Public Health training at UCL

1
Public Health training at UCL

• The general public health training structures has
  changed
• Each approved public health training location now
  has one educational supervisor, who has an
  oversight role during attachments. For UCL this
  is Dr Jennifer Mindell.
• There are many other members of staff with the
  skills and training to be project supervisors.
• The UCL departmental websites has further details
  of the research groups and the types of work they
  are currently undertaking.
• The following slides give a brief summary of the
  work being done by trainees in the various groups
  within the Department of Epidemiology Public
  Health.

2
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health-
research groups

• Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour UnitCentral
  and Eastern Europe Research Group
• Clinical Epidemiology Group
• Dental Public Health
• Health and Social Surveys Research
  Group(including English Longitudinal Study on
  Ageing, ELSA and Health Survey for England, HSE)
• Health Care Evaluation Group
• Life Course Social Research Group(including the
  ESRC Priority Network Capability and Resilience
  Research)
• MRC National Survey of Health and Development
  Unit
• Psychobiology Group
• Public Health Research Group
• Statistics and Methods Network
• Whitehall II StudyAffiliated Groups
• UCL International Institute for Society and
  Health
• Commission for Social Determinants of Health

3
Examples of work undertaken by trainees in this
department
4
F2 trainee, Health Social Surveys Research Group

• Two week attachment during four months in public
  health in a PCT
• Classification of fractures using HSE data for
  secondary analysis

5
Amina Aitsi-Selmi, SpR Public Health, Walport
Fellow

• Stable angina pectoris comparison of trends in
  symptoms and diagnosed cases of angina from 1991
  to 2003 with trends in MI mortality
• Time trend analysis comparing the prevalence of
  angina, using different measures of prevalence of
  angina, with MI mortality 1991-2003.
• Five national cross-sectional samples extracted
  from HSE data, and use of ONS data for MI
  mortality.
• Locating the causal relevance of the depression
  coronary disease association in the field of
  established and emerging risk factors
• Review setting the evidence for depression as a
  causal factor for CHD in a framework of causal
  relevance comparing biases across emerging or
  established risk factors.
• Under-reporting of tobacco use among Bangladeshi
  women in the Health Survey for England
• Analysis of HSE data using salivary cotinine as a
  measure of tobacco use to examine discrepancies
  between self-reported tobacco use and personal
  tobacco use status as indicated by salivary
  cotinine levels, in Bangladeshi women.

6
Jessica Sheringham, SpT Public Health, Healthcare
Evaluation group Academic attachment during
general PH training

• Examining differences in the risk of chlamydia
  and the use of chlamydia screening services
  associated with deprivation
• Literature reviews
• Analysis of a large dataset from the National
  Chlamydia Screening Programme
• Working in collaboration with the Health
  Protection Agency
• Identifying and setting up collaborations with
  others working in related fields
• in research
• in the health service
• In a commercial organisation
• Outputs of the project
• presenting at two national conferences
• submission of two papers to peer reviewed
  journals
• development of a grant application for further
  research

7
Ike Anya, SpR Public Health, Healthcare
Evaluation group Academic attachment during
general PH training

• Ethical issues in healthcare and research in
  developing countries
• Equity of access to HIV treatment in the United
  Kingdom
• Migration and health
• Infectious diseases

8
Justin Zaman, SpR Cardiology, Clinical
Epidemiology group PhD sponsored by British
Heart Foundation

• Doctorate to determine differences in the
  prognosis of coronary disease across the spectrum
  of risk in South Asians and whites in the UK and
  disaggregate the increased coronary mortality
  observed in South Asians

9
Julie George, SpT, Clinical Epidemiology group
Academic attachment during general PH training

• Research project Inter-hospital variation in
  gender differences in treatment of heart attacks,
  with a view to relating this to the information
  requirements of recent equalities legislation
• Writing a multi-agency, multi-disciplinary
  proposal for an NHS NIHR programme grant
• Assisted in tutorials for 3rd 4th year medical
  students
• Organised an information session on academic
  public health training

10
Charlotte Ashton, SpT Public Health, Clinical
Epidemiology Group Health Care Evaluation Group

• Investigating the rapid decline in mortality at
  older ages from 1971 to the present day
• Aim To assess the contribution of behavioural
  and lifestyle changes, clinical and public health
  interventions and material circumstances in the
  mortality decline and to compare the impact of
  each of these factors in men and women and across
  socio-economic groups.
• Project Using the General Practice Research
  Database to look at
• incident myocardial infarction
• whether this was the initial presentation of
  heart disease and
• whether there is variation in the pathways to
  incident myocardial infarction between men and
  women.

11
Ayesha Ali, SpR Public Health, Health Social
Surveys Group Academic attachment during general
PH training

• Co-author on two chapters of the Health Survey
  for England (HSE) report 2006
• Childrens physical activity
• Adult anthropometry
• Papers
• Vitamin D levels in the elderly (HSE data)
• Anaemia thresholds in older people (HSE data)
• Parental attitudes to taking blood samples from
  children for surveys
• Managing the food industry
• Contributing to the protocol, literature and MREC
  application for the National Diet Nutrition
  Survey
• Other work
• Press releases for HSE 2005 launch
• Involvement in group recruitment processes

12
Ian Forde, SpR Public Health, Whitehall
GroupAcademic attachment during general public
health training

• Two papers on Whitehall II cohort
• Critiquing the relevance of current WHO
  diagnostic thresholds for diabetes / impaired
  glucose tolerance with respect to cardiovascular
  mortality
• Analysing the use of over-the-counter statins
  according to self-perceived risk of
  cardiovascular events and ethnicity and job
  status.
• Leading the analysis of the health effects of
  novel social support programs in Latin America
  (conditional cash transfer schemes) with
  colleagues from the Colombian and Mexican
  governments and UCL Economics
• Leading the Launch and Communications strategy
  for the Final Report of the WHO Commission on the
  Social Determinants of Health