Modelling Short and Long-Term Effects of Air Pollution and Temperature on Population Health and Mortality

The aims of this project are: First, to investigate short and long-term effects of air pollution and extreme weather events on health and mortality across population sub-groups in Britain. Second, to develop a multilevel survival model to study the effect of time-varying contextual factors on individuals' health and mortality.

The project will develop and apply a multilevel (random-effect) survival model to individual-level data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) and the ONS Longitudinal Study (LS) linked to environmental data. The LS will provide the opportunity to study the effects of pollution and extreme weather on individuals' health and mortality. The SLS data will be used to conduct detailed analysis of the impact of air pollution and (primarily) cold weather on individuals' health and mortality, with information available on individuals' residential histories and hospital visits. The project will improve our understanding of how extreme weather events and air pollution interact in influencing health and mortality of population sub-groups in Britain. The developed method could be applied to study contextual effects on other domains of individuals' behaviour (e.g. migration, fertility, employment)"

Note: The above quoted section was taken from the research proposal form, which was used in the recruiting process for a prospective PhD candidate. The form is no longer available online.