Social Epidemiology and Evaluation Research Group
About the Group
The Social Epidemiology and Evaluation Research Group conducts local and international research in the areas of (i) social and chronic disease epidemiology, (ii) disease prevention and health promotion, particularly with disadvantaged populations (including Aboriginal peoples) and (iii) "health and place" research dealing with the relationships between social, physical and built environments and population health. Outcomes include overweight and obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and glycaemic disease, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, adverse birth outcomes, mortality, and antecedents of these.
Specific themes concern health and the contextual features of neighbourhoods, and the work and home environments to which people are exposed in daily living. Exposures considered include social factors (crime, disorder, poverty, culture and social networks), physical factors (heat, noise, air and water) and the built environment (residential density, transport networks, public transit systems, health care, food sources, and opportunities for recreation, physical activity and cultural pursuits). Other exposures considered are the compositional features of populations, for example, socioeconomic and socio-demographic factors by which health outcomes vary together with contextually-defined conditions of living and resources and opportunities for health.
We also study the biological mechanisms that underlie associations between environments, socioeconomic factors and health: chronic stress and psychosocial and behavioural mediators of obesity or allostatic load that impact physiological regulatory systems in ways that, over time, lead to disease. Understanding such relationships is necessary for policy interventions which support changing residential and community environments to enable people, individually and collectively, to optimise their potential, and to live healthfully and with quality of life.
The Social Epidemiology and Evaluation Research Group offers local and international opportunities for students in:
- Developing environmental measures to represent local resources, opportunities and conditions of living.
- Use of geographic information systems and geospatial methods in multi-level health surveys.
- Area level effects on cardiometabolic diseases, obesity, dietary fat consumption, physical activity and smoking.
- Use of biomarkers to study the pathways and impact of environmental stressors.
- Epidemiological analysis of cardiometabolic risk and disease outcomes in Indigenous populations.
- Participatory approaches in mixed method and quantitative evaluation of public health interventions.
- Advancing systematic review methodology to account for process and implementation.
- Quasi-experimental evaluation of state-wide, community-level obesity initiative targeting children.
People
Professor Mark Daniel, BSc (Simon Fraser), MSc (Manitoba), PhD (British
Columbia)
Research Chair (Social Epidemiology)
(08) 8302 2518,
mark.daniel@unisa.edu.au
Expertise in social epidemiology, geospatial epidemiology; non-communicable
disease epidemiology; epidemiological methods; Aboriginal health; disease
prevention and health promotion; and evaluation research, especially
quasi-experiments in field settings and community-based research where
randomisation is impracticable.
Dr Margaret Cargo, BSc (Waterloo), MSc (Waterloo), PhD (British
Columbia)
ARC Future Fellow
(08) 8302 2141,
margaret.cargo@unisa.edu.au
Expertise in mixed-method evaluation of school- and community-based obesity
interventions; accounting for theory, context and implementation in
evaluation and systematic reviews; assessing partnerships and processes in
community-based prevention interventions; participatory research; and
Aboriginal health.
A/Prof Robyn Clark, RN, RM, BN (Flinders), MEd (South Australia), PhD (South
Australia)
NHMRC Post-Doctoral Fellow (Public Health)
ra.clark@qut.edu.au
Expertise in cardiac nursing; management of heart failure in rural and
remote Australia using telephone supported database systems; determining
accessibility to health care services for rural and remote populations with
cardiovascular disease; and identifying populations at risk of
cardiovascular disease using geographic information systems.
Mr Neil Coffee, BA (Wollongong), BA Honours (Tasmania), MA (Adelaide),
PhD Candidate (Adelaide)
Senior Research Fellow (Public Health)
(08) 8302 2632,
neil.coffee@unisa.edu.au
Expertise in urban studies, population geography, demography and population
fore-casting, Strategic Urban Planning, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
applications, social applications of GIS, health applications of (GIS),
accessibility modelling, Walkability modelling, physical activity, obesity
and built environment research.
Dr Anna Dawson, BAppSc Physio (South Australia), PhD (Queensland)
Post-Doctoral Fellow (Public Health)
(08) 8302 2723,
anna.dawson@unisa.edu.au
Expertise in spinal pain, Aboriginal health and chronic disease
epidemiology; yoga; mixed method and multivariate analyses; systematic
reviews of intervention efficacy; social ecological intervention design;
development and psychometric evaluation of outcome instruments; occupational
health; and health service evaluation.
Dr Natasha Howard, BHSc (Hons) (Adelaide), PhD (Adelaide)
Post-Doctoral Fellow (Public Health)
(08) 8302 2776,
natasha.howard@unisa.edu.au
Expertise in epidemiological survey design and implementation for obesity
and chronic disease research; public health practice; geomatics/ geospatial
methods; and residential area measurements. Research interests in
geographies of health, including residential mobility as part of the social
reproduction of lifestyle and behaviour within local areas.
Dr Shona Kelly, BSc (Simon Fraser), PhD (British Columbia)
Centre for Intergenerational Health Mid-Career Fellow (Social Epidemiology)
(08) 8302 2901,
shona.kelly@unisa.edu.au
Expertise in the biological pathways between stress and health, and biologic
exposure indicators of chronic stress for population and workplace studies;
the measurement of healthcare utilisation patterns; age, gender and social
class differences in self-reported health; chronic stressor exposure in the
progression of cardiometabolic disease.
Dr Catherine Paquet, BSc (Hons, McGill), PhD (McGill)
NHMRC Post-Doctoral Fellow (Public Health)
(08) 8302 2615,
catherine.paquet@unisa.edu.au
Expertise in physiology, consumer psychology and social epidemiology;
psychosocial influences on health behaviours (diet, physical activity,
smoking) and cardiovascular health; the role of context on psychological
experiences affecting health; multivariate and multilevel statistics; and
ecometric assessment of residential area measurements.
Dr
Pamela Lyon, BA (UC-Berkeley), MS (Columbia), PhD (ANU)
Visiting Research Fellow (Social Epidemiology)
(08) 8302 2742,
pamlea.lyon@unisa.edu.au
Expertise is in biological explanations of cognition; evolutionary
approaches to the human stress response, both acute and chronic; the role of
the stress response in chronic widespread pain (fibromyalgia); and the
relation of stress responses to cognition.
Dr Anh D. Ngo, MD (Hanoi), MIPH MPhil (USyd), DrPH (Texas)
Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Social Epidemiology)
(08) 8302 1882, anh.ngo@unisa.edu.au
Expertise in epidemiological methods, systematic review and meta-analyses,
health promotion and behavioural sciences, health service research, HIV/AIDS
and reproductive health research, and evaluation research.
Research Support Staff
Miss Kristy Scherer - Administration Officer
Ms Ivana Stankov - Research Assistant
Mr Iordan Kostadinov - Research Assistant
Mr Peter Lekkas - Research Assistant
Higher degree students - current
Mr Iordan Kostadinov - PhD (Health Sciences): "Ecological approach
to assessing program implementation in evaluating a state-wide obesity
prevention initiative amongst youth"
Mr Peter Lekkas - PhD (Health Sciences): "Temporal changes in urban
environments, health and wellbeing within the context of a population-based
cohort: multi-level relationships."
Ms Katherine Baldock - PhD (Health Sciences): "The mediating role of
perceptions linking residential areas to cardiometabolic outcomes"
Mr Torbjorn Van Heeswijck - PhD (Health Sciences): "Active transport
environments, active transport behaviour and cardiovascular mortality"
Mr Thomas Paul Orschulok - BSc Honours Thesis: "Are cardiometabolic risk
factors related to accessibility to neighbourhood public open spaces and
their characteristics?"
Mr Richard Pember - BSc Honours Thesis: "Is lower mortality in the
'overweight' BMI category associated with higher levels of fitness? An
examination of US NHANES data"
Higher degree students - completed
Ms Suzanne Carroll - BSc Honours Thesis: "The impact of prolonged drought on
the health of residents in the Riverland Region of South Australia"
Ms Lauren Maksimovic - BSc Honours Thesis: "Characterising the smoking
status and quit attempts of Aboriginal health workers in South Australia"
Ms Sarah Propsting - BSc Honours Thesis: "Omega-3 and total saturated fat
intake in relation to insulin resistance and beta-cell function in a
Canadian First Nation"
Collaborators
- South Australia Department of Health, Adelaide
- National Heart Foundation of Australia (SA Division), Adelaide
- Cities of Playford, Salisbury, Charles Sturt, and Port Adelaide/Enfield, Adelaide
- Social Inclusion Unit, S.A. Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Adelaide
- Mental Health Coalition, Adelaide
- Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia, Adelaide
- Adelaide Northern and Western Divisions of General Practice, Adelaide
- Discipline of Medicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide
- Health Observatory, Basil Hetzel Research Institute, Adelaide
- University of South Australia Northern Adelaide Partnerships, Adelaide
- University of Adelaide, Adelaide
- Planning Institute of Australia, Adelaide
- S.A. Department for Families and Communities, Adelaide
- Environmental Health Australia, S.A. Branch
- Transport South Australia, Adelaide
- Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne
- Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne
- Centre for Indigenous Vascular and Diabetes Research, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute Central Australia
- Département de médecine sociale et préventive, École de santé publique, Université de Montréal, Montréal
- Axe santé des populations, Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, Montréal
- Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Montréal
- Centre de recherche du Hôpital Centre Sainte-Justine, Montréal
- Institut universitaire de santé mentale, Hôpital Douglas, McGill University, Montréal
- School of Kinesiology & Health Studies, Queen's University, Kingston
- Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
- World Health Organisation Regional Office for South-East Asia, New Delhi
- Jamia Millia Islamia Department of Geography, New Delhi
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Paris
Projects (June 2010)
Place and
Metabolic Syndrome (PAMS) Project
Extramural Funding
(PDF, 163KB)
Intramural Funding
(PDF, 97KB)
Publications
Peer-Reviewed
Publications in Scientific Journals (PDF, 141KB)
Book Chapters
(PDF, 92KB)
Published
Abstracts (PDF, 105KB)
Peer-Reviewed Conference Presentations (PDF, 155KB)
Invited
Presentations to Scientific Audiences (PDF, 98KB)
Invited
Presentations at Scientific Conferences (PDF, 99KB)
Patents and Intellectual
Property (PDF, 97KB)
Contact us
City East Campus
North Terrace, P4.18
University of South Australia
GPO Box 2471, Adelaide SA 5001
Reception: Miss Kristy Scherer
Telephone: +61 8 8302 2629
Email: kristy.scherer@unisa.edu.au