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GeoHealth Lab Seminar, 25 May 2019: A multidisciplinary perspective on environmental determinants of lifestyle and health

Please come along to see Dr. Joreintje Mackenbach-van Es from the Amsterdam UMC present her seminar on the environmental determinants of lifestyle and health.

Abstract

There is widespread consensus that our environment affects our behaviour and health, but less understanding of how this works. I will mainly focus on food and physical activity environments, but also on social aspects of the neighbourhood environment. There are different ways to operationalize exposure to geographic aspects of the neighbourhood environment, multiple exposure measures may interact, and self-selection may confound any observed associations. In addition, environmental exposures may be more important to some than to others and other aspects such as social and economic aspects of the environment may be of importance. I will show some examples of moderation and mediation in environment-health research, demonstrate how methodological decisions may influence the associations under study, and reflect on the use of different data sources.

Speaker

Dr. Mackenbach-van Es is an assistant professor at the department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands. She has a background in public health and a PhD in epidemiology. She is the co-founder of the Upstream Team, a network of researchers and policy makers focused on the upstream (environmental) determinants of lifestyle behaviours and disease outcomes. She uses geospatial analyses to link environmental determinants of individual health outcomes, but also likes to incorporate methods and theories from psychology and economy to her work.

Time and place

1200-1300, 25 June 2019 in Room 263, Ernest Rutherford Building, University of Canterbury.

All are welcome.