Dr Anna Goodman
Assistant Professor
I work in public health because I hope to help understand how the natural and social environment affects human health, and to use this understanding as a basis for advocacy and action. My motivation to do this originated during my interdisciplinary 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), a PhD (2006-2009), and a NIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010-2015).
My PhD training confirmed my commitment to a career in epidemiology, my interest in health inequalities, and an interest in mental health and wellbeing. My NIHR Fellowship (titled 'socio-economic inequalities in walking and cycling') allowed me to pursue my desire to inform public health interventions with both health and environmental benefits, with a particular focus on promoting walking and cycling. A particular research interest of mine is the potential to use primary, secondary or register-based data to evaluate population-level interventions, including through natural experimental designs. I hope to continue to pursue such evaluation research into the future, and to start to integrate this with my enduring interest in mental health research.
Centres
Teaching
Between 2007 and 2010, and since 2015, I have 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 since 2007 on the Extended Epidemiology, DANES and International Mental Health MSc study modules, and on related short courses.
In addition, I have since 2007 organised LSHTM's Young Scientists' Programme, which aims to engage young people in public health science.
Research
During my NIHR fellowship much of my research has related to 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, one term at the Transport Studies Unit (TSU) of Oxford University and one term at the Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences at the University of Bristol, plus collaborating with researchers in other institutions. Projects have included:
- Investigating uptake, usage patterns and health impacts of the London Cycle Hire Scheme.
- Using quantitative data from the iConnect study (CEDAR and TSU, among a larger consortium) to examine the links between health outcomes and carbon emissions, and to examine the impacts of new infrastructure designed to promote walking and cycling.
- Collaborating on the On the Buses study (LSHTM), which evaluated the public health impacts of giving young people in London free bus travel. I contributed to qualitative data collection and analysis for this study, and led its youth involvement component.
- Integrating qualitative and quantitative data from the Commuting and Health in Cambridge (CEDAR) study in a mixed-method investigation of the socio-economic structure of car commuting in Cambridge
- Using objectively-measured physical activity on 23,000 from the International Children's Accelerometer Database (ICAD) to examine the effects of evening daylight on children's physical activity.
I am also interested in many other aspects of how broader social and environmental factors influence human health and well-being. Since 2008 I have enjoyed an ongoing collaboration with the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS) in Stockholm. 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.
Prior to this, 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 now contributing to the conduct of the 2016 national Survey of the Mental Health of Children and Young People, data from which will be available in 2018.
See below for some selected recent publications. For a list of all publications, and PDFs of the articles, see the LSHTM online research repository.
