Environmental and Public Health

Environmental and Public Health research encompasses a broad mixture of observational and interventional studies that improve our understanding of the influence that the surroundings or conditions in which a person, lives or works has on their health, development and wellbeing.

Study types include:

• Longitudinal (cohort) studies of individuals of all ages and across generations to discover factors that influence the development of diseases or resilience and wellbeing
• Studies measuring the frequency and population impact or burden of diseases and injuries
• Evaluation of natural experiments, which arise when conditions or policies that may affect health and wellbeing vary by geographical location or population group
• Evaluation of disease screening services that aim to detect conditions at an earlier stage
• Evaluation of interventions that aim to reduce the population burden of diseases or injuries or to improve general health and wellbeing

All aspects of the social and physical environment are included within The Farr Institute’s remit, including:

• Physical environment: exposure to harmful substances and pollutants; climate change
• Built environment: influence of the design of neighbourhoods and cities
• Social environment: effects of variations in income or educational achievement

The Institute’s research in this field includes the development of new methods to support disease and injury surveillance, the creation of population based anonymised electronic cohorts, increasing the utility of the 60+ population cohorts across the UK and the development of research platforms to support the evaluation of natural experiments and trials of public health interventions.