Imperial College London Primary Care

People who walk to work are around 40 per cent less likely to have diabetes as those who drive, according to a new study by Anthony Laverty and colleagues published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine . A team from Imperial College London and University College London examined how various health indicators related to how people get to work, using data from a survey of 20,000 people across the UK. They found that cycling, walking, and using public transport were all associated with lower risk of being overweight than driving or taking a taxi. People who walk to work were also 17% less likely than people who drive to have high blood pressure. Cyclists were around half as likely to have diabetes as drivers.

Dr Matt Harris, Lecturer in Public Health, has contributed to the production of a video on the Brazilian Community Health Worker role .  For the last year, Dr Harris has been working to translate this role into the UK health system and is now in the final stage of a major NIHR grant proposal submission.  The video was supported by the Department of Health, and the British Embassy in Brazil, and was made in March during a visit to Brazil with a delegation from Bangor University, Public Health Wales, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board in North Wales. 

The Department of Health has announced £10 million of renewed funding for a programme of research aimed at improving healthcare services. The National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR CLAHRC) for Northwest London was established in October 2008 to help translate research from the lab bench to the hospital bedside.The new funding from the Department of Health , combined with a further £12M in matched funding from the NHS, universities, charities and industry partners, will support the collaboration for the next five years. The NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London is hosted by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, with Imperial College London as the lead academic partner. Professor Derek Bell, Director of NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London and Chair in Acute Medicine at Imperial, said: “T his is very exciting news and we are delighted that the Department of Health continues to put research high on the hea...