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People living in areas of England with long-term low employment rates face a greater risk of premature death and poor health, according to new research led by Executive Director of IHRR Prof Sarah Curtis at Durham University that was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The study was co-authored by Dr Mylène Riva a former IHRR researcher.
The study, based on data from 200,000 citizens in England, looked at how employment trends are related to mortality and illness. It examined employment rates in different parts of England from 1981 to 2008. It found that people under the age of 75 living in parts of the country with persistent unemployment rates have a 20 percent higher risk of premature death than those living with better long-term employment rates. Read more
Smoking Prevalence and Lung Cancer Incidence, by Sex, Great Britain, 1948-2010 (Cancer Research UK)
This conference from the Tipping Points project focuses on modelling of social problems and health. Researchers will present and discuss health problems of concern within society together with mathematical and statistical models, which may be useful predictive tools for deriving strategies that practitioners may use. Emphasis of the workshop will be placed on actual health issues that are a huge financial burden to governments and taxpayers, such as smoking, alcoholism, substance abuse and heart problems.
Lectures will be given on mathematical and statistical methods by experts from the Universities of Bologna, Durham, Manchester, Strathclyde and Turin within the context of health problems. A key feature of the workshop are lectures by practitioners from government-sponsored bodies like FRESH (smoke-free North East), and NEPHO (North East Public Health Observatory), together with guests from Volterra Consulting, Rinicare, the Wolfson Research Institute, the NIBHI (Northwest Institute for BioHealth Informatics), and the Universities of Lancaster and Manchester. Read more
Earlier this year the UK government updated its National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies to include large global hazards such as the damaging impact of space weather on tele- and satellite-based communications, power grids, air travel and other forms of technological infrastructure. These forms of hazards include solar flares, coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particle events.
While these extreme events are rare, with the last recorded space weather event affecting the UK occurring in 1859 known as the Carrington Event, space weather has the potential to cause mass disruption and devastation to any electrical system people depend on for survival. Read more
Terry McClure, who is studying for an MA in Risk, Health and Public Policy, explains how some insurance companies are using computer modelling and information about people’s lifestyle choices found on the internet to evaluate health-related risks. This could largely affect whether some people are able to receive life insurance coverage in the future. This form of ‘predictive modelling’ could also disproportionately affect poor people who may be perceived as a riskier clientele and denied coverage.
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Further Reading
Insurers Test Data Profiles to Identify Risky Clients. Wall Street Journal
Life insurance: Life in the fast lane. The Actuary
5 July, 18:00 to 20:30, Dales Suite, Collingwood College, South Road, Durham DH1 3L
A joint meeting between the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience and the Durham Health Forum to draw on recent North East research into smoking behaviours as the basis of a wider discussion of the social context of health risky behaviours and the implications for public health. Read more
