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LIFE CHANCES OR LIFE CHOICES?

The Weight of Modernity

Influences on health and wellbeing lie not just in the here and now but are also found in individuals' personal histories and their past environments. A life-course approach to the study of health and wellbeing addresses questions such as: how do the prevalence and incidence of health problems vary with age or stage of life? To what extent do changing environments affect the health status and wellbeing of individuals over time?
A major ongoing project, ‘The Weight of Modernity’, involves interviews with family members from three generations whose lives have spanned the recent rapid rise in population obesity. It uses a multi-pronged design to interrogate how diet and physical activity have changed in direct response to major social trends over the last half century.
Contacts: Dorothy Broom, Jane Dixon and Cathy Banwell

Living dangerously

We have a suite of studies examining what could be considered “dangerous consumptions” or “dangerous living practices”. Applying what could be termed a cultural epidemiology approach we examine car reliance, convenience food diets, tobacco use, illicit drug use, hazardous sexual activities, binge drinking and sedentary leisure. Quantitative analyses are also underway of the adoption of health interventions such as disease screening and access to cutting-edge medical treatments.

These studies are united by common interests in:

(1) the diffusion of risks and health seeking behaviours across social groups and generations

(2) the ways gender and socio-economic status interrelate in shaping health; and

(3) patterns of consumption involved in everyday practices including health seeking behaviours.

Contacts: Dorothy Broom, Lyndall Strazdins, Rosemary Korda, Helen Berry, Jane Dixon, Cathy Banwell, Sharon Friel.