Neighbourhoods and Communities

We are trying to find out what it is about where people live that influences their health and ability to lead a healthy life. Knowing more about what matters and whether it matters more for some people compared to others, for example those living in deprived areas compared to more affluent neighbourhoods, men or women, adults or children, means that we will have valuable information for policy makers to plan services that can make a difference to people’s health and daily lives. We are particularly interested in how children’s environments might influence how physically active they are, as this is associated with the likelihood of them being overweight and there is little knowledge on how the local environment impacts on this. To research this we are asking over 1500 10 year old children across Scotland to wear a device (Actigraph) to measure their physical activity and another device (Geographical Positioning System (GPS)) to detect the places they are most active over one week. This is a unique study which will shed light on the ways in which children use their local neighbourhood and which aspects e.g. greenspace, impact on their physical activity, thereby providing useful evidence for planning services.