Oliver Duke-Williams

Physically active lessons as physical activity and educational interventions: A systematic review of methods and results

OBJECTIVE Physically active lessons aim to increase childrens physical activity whilst maintaining academic time. This systematic review aimed to investigate the methods used in such interventions and their effects on physical activity and educational outcomes. METHODS In March 2014; PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO and ERIC electronic databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were: 1. Classroom lessons containing both PA and educational elements; 2. intervention studies featuring a control group or within-subjects baseline measurement period; 3. any age-group; and 4. English language. Studies assessing physically active lessons within complex interventions were excluded. Data were extracted onto a standardised form. Risk of bias was assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) tool. RESULTS Eleven studies were identified: five examined physical activity outcomes only, three examined educational outcomes only and three examined both physical activity and educational outcomes. All studies found improved physical activity following physically active lessons: either in the whole intervention group or in specific demographics. Educational outcomes either significantly improved or were no different compared to inactive teaching. Studies ranged from low to high risk of bias. CONCLUSIONS Encouraging evidence of improved physical activity and educational outcomes following physically active lessons is provided. However, too few studies exist to draw firm conclusions. Future high-quality studies with longer intervention periods are warranted.

Small area inequalities in health: Are we underestimating them?

Spatially aggregated data are frequently used for official statistics and by researchers investigating the contextual determinants of health. Results of reporting and analysis vary according to the choice of areal unit. This is the well-known Modifiable Areal Unit Problem or MAUP. Its implication for the monitoring and understanding of area inequalities in health has received little empirical attention in the public health literature. Health differences will likely be smallest across arbitrarily chosen areas whereas boundaries acknowledging the physical and social geography should indicate greater differences between areas. Here we use three methods to define area boundaries and compare the extent of health inequalities across each drawing on data from the London boroughs of Camden and Islington. Irrespective of the boundary definition used, between-area inequalities in obesity, alcohol intake, smoking, walking and self-rated health were small compared with inequalities between individuals. There was a tendency for slightly larger estimated inequalities across areas defined by socioeconomic homogeneity compared with other definitions, but differences between methods were very small in magnitude. Existing studies predominantly use area boundaries that are based on administrative boundaries. Although these have little theoretical basis for the study of neighbourhood inequalities in health, our findings indicate that alternative definitions of the neighbourhood boundaries have no substantive effect on the estimates of those inequalities. Based on these findings, we can have greater confidence in the results of numerous studies which have used administrative boundaries to define the neighbourhood.

Problems and solutions in the measurement of migration intensities: Australia and Britain compared

The differences in internal mobility between national populations are large and complex in origin. In studying them we must use comparable indicators. This paper discusses how measures of migration intensity at the national level should be constructed, drawing on analyses of residential mobility in Australia and Britain. We argue for the tailoring of intensity measures to observation plan and to age-time plan, and for removing the effects of mortality and external migration on census-based measures. We propose simple estimation of infant migrants, a standard stopping-age in calculating gross measures of migration, and argue for the use of a common population for computing age-standardized measures of migration and a common mortality schedule for computing migration expectancies. We conclude with recommendations for developing comparable cross-national measures of migration intensity.

The Geographies of Student Migration in the UK

Recent research on studentification in the UK has examined the ways in which significant growth in student numbers over the last twenty years or so have led to marked change in the nature of the parts of cities in which clusters of students live. Yet these changes do not happen in isolation: the students are also associated with major migration flows into and out of studentified parts of cities. I examine the migration flows associated with a set of wards selected on the basis of having a high concentration of students. Examination of the age profiles of migrants into and out of these wards supports an argument that assumptions can be made that, for most of the selected wards, in-migrants are predominantly new students entering the system, whilst out-migrants are predominantly recently graduated students leaving the system. The specific origins from which new students arrive, and destinations to which former students depart, are examined and mapped, and the role of higher education as a mechanism through which the South East of England gains qualified workers is considered.

Do area-level population change, deprivation and variations in deprivation affect individual-level self-reported limiting long-term illness?

A previous study showed that variations in deprivation within small localities in England and Wales influenced the rates of self-reported limiting long-term illness, controlling for overall levels of deprivation. These results suggest that while morbidity is related to overall levels of material deprivation, the distribution of resources within small areas have a significant effect on health outcomes. However, it is possible that these area effects become redundant once individual-level characteristics are accounted for. This analysis examines whether area-level deprivation and variations in deprivation are significant indicators of individual-level limiting long-term illness, once individual characteristics have been accounted for.

Net migration and migration effectiveness: A comparison between Australia and the United Kingdom, 1976–96 Part 1: Total migration patterns

A nation’s population is redistributed through migration flows and counterflows between its constituent subnational areas, resulting in a geographical pattern of net migration gains or losses which may change from one time period to another. Migration effectiveness is the indicator commonly used to measure net migration as a proportion of gross migration turnover for any territorial unit. This paper explores the effect of net migration in two different countries, Australia and the United Kingdom, using measures of migration effectiveness computed from period-age migration data sets for a system of city regions assembled for four consecutive five-year periods in each country. While the evidence suggests that the overall effectiveness of net migration has declined over the 20-year period in both countries, marked similarities and contrasts are apparent in the spatial patterning of migration that together provide useful analytical insights into the changing space economies of the two countries.

A new web-based interface to British census of population origin^destination statistics

Population censuses are among the primary sources of information on directional flows of migrants between places of usual residence, and of commuters between places of dwelling and work in Great Britain. The use of census origin–destination counts has in the past been restricted by data complexities and the lack of user accessibility. In order to improve accessibility a new, web-based interface has been developed which is the core of a Census Interaction Data Service, launched in 2002. The authors explain the Web-based Interface to Census Interaction Data from a user perspective, focusing on various features of the system that enable queries to be constructed and subsets of flow data to be extracted and downloaded in a quick and easy manner. Examples are provided to demonstrate alternative types of query and to illustrate the value of these data sets in providing insights into interaction behaviour.

Net migration and migration effectiveness: A comparison between Australia and the United Kingdom, 1976–96

This paper explores the impact of net migration in Australia and the United Kingdom using measures of migration effectiveness computed from period-age migration data for four consecutive five-year periods. Results reported in Part 1 of this paper (Stillwellet al. 2000) suggest that while the overall effectiveness of net migration at the scale of city regions has declined over the twenty-year period in both countries, important geographical variations are evident. Part 2 considers how patterns of migration effectiveness vary by age and presents a single classification of all the city regions on the basis of age-specific effectiveness. More detailed analysis includes spatial patterns for particular age groups and net migration profiles of selected regions. Cohort effects are shown to be important for explaining changes between time periods in these regions.

Technologies for migration and commuting analysis: Spatial interaction data applications

This initial chapter has two aims. Firstly, it seeks to clarify definitional and conceptual issues relating to the key interaction phenomena, migration and commuting, on which we concentrate in this book and for which we strive to obtain information to enhance our understanding of the processes that are taking place in the real world. The chapter explains the conceptual distinction between migrants and migrations, the importance of which becomes clear when the difference between transition and movement data is outlined, and it considers the alternative units of migrant measurement that are used such as individuals, wholly moving households and moving groups. Whilst migration tends to be measured over a period of time, typically a year, commuting is an activity that occurs on a much more frequent basis and consequently is usually measured as the numbers making a journey on one day. The chapter indicates how commuting to work and commuting to study are defined and measured. Secondly, the chapter contains the summary of an audit of interaction data sources, outlining the characteristics of the different types of data that are available from censuses, registers and surveys. Particular emphasis is placed on the former, the Census of Population, for which there are a number of data products providing migration and commuting counts at different spatial scales and disaggregated by various attributes; micro data are distinguished from macro data. However, the chapter also introduces a range of other interaction data sources such as the registers of National Health Service patients, the Pupil Level Annual School Census, the databases of the Higher Education Statistics Agency, various national level surveys such as the Labour Force Survey and the International Passenger Survey. In some cases, the data are exemplified using tables or maps. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the importance of the census as a key data source for small area analysis and a plea that, in a post-census world, sufficient steps be taken by central government to ensure the creation and provision of information systems for monitoring migration and commuting in an effective way, providing accurate and reliable intelligence on trends and creating opportunities for new research projects that develop explanations.

Investigating the Potential Effects of Small Cell Adjustment on Interaction Data from the 2001 Census

Although the population census is the most important source of information about people in small areas, the government is required by law to prevent the disclosure of information about identifiable individuals or households. In this paper we use data from the 1991 Census to simulate the effects of the disclosure method proposed for use in adjusting the 2001 Census interaction datasets. The results suggest differing impacts on the frequencies of certain counts as data at the level of adjustment are aggregated, with varying implications for the analytical measures of migration used in comparative research.