Last week I had to do a flash talk on the links between health & well being and the economy. This was in the context of an event on inclusive growth, following the publication of the 2018 State of Sheffield report. I was taking about the health and well being chapter (that my fabulous team […]
Read More The economy and a healthy population, a two way relationshipWe have just written a chapter for the Sheffield JSNA on BP & hypertension. Conclusion = we appear to be bad at detecting HT but quite good at treating it once diagnosed (relative to average). We scratched our head about this odd trend in Sheffield QOF recorded prevalence. What happened here after 2012? We don’t […]
Read More Health Checks, an example of how we might cause harm by trying to do goodThe furore of the mistake in the breast cancer screening programme continues unabated in the press. Of course the mistake should be put right, of course there should be a review. It would be interesting if the terms of reference for the review were openly debated, especially given the controversy breast cancer screening generates. In […]
Read More Breast screening, age extension and IT errors. What nextI’ve noticed this crop up a lot of late, If only we could find out what to do, things would be better. It’s hard to not answer without saying things I’ve said many times before. You can only repackage the memo in so many different ways My stock answer (fairly consistently) is to focus on […]
Read More the things that will make a difference to population health outcomeShould we recommend e-cigarettes to help smokers quit. A useful, if polarised, yes / no article in the BMJ. The rapid responses are better, and more polarised Meanwhile the public get a confusing message. I get there are differences of view, I get that we all want to do the right thing, there are different […]
Read More Another day, another polarising piece on e cigarettesDave Buck has written an excellent blog on The King’s Fund website about the problems of ROI in public health – Talking about the ‘return on investment of public health’: why it’s important to get it right @drchrisgibbons set out some thoughts on the matter. Thoughts on ROI in a changing Public Health paradigm Here […]
Read More Public Health, return on investment. Use and misuseThere’s a lack of causal evidence linking proximity to fast food establishments (or put another way – concentration) and obesity. So we shouldn’t implement a policy restricting new venues opening So say many – industry (I’ve argued – successfully – with McDonald’s on this), doubtless the IEA, some elected councillors (coming from a range of […]
Read More Fast food zoning Policies. A note on the evidence base