Non-communicable disease epidemiology and public health

营养不良和感染仍然是非洲国家的主要公共卫生问题，但糖尿病、心血管疾病和癌症等非传染性疾病正在加剧这一问题，这些疾病以前在发达国家更为常见。预计到2030年，这些疾病将成为非洲最常见的死亡原因。糖尿病在世界上许多国家的发病率正在上升，但非洲的发病率估计是世界上增长最快的，预计到2035年将有4000多万非洲人患有这种疾病。与世界其他国家一样，非洲非传染性疾病增加的主要驱动因素是饮食和体育活动行为的变化以及在生命的不同阶段出现肥胖。然而，推动这些行为变化的因素因国家而异。这些超越了个人对决定食物供应、食物成本和可得性、工作性质和建筑环境结构的因素的态度和选择。发展对这些更广泛因素的理解是确定这些公共卫生挑战的可能解决办法的过程的一个必要部分。这个国际博士合作计划建立在剑桥大学和约翰内斯堡威特沃特斯兰德大学之间现有的机构联系之上。这两个牵头部门的目标都是通过研究和开发干预措施来改善公共卫生，以减少整个生命周期中关键发育期的慢性病风险。该方案的具体目标是开展工作，通过将南非研究人员与联合王国饮食和活动研究中心联系起来，在人口一级解决非传染性疾病的流行问题;该中心是一个多学科的公共卫生高级研究中心，旨在了解饮食和活动行为的人口决定因素，并评价人口干预措施。

Under-nutrition and infection remain major public health problems in African countries, but are being added to by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, conditions that have previously been seen more frequently in developed countries. These conditions are expected to become the most common cause of death in Africa by 2030. Diabetes is rising in frequency in many countries around the world, but the rate of increase in Africa is estimated to be the fastest anywhere and more than 40 million Africans are predicted to have the disease by 2035. The main drivers of this rise in NCDs in Africa, in common with other countries around the world, are changes in dietary and physical activity behaviour and the development of obesity at different stages of life. However, the factors that are driving these changes in behavior are different between countries. These go beyond individuals' attitudes and choices to factors that determine the food supply, its cost and availability, the nature of work and the structure of built environment. The development of understanding of these wider factors is a necessary part of the process of identifying possible solutions to these public health challenges.This International PhD partnering scheme builds on existing institutional links between the University of Cambridge and the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The two lead departments both aim to improve public health by researching and developing interventions to reduce the risk of chronic disease at critical developmental periods across the lifespan. The programme will specifically aim to develop work aimed at population-level solutions to the epidemic of non-communicable diseases by linking South African researchers to the United Kingdom Centre of Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR); a multi-disciplinary centre of public health research excellence aiming to develop understanding about the population determinants of diet and activity behaviour and to evaluate population interventions.