We recently developed a project summary for an ESRC-funded study looking at the impact of the financial crisis and subsequent austerity measures on mental health and wellbeing in the UK. The summary for the CRESH project (full title: Recession, austerity and health: changing area socio-economic conditions and their relationship to individual health and wellbeing outcomes in Scotland) includes the key findings, links to papers published, details of some of the dissemination activities, and other useful resources. You can read more in the pdf below:
Author: pearcej1
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The declining importance of tobacco sales to convenience stores in Britain
Tobacco products are becoming less important to the business models of convenience stores across Britain. This is the finding of our new study of the products sold in convenience stores over a 3 year period across England, Scotland and Wales prior to the start of the Covid pandemic.
Looking at the sales of tobacco and other products sold alongside tobacco is important because it tells us about how much profit is made from tobacco by smaller retailers but also about the role of tobacco in generating greater ‘footfall’ for these smaller retailers. It is argued that footfall products, such as milk or bread, bring customers into the store and lead to wider expenditure on other (non-footfall) items. The tobacco industry has long argued that tobacco is vital for increasing customer footfall and therefore tobacco products help drive the sales of other (potentially more profitable) items that retailers stock. Our new results recently published in the journal Tobacco Control suggest the footfall argument made by the tobacco industry does not hold-up to scrutiny.
How did we go about our research? We looked at this issue by examining the electronic till receipts of all items purchased in almost 1300 retailers across the country during 4 corresponding weeks in 2016 and 2019. We found that the number of shopping baskets containing tobacco fell by nearly half (47%) over these 3 years. When we compared tobacco to other commonly purchased products (such as milk, bread, newspapers and alcohol) we found that the decline in sales was much higher for tobacco.
We also discovered that the price of tobacco products rose significantly over this time period yet at the same time the proportion of total store turnover accounted for by shoppers who included a tobacco product in their basket fell. In 2016, 11 per cent of transactions involved only tobacco, but this fell to 6 per cent in 2019. The proportion of sales containing a mix of tobacco products and other items also declined, falling from 14 per cent to 9 per cent. It was also evident that as the frequency of tobacco transactions declined so the financial value of non-tobacco items bought alongside tobacco also reduced.
When we examined geographical differences in the sales data, we found that retailers’ declining reliance on tobacco sales was seen across the country. Tobacco product sales, and their contribution towards weekly turnover, were higher in shops in urban, more economically deprived areas compared with rural stores and those in affluent areas. However, these stores saw the greatest reductions over time, narrowing the differences between areas.
Why does all this matter? The governments in England, Scotland and Wales all have ambitious targets to eliminate smoking over the next decade. For example, in Scotland the Scottish Government is committed to reducing the proportion of the population who smoke to 5% by 2034. Similar targets are in place in England and Wales. Yet meeting these goals will require a wide range of policies including reducing the availability of tobacco products. In Scotland, for example, tobacco remains highly available with around 10,000 retailers selling tobacco which means it can be purchased on most street corners. A key obstacle to reducing the number of places where tobacco can be purchased has been concerns about how this will affect smaller businesses that may be particularly dependent on selling tobacco, and also that selling tobacco helps to drive the sales of other (more profitable) products. Our findings counter this claim and show that tobacco is becoming less important to smaller retailers.
We, therefore, encourage policymakers in the UK to follow the lead of the New Zealand government who have an ambitious plan to greatly reduce the number of tobacco retailers, as well as the recommendations of The Khan review: making smoking obsolete report commissioned by the UK Government to develop new policies in England that will lessen the availability of tobacco in our local communities. Policy approaches should include help for businesses to diversify away from tobacco, including support for smaller stores to focus on more health enabling and more profitable products. This would be a crucial step towards reducing the number of people who smoke, and eliminating a product that is responsible for the deaths of 78,000 people in the UK each year.
Tunstall H, Shortt N, Kong A, Pearce J, 2022. Is tobacco a driver of footfall amongst small retailers? A geographical analysis of tobacco purchasing using electronic point-of-sale data. Tobacco Control. In Press.
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New job at CRESH: Postdoctoral Researcher, Environment and Health
This is a full time (35 hours per week), fixed term post available for 3 years.
The salary for this role is £33,797 – £40,322 per annum.
We are seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher in the field of ‘Environment and Health for a period of 3 years to contribute a UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) Consortium – SPECTRUM (Shaping Public hEalth poliCies To Reduce ineqUalities and harm) www.ed.ac.uk/spectrum. SPECTRUM has an ambitious programme of research, knowledge exchange and public engagement focusing on the commercial determinants of health relating to tobacco, alcohol and food. In this role you will work under the supervision and mentorship of Professor Jamie Pearce and Professor Niamh Shortt.
The successful candidate will play a lead role in a programme of work aiming to identify how the local environment can be shaped to change behaviour, prevent harm and reduce inequalities. The aim is to examine the intended and unintended impacts of (and interventions in) the local commercial environment on the consumption of unhealthy commodities. The focus of this role will be to conduct spatial and quantitative analyses, contribute to final publications and help to accelerate the impact of the research.
Informal enquiries to Prof Jamie Pearce (jamie.pearce@ed.ac.uk), Prof Niamh Shortt (niamh.shortt@ed.ac.uk)
For more details and how to apply click here.
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Job opportunity: urban forestry and human wellbeing
We are currently looking to recruit a postdoctoral researcher to contribute to an ESRC funded study concerned with the role of urban forestry in understanding human wellbeing, particularly amongst children.
https://elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1001/job/339
Fixed Term, 19 months, Full Time (35 hours per week)
1/04/2021 – 30/10/2022 (dates negotiable)
Closing date: 12th February 2021
The researcher will be appointed based on the statistical and geospatial skills that this study will require. They will be responsible (under supervision of the Investigator team) for preparing and quality checking variables to measure woodland and forest exposure over time. They will also be responsible for identifying relevant data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) and associated linked health datasets to provide longitudinal data for SLS members and their children over the period of the WIAT programme, and for undertaking appropriate statistical analyses.
The post involves working in the context of two world-leading centres of research, exploring links between environment and health. The post is based in OPENspace research centre, which focuses on inclusive access to outdoor environments and their associated benefits for wellbeing and quality of life. The study will involve close collaboration with the Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health (CRESH), a virtual centre joining scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, focused on exploring how physical and social environments can influence population health, for better and for worse.
The successful candidate will play a lead role in utilising environmental datasets provided by Scottish Forestry (SF) to extract and process relevant geographical data that records details of SF’s Woods In and Around Towns (WIAT) programme from 2005-2015, link them to individual level census, health and child development data, and use appropriate analyses to provide better evidence on the contribution urban forestry can make to human wellbeing. The post-holder will contribute to final publications and support the impact activities relating to the research.
The study and work of the post-holder will be overseen by Professor Catharine Ward Thompson, as Principal Investigator, with experience of multi-disciplinary research and engagement with research partners and end-users. Co-supervision of the post-holder by Co-Investigators (Co-Is) Professor Jamie Pearce and Dr Tom Clemens (CRESH, University of Edinburgh) will assist with details of data identification, manipulation and longitudinal analysis. The post-holder will also collaborate with Co-I Professor Richard Mitchell (MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit/CRESH, University of Glasgow) on operationalisation, linkage and analysis of environmental datasets in relation to health outcomes.
Other key contacts will include liaison with staff in Scottish Forestry, Forest Research, Public Health Scotland and other stakeholders as necessary to undertake the project, and to share and disseminate its results.
For further details please contact Professor Catharine Ward Thompson c.ward-thompson@ed.ac.uk
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Job Opportunity at CRESH
We are looking to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher in the field of ‘Environment and Health for a period of 4 years to contribute a UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) Consortium – SPECTRUM (Shaping Public hEalth poliCies To Reduce ineqUalities and harm) https://www.ed.ac.uk/spectrum. SPECTRUM has an ambitious programme of research, knowledge exchange and public engagement focusing on the commercial determinants of health relating to tobacco, alcohol and food.
The successful candidate will play a lead role in a programme of work aiming to identify how the local environment can be shaped to change behaviour, prevent harm and reduce inequalities. The aim is to examine the intended and unintended impacts of (and interventions in) the local commercial environment on the consumption of unhealthy commodities. The focus of this role will be to conduct spatial and quantitative analyses, contribute to final publications and help to accelerate the impact of the research.
For further details – including how to apply – can be found here.
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Come and join the CRESH team!
We are currently recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher in the field of ‘Environment and Health’ for 20 months to contribute to an interdisciplinary ESRC funded study entitled ‘Lifecourse of Place: how environments throughout life can support healthy ageing’. In this role, you will work under the supervision of Professor Jamie Pearce and Professor Niamh Shortt (School of GeoSciences), as well as collaborate with colleagues in Psychology in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences (Professor Ian Deary and Dr Simon Cox) and Edinburgh College of Art (Professor Catharine Ward Thompson).
The successful candidate will play a lead role in utilising environmental datasets and the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 to explore how different environments over the lifecourse influence healthy ageing. The focus of this role will be to conduct longitudinal data analysis, contribute to final publications and help to accelerate the impact of the research. You will be a self-motivated individual with the ability to take responsibility for key components of the research plan. There are opportunities to shape the details of the research agenda.
Based at the School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh you will join the Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health (CRESH).
For further details click here.
Informal enquiries to Prof Jamie Pearce (jamie.pearce@ed.ac.uk), Prof Niamh Shortt (niamh.shortt@ed.ac.uk)
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New journal: Wellbeing, Space & Society
CRESH co-Director Jamie Pearce who is co-editing a new journal focused on the role of place in understanding human health and wellbeing along with Susan Elliott who is a Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada.
The journal, named Wellbeing, Space & Society, is an interdisciplinary journal concerned with the difference that space, place and location make to wellbeing. It welcomes submissions that are theoretically informed, empirically supported, of interest to an international readership, address a problem of interest to society, and illustrate the links (potential or theorized) between (aspects of) society and space and wellbeing. We publish papers from a range of social science disciplines – geography, sociology, social psychology, social epidemiology, economics, anthropology, political science, amongst others.The editors are particularly interested in the policy implications of the research, including work informed by policy analysis. Methodological plurality and innovation are encouraged; interpretation of wellbeing in this context may be subjective or objective, eudonic or hedonic, and may also be at the individual and/or community levels. But they are particularly interested in the wellbeing of places – how is that conceptualized, theorized, operationalised and translated?
For more information please contact Jamie Pearce
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Two Postdoctoral Researchers (Health & Environment)
We are currently seeking to recruit two Postdoctoral Researchers (Health & Environment) to join the CRESH team at the University of Edinburgh and contribute to two studies on the geography of unhealthy commodities.
The first position is part of the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) Consortium – SPECTRUM (Shaping Public hEalth poliCies To Reduce ineqUalities and harm). SPECTRUM has an ambitious programme of research, knowledge exchange and public engagement focusing on the commercial determinants of health relating to tobacco, alcohol and food.
The second role will contribute to an ESRC funded project ‘Change in alcohol and tobacco availability, population health and the lived experience’ which will measure change in the availability of alcohol and tobacco in Scottish neighbourhoods over time and explore how this change relates to health outcomes and how residents experience the availability of alcohol and tobacco in their neighbourhoods.
Closing date for both positions is 16th October 2019.
Please get in touch with Professor Jamie Pearce or Professor Niamh Shortt to discuss either role: Jamie.Pearce@ed.ac.uk Niamh.Shortt@ed.ac.uk
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BVI122/postdoctoral-researcher-health-and-environment-tobacco-and-alcohol
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BVI153/postdoctoral-researcher-health-and-environment
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Liveable urban environments: an opportunity or threat to reducing health inequities?
Creating ‘liveable’ urban environments is seen as an important way of improving the health and wellbeing of the residents in our towns and cities. Yet it is not clear whether the focus amongst planners and other policymakers on fashioning liveability is an opportunity – or threat – to reducing health inequities. On the one hand improving the resources and infrastructure in local communities might benefit everyone but particularly those who are most dependent on what is close by. On the other hand, it is possible that if liveability interventions are poorly or unevenly implemented, or inappropriate to the particular needs of the local population, then health inequities may widen. This issue was the focus of our new research recently published in Social Science & Medicine where we found evidence that some aspects of liveability have reduced inequities, whereas other aspects have not led to a reduction, or in some cases even increased, health inequities.
The notion of liveability has been around for a long while and is underpinned by the United Nation’s New Urban Agenda. The aim is to ensure equitable delivery of sustainable urban development – including local infrastructure and services, and housing amongst many other urban features – and to improve the living social and physical conditions for urban dwellers, including their health. Given these important and laudable goals it is perhaps surprising that so few studies have looked at what effects liveability has on health inequities. Health inequities continue to increase across many countries, including the UK and Australia; identifying what works in the long-term to reduce health inequities remains a policy priority for many national governments and international agencies.
In our new work we examined the international evidence to see when and where urban liveability might pose an opportunity or threat to reducing health inequities. We looked across a series of urban liveability features (education; employment; food, alcohol, and tobacco; green space; housing; transport; and walkability) and asked whether intervening on these aspects of place can serve to widen or narrow inequities.
Our findings show that the urban liveability agenda offers opportunities to help address health inequities but the effects differ from place to place. It was also clear that we need to keep in mind that urban liveability is just one part of a much broader urban system; whilst improving aspects of urban liveability can improve the health for some populations in a local area, it may not be the case for others. In some cases, the health benefits of urban liveability are restricted to specific (and sometimes more prosperous) communities. In fact, in more extreme cases urban liveability interventions can result in local people being pushed out of their community (e.g. through associated hikes in rental prices), with negative implications for their health and wellbeing.
We believe that the findings from this research include some important messages for policymakers and urban planners tasked with identifying ways to improve people’s health and reduce health inequities. Designing our neighbourhoods to become more liveable offers some significant opportunities to enhance health. However, it is also apparent liveability interventions need to be implemented in ways that meet the needs of all population groups living in the area, including the most vulnerable. As researchers, it is important that we continue to monitor the impact of liveability interventions on inequities and seek a better understanding of how these issue relate to the wider urban and social systems affecting our health.
Hannah Badland & Jamie Pearce
CRESH 