future smoking cessation strategies are to be successful, attention has to shift from
policies that focus solely on engineering individual behavioural change, to an inclusion of the role of
environmental stressors such as community inequality
Smoking, ethnic residential segregation, and ethnic diversity: a spatio-temporal analysis
No full textEthnic residential segregation is a profound social divide in many societies. In the health arena, U.S. work has been influential in demonstrating the impact of ethnic residential segregation on child health outcomes, showing how it can compound other forms of disadvantage. This article builds on and extends this research by examining the transferability of conclusions concerning the health impact of ethnic residential segregation to a non-U.S. context and to the field of health behavior. Using complete adult population data from the 1996 and 2006 New Zealand Censuses of Population geocoded to local and urban area levels, we examine smoking prevalence and cessation in relation to ethnic segregation and diversity. The article employs a repeated cross-sectional multilevel modeling strategy with smoking and cessation as outcome variables. The differential impact of segregation and diversity on smoking behavior by different ethnic groups is considered, taking into account the confounding effect of socioeconomic status and demographic variation. Conclusions suggest that M?ori isolation has little overall effect but ethnic diversity has some relevance. Individual ethnic status and area-level deprivation are more important in understanding smoking behavio
Jamie Whitten.
No full textclient file of Jamie Whittenhttps://egrove.olemiss.edu/miles/1178/thumbnail.jp
Does social inequality matter? Changing ethnic socio-economic disparities and Maori smoking in New Zealand, 1981–1996
No full textThis paper builds on an earlier study of the effects of inequality on smoking by explicitly incorporating a temporal dimension. We examine the effects of changing levels of inequality upon ethnic variations in smoking rates in New Zealand for the period 1981 to 1996. This was a period of rapid structural change in New Zealand's economy and welfare state, changes which had a disproportionate effect on Maori. While Maori smoking rates declined during this period, the gap in smoking levels between Maori and Pakeha (persons of European descent) increased. The results suggest that levels of social inequality between Maori and Pakeha have an independent effect on Maori smoking rates and that communities which experienced increased social inequality during both the 1980s and 1990s were more likely to have higher Maori smoking rates. Controlling for confounders, the effect of increased ethnic inequality on smoking was particularly evident for Maori women (net R2=0.150) compared to Maori men (net R2=0.079). Nevertheless, absolute rather than relative socio-economic deprivation remains the most important predictor of smoking
Can a deterministic spatial microsimulation model provide reliable small-area estimates of health behaviours? An example of smoking prevalence in New Zealand
No full textModels created to estimate neighbourhood level health outcomes and behaviours can be difficult to validate as prevalence is often unknown at the local level. This paper tests the reliability of a spatial microsimulation model, using a deterministic reweighting method, to predict smoking prevalence in small areas across New Zealand. The difference in the prevalence of smoking between those estimated by the model and those calculated from census data is less than 20% in 1745 out of 1760 areas. The accuracy of these results provides users with greater confidence to utilize similar approaches in countries where local-level smoking prevalence is unknow
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