Population Heath Interventions Programme

体育活动可以降低患糖尿病和心脏病等疾病的风险，如果英国和许多其他国家的人口能够更多地进行体育活动，那么大多数人的健康状况将会得到改善。然而，迄今为止，实现这一目标的努力收效甚微。原因之一可能是我们为人们创造的生活环境--例如我们的城市、交通系统和工作场所--并不足以促进积极的生活方式。改变影响我们行为的经济、物理和社会因素是可能的，但需要更多关于这样做的影响的科学证据来指导政策和实践。这项研究计划的目的是调查环境或政策变化对人口体力活动模式的影响。我们使用流行病学和社会科学研究方法相结合的方法来研究当人们的环境发生变化时会发生什么-例如，当提供新的公共交通，自行车或步行路线时，或者当人们搬到一个新的社区时。这项研究很重要，因为它使我们能够了解哪些改变环境的方法或多或少对健康有益，谁可能从中受益最多，以及哪些方法最物有所值。因此，我们的研究结果可以为制定改善人口健康的政策做出重要贡献。

Physical activity reduces the risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and the health of most people in the UK and many other countries would be improved if the population were to become more physically active. However, efforts to bring this about have met with little success to date. One reason may be that the environments we have created for people to live in — our cities, transport systems and workplaces, for example — are not sufficiently conducive to an active lifestyle. Changing the economic, physical and social factors that influence our behaviour is possible, but more scientific evidence about the effects of doing so is needed to guide policy and practice. The aim of this research programme is to investigate the effects of environmental or policy changes on population physical activity patterns. We use a combination of epidemiological and social science research methods to study what happens when people’s circumstances change — for example, when new public transport, cycling or walking routes are provided or when people move into a new neighbourhood. This research is important because it enables us to understand which approaches to changing the environment are more or less beneficial to health, who is likely to benefit most from them and which offer the best value for money. Our findings can therefore make an important contribution to shaping policy to improve the health of the population.