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PATHWAYS TO PREVENTION

An important context for our research is the National Preventative Health Agenda of the Council of Australian Governments. We spend considerable research effort in identifying intervention pathways that can alter physical, social and cultural environments so that healthy choices and consumptions can become easy and pleasurable choices.

Sustainable ways of living
Various strands of work converge in a shared concern for characterising the elements of sustainable ways of living. Collaborations are underway with the CSIRO, Fenner School on the Environment, and NCEPH colleagues of the Environment, Climate and Health Theme.
With CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems an NCEPH team is developing and apply decision-support tools for urban planning. Tools currently under development include a ‘Timekit' containing case studies of policies that consider time demands on citizens in the implementation of health or environmental interventions. Other intervention-oriented research focuses on developing a more practical and wide-ranging understanding of ‘family friendliness' as a basis for better health through improved organisational and government policies. Recent articles by Lyndall Strazdins and colleagues exemplify this innovative line of enquiry.

We are embarking on two interlinked studies to identify sustainable and healthy urban food systems and urban living systems (with a focus on transport and housing). The fieldwork will commence in 2010 in Western Sydney. This project involves collaborators from University of Western Sydney and Office of Water, Hawkesbury-Nepean.

Contact: Tony Capon, Sharon Friel, Jane Dixon and Gill Hall.

Another sustainable food system project includes colleagues from University of Queensland and Griffith University, and is examining the ethical, health and financial decisions and actions that are involved in sustainable food consumption, and the individual and social factors that characterise the sustainable consumer.

Contact: Jane Dixon and Libby Hattersley.

Health citizenship
This area of research is evolving, mainly through the leadership of the studies of several NCEPH PhD students.
Annie Carroll is examining the role of trade unions as public health actors and asking why their actions beyond traditional occupational health and safety have been ignored within mainstream public health. Carroll sees trade unions as major players in addressing the key social determinants of health: income equality and social inclusion.

Part of The Weight of Modernity project, Anna Davies has conducted interviews with 2 generations of Australians to examine the way major social trends affect their dispositions toward diet and physical activity. She is theorizing her findings within a framework of health citizenship, and asking why it is difficult for some people to actively pursue behaviours that are health promoting.

Philip Baker is also working in the obesity field and will undertake a policy network analysis of the failure of obesity prevention activities to date. He aims to identify which network actors speak for citizens and whether there is a disjunction between what citizen actors want from governments and industry and what the latter are prepared to deliver.