20mph zones are effective in reducing the number and severity of traffic collisions and casualties, according to new research. The findings should be used to support the implementation of 20mph speed zones across the UK and Europe, say the research team. The research, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and published in […]
Is it really better to die at home? New study highlights challenges for family members and healthcare professionals looking after patients at home
Family carers and healthcare staff said that hospital admission for patients near the end of their lives became necessary because of insufficient nursing and support at home, in a newly published study from the Cambridge Palliative and End of Life Care Group at the Primary Care Unit, University of Cambridge. The study was carried out […]
Why are we unable to walk safely on our country roads?
Professor Mike Kelly, senior visiting fellow at the Primary Care Unit, writing in the Guardian, explains why it took an integrated strategy to cut smoking. He suggests that we need major infrastructural changes if we are to increase our physical activity – not just information and advice. “Getting the population more active is an absolute […]
What makes social life possible? How the human brain connects with the complex social world around us
The social lives of humans shape and influence biological processes taking place in our brains, according to a new theoretical framework linking sociological thinking with insights from neuroscience. The new framework, from Professor Mike Kelly, sociologist at the Primary Care Unit and Professor Paul Fletcher, Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience and colleagues from the […]
Emphasis on individual choice has limited Government attempts to reduce health inequalities, according to new analysis of UK public health policies
In a study published today in the Journal of Public Health, researchers from the University of Cambridge and RAND Europe find that theory and evidence on health inequalities drawn from history, sociology, philosophy, psychology, biology and neuroscience have been largely ignored in a series of government efforts to limit health inequalities and reduce non-communicable diseases over the […]
Knowing how non communicable diseases are caused does not mean we can prevent them: lessons from the history of public health
Efforts to prevent non communicable diseases (NCDs) are dominated by a simple idea: once you know the causes of a disease you can do effective prevention. So behaviours like eating, consuming alcohol, not taking exercise and smoking have been the centre of policy attention for decades These behaviours, their associated risks, the disease and its […]