Anna Goodman

Research Fellow

My motivation for working in public health is a desire to use interdisciplinary approaches to understand how the natural and social environment affects human health, and to use this understanding as a basis for advocacy and action. This concern originated during my undergraduate degree in Human Sciences in Oxford (2002-2005). It has since been reinforced by my time at LSHTM completing an MSc in Epidemiology (2005-2006) and a PhD in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health (2006-2009).

I am very concerned about the threats which social inequality and the current ecological crisis pose to human health and well-being.  I therefore plan to specialise in the intersection between public health, health equity and environmental sustainability. I am currently pursuing this through a NIHR-funded postdoctoral research Fellowship titled 'socio-economic inequalities in walking and cycling' (funded until 2015). I have also become involved in a number of other research and engagement projects, including:

Affiliation

Teaching

Between 2007 I and 2010 I taught the Research Methodology module of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health MSc at the Institute of Psychiatry, London.

In addition, I have taught within LSHTM on the Extended Epidemiology, DANES and International Mental Health MSc study modules, and on related short courses.

Research

My PhD research focussed on factors which protect children against mental health problems and promote good mental health. One focus of this research was investigating the reasons for the apparent mental health advantage of British Indian children in these surveys.  Other aspects included testing the psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and DAWBA interview, and developing new ways to use these to measure mental health; collaborating with OFSTED in validating a school-level predictor of emotional and behavioural difficulties within schools; and developing an 'Added Value' score for use in outcome monitoring of Child and Adolescent Mental Health services.

I am also interested in many other aspects of how broader social and environmental factors influence human health and well-being. Since2008 I have enjoyed an ongoing collaboration with the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS) in Stockholm, which now employs me part-time. The main focus of this research has been lifecourse analyses of the determinants of mortality, fertility, health and educational outcomes across the life course and across generations in a Swedish birth cohort born 1915-1929.  This has included a few papers looking at this from an evolutionary perspective, the most recent one of which tested competing theories of the demographic transition and received coverage in the Guardian, New Scientist and the Economist.

During my NIHR fellowship I intend to research the effectiveness and equity of transport interventions, with a focus on both public health and environmental impacts.  So far this has involved spending three terms as a visiting researcher at the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) in Cambridge, and one term at the Transport Studies Unit (TSU) of Oxford University, plus collaborating with researchers in other institutions.  Projects have included:

See below for some selected recent publications.  For a list of all publications, and PDFs of the articles, see the LSHTM online research repository.  You can also listen to me explaining some of my Swedish and British work in a recent podcast with the Guardian (I start 33 min in).

Research areas

  • Child health
  • Complex interventions
  • Environment
  • Health inequalities
  • Physical activity

Disciplines

  • Epidemiology

Disease and Health Conditions

  • Mental health
  • Non-communicable diseases

Regions

  • Euro area

Countries

  • Sweden
  • United Kingdom
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